Rhymefest, the Chicago rapper and songwriter, is about to be an actor. He has a role in Emilio Estevez’s upcoming film The Public, a drama about homeless people who stay in a Cincinnati public library during a harsh winter night. And in a new interview with the Associated Press, he explains how Emilio Estevez ended up giving him his onscreen debut.

As it turns out, it was all thanks to Estevez’s mom. She watched In My Father’s House, Rhymefest’s 2015 documentary about reconnecting with his estranged father who had been homeless for decades, around the time that Estevez was working on The Public. “Emilio Estevez’s mom (said) … ‘This young guy from Chicago has to be in your movie.’ …And (Emilio) Facebook’d me and said, ‘Would you like a role in a movie?'” Rhymefest recalls.

“I had just co-written (Common and John Legend’s) ‘Glory.’ I’d seen what happened to Common. I always looked at him act and I was like, ‘That’s interesting.’ But I never said that I wanted to do that,” Rhymefest continues. “When Emilio called and said, ‘Man, I got this part, Big George.’ No.1, my grandfather was named George. No.2, my father was homeless. It was like the closing of a circle for me. I live creatively. I am not a rapper, I’m a creative. …Who am I to say no?”

But that doesn’t that mean Rhymefest is going to focus all his energy on acting now. “I went out to Hollywood last summer and I said, ‘OK, I’ma give this acting thing a try.’ I really enjoyed doing this film. (Then) I went on a couple auditions and I said, “(Expletive) this. (Expletive) this,” he says. “Something you know you can do, and you go into an audition, and they arbitrarily (say), ‘No. Yes. No. We already have the person, but we’re just doing this.’ They break your self-esteem down, bro.”

The Public, written and directed by Estevez, hits US theaters on Friday. It also stars Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, Jeffrey Wright, Gabrielle Union, Michael K. Williams, and Taylor Schilling. Elsewhere in the interview, Rhymefest discusses his recent feud with longtime friend and collaborator Kanye West and reveals that they’re currently working on new music together: “It’s dope.”