DDG Says Sanaa Lathan Brushed Him Off When They Met: ‘She Just Didn’t Acknowledge Me’

The rapper and streamer recalled approaching the ‘Love & Basketball’ star as a longtime fan, only to leave their brief photo op feeling stunned.

ByBernadette Giacomazzo
September 10, 2026

DDG says one of his most awkward celebrity encounters came courtesy of Sanaa Lathan.

In a recent conversation with Deshae Frost that circulated online, the rapper and streamer named Lathan when discussing a celebrity interaction that caught him off guard. According to DDG, he approached the Love & Basketball star as a genuine fan, only to feel like she wanted nothing to do with the conversation.

“She just didn’t acknowledge me at all,” DDG said. “I met her, I was like, ‘I’m a big fan. My mom loves you,’ and she just nodded, took the picture, and turned right back around. I was like, ‘Damn.’”

DDG acknowledged that Lathan may simply have been busy or uninterested in talking at the time, but said the setting made the exchange feel especially strange.

“I feel her because sometimes I’ll be in a rush,” he explained. “But we all in the same room, so it’s like it ain’t like I’m a nobody.”

He added that the moment stung because he had been such a fan of her work.

“I used to be obsessed with Love & Basketball,” DDG said.

The exchange comes just months after Lathan opened up about a very different side of herself during Essence Fest in New Orleans.

In July, the actress sat down with Keke Palmer for a special live podcast taping and reflected on the rejection, anxiety, and personal struggles she faced while building a career in Hollywood.

“For every job you’ve seen me do, there could have been a year of me getting rejected every day,” Lathan said, describing how difficult it was for Black actresses to find substantial opportunities when she entered the industry in the 1990s.

She also spoke candidly about panic attacks, therapy, meditation and her decision to stop drinking.

“There’s a joy and a peace that I have now that I could never have had if I was poisoning myself every day,” Lathan told Palmer.

Lathan said learning to take care of herself became necessary after years of carrying stress without fully dealing with it.

“You don’t deal with it, the body will deal with it,” she said.

She also recalled intentionally building friendships with fellow actresses Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, and Regina Hall because they understood many of the same professional pressures.