00:00congratulations on your win um outstanding drama series you know you said in an interview that
00:12award shows have always been late to your projects and acknowledging them so you know how does it
00:18feel for you uh for NAACP you know to acknowledge Powerbook 2 after the first season you know it's
00:24really exciting and it's interesting because only the NAACP is beginning to matter to me like and it's
00:30only because they came they caught on early to the show and they've been acknowledging the success of
00:37it the entire time when the other platforms we're not even nominated to lose yeah you see what I'm
00:45saying so what happens to me is when I see the success of the project I go when the award shows
00:52are not when when they're not it's not matching the accolades are not connected to the success of
00:59the project it makes me focus on the numbers okay and then I look and then when when it's rated number
01:06one African-American and Latina most white so then I go I'm winning I don't care what nobody else is
01:13saying because I know from the numbers it's number one yeah so that that's I did the same thing with
01:18billboard like billboard awards versus everything else that the other award shows whether they gave
01:24it to me or not yeah I could tell from billboard that I'm selling more I'm doing more yeah other
01:30artists yeah you know so they can give it to them based on their relationships and who spent more
01:35money during the actual award show yeah this is a production value being raised at that point because
01:41the record companies kind of can sway those things the relationships at points yeah talk about you
01:47know what it does mean to win because I think you know you want to win but people act like oh you
01:52shouldn't care if you got this or you got money or whatever yeah yeah that's like when they say that
01:57it like money like it it doesn't matter right because you need something right like there's there's a
02:05does it matter does it matter does it not matter that that uh people are not being conscious of
02:12the success of the project only because your legacy won't reflect what you've actually done in your
02:18work yeah you know I mean like you'll have biggest successful projects that meant more to the time
02:23period that people don't remember yeah because this these are the things that mark those actual periods
02:30that's like people will document and remember look at Beyonce's success they actually market it by
02:37the the Grammys gave her the most Grammys you can think of and then to make sure she came this year
02:44they gave the her Grammy for the baby for being in the video so it's like she's already some people
02:51are media darlings and in the award show friendly yeah because of the content they create or how they
02:58they perceive the artist but when you do things that are a little aggressive now look at this the
03:03things that weren't accepted or considered aggressive in music culture there would be a
03:08reason why they don't necessarily want to give me the trophy yeah things that are absolutely
03:12absolutely acceptable in film and television so I can tell the same story and when you see the success
03:20they go wow look at this and it goes it's the same thing you said was wrong with the music
03:25I told you the story yeah music but it's okay
03:30you know and spinoffs are not easy you know to pull off especially with the show as successful
03:38as power I don't want to use the word nervous but I couldn't come up with another word or fear
03:43like but were you concerned maybe you know about critics of the spinoff or how it would be received
03:48I was and you know I said power never ends yeah because of that and it became almost a slogan for
03:56the show because I'm like why would we turn it off they're not tired of the show at this point like
04:03when you look at look with the success of power you start to see things like uh you see empire
04:11you see snowfall you start to see these other shows pop up and what those other networks are doing
04:16is saying this is our power and at that point they become comfortable with what you see in someone
04:21with diversity yeah but you're seeing someone who isn't a white American as the lead
04:28and those actual shows so it's important it means something more to culturally what's happening right
04:35now having the ability to be with streaming and uh with on networks that are premium networks that
04:42allow you to make feature films yeah I got the content it blurs the lines between television
04:48actors and film actors because they go I I do that you start to see Forrest Whitaker on on yeah
04:55yeah on these different projects they all accept these project academy award-winning actors willing
05:01to go on television when in the past they would only be in feature films because they felt like the
05:07quality was yeah they were great so now it's it's a different period that things are opening up where
05:13you can really make a dent in how things are creatively that's why you know roll with me
05:20or get rolled over it's not it's not you know personal it's that simple
05:24you know and you you know I mean you were about diversification right right out the gate you know
05:30with your rap career with you know get rich or die trying can you talk about what opportunity you saw
05:36then or the foresight you know you had with film and then now you know dominating in television
05:41well you look and you see a choice of of what stories that they're going to tell like you look
05:48at Netflix there's a whole Mexican area they have a whole Mexican cartel it's a whole section of that
05:56that and you go well what do you think that those drugs went from Mexico to America into the low
06:04income environments and then you see in the in those same time periods that that they're making
06:10reference to the whole african-american and and the other uh ethnicities that were in those low
06:18income environments that part of the story is missing and that that's what is being reflected
06:23through the things that they see in power and then and it's allowing us to have that diverse
06:27cast that represent this representation of everything originally we were talking about power having
06:33new york city as uh a character and have to be uh as diverse as the city is and you can find somebody
06:42that is representation of everybody you know in new york city like there's it's just the way
06:48the the the place is just set up it's just so an assortment of people and so many people
06:5413 million people in new york you know whatever you're looking for you can find it
07:00that is true um that's what allowed us to insert serbians and all kind of people like you know
07:10into the actual show and they still feel organic because it's a new york backdrop yeah the story for
07:16yeah um also sorry to interrupt just flagging we have two minutes left okay perfect last question
07:23um black mafia family people are super excited about this i saw you shouting out green light gang
07:28um on social what can you tell us about the series i'm so excited about this project like this one
07:36was like four and a half years i've had this i've worked on this project and then it's um
07:42i looked at the two-year mark i was looking around because i had the script the first
07:49episode of it and i was looking around and i couldn't find who would actually play him
07:54and because it was important that we show the origin story so you see that the innocence of how
07:59they got involved in it and then because if not you would see them with they've made so much money
08:05that you would look and go well it's about time you got caught there's no sympathy for winners
08:11yeah you know what i'm saying and it there's that the people would feel that way if you didn't show
08:15the origin of how they got involved and fell into it and um when we look i couldn't find i couldn't
08:22find it like i had casting agents in la the two top casting agents should look for me and when they
08:27put the kids that the working actors back in that time in that age it didn't feel like it would work
08:34so i went and got little mech i went and got his son and i i had moved him from atlanta to la
08:41and put him in acting school for 18 months wow and he actually made the cut okay he had to go through
08:48his whole the whole process he tested he taped he did everything and then he's currently actually
08:53filming and playing his dad on the show that's amazing i love that and then i saw snoop lala
09:02that's the setup because they waited you see that announcement came at the same time too because i was
09:07but snoop it was important like there was a role that randall randy hudgens is the the writer show
09:14running for bml he'll tell you there's two because he said the two things that that production-wise that
09:20he could he couldn't see it right away and then he's happy that it happened was my call to get
09:26little mech to play his dad okay and to bring snoop to play who he's playing in the actual show
09:32i knew he could do that you're not gonna tell us yeah i know he could do that like every time they see
09:37it because like you know snoop will tell you i've been you know i've been doing this since jaws was a
09:42goldfish they don't expect him to come and and and not have his lines and stuff in fact no point yeah
09:56well thank you so much congratulations again i appreciate your time thank you it's my pleasure
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