A long write up on the show and all:
LOS ANGELES (AP)—“Platinum,” a UPN series billed as the first network hip-hop drama, is poised to make its debut next month.
Hip-hop is already embraced by movies, fashion and a number of other industries—try counting the commercials with a rap beat—eager to reach young consumers entranced by the music or the lifestyle.
But risk-averse networks typically drag their heels at innovation. They certainly try to avoid the sharp edges of cutting-edge culture, and hip-hop has been dogged by its share of social controversy and violence.
In the brave new TV world of anti-heroes on cable’s “The Sopranos” and “The Shield” and broadcast’s “Kingpin,” however, that issue would seem to be a nonstarter.
There’s another reason for the lag, suggests “Platinum” co-creator John Ridley: Any genuine hip-hop series has to feature black characters, and networks have shied away from black-oriented dramas, which they see as a tough sell to general audiences.
Even hip-hop’s ethnic diversity—a current star is white rapper Eminem—and wide appeal aren’t enough for major networks, said Ridley, a screenwriter and novelist whose credits include the critically acclaimed film Three Kings.
“Hip-hop is very multicultural and we want to make the show multicultural, but it’s still ingrained in black culture and there’s just not a lot of venues serving people of color,” he said. “It’s a struggle. A lot of networks are just ignoring a segment of the population.”
Nelson George, author of the book Hip Hop America and the upcoming novel Night Work, agrees.
“Hip-hop as a dramatic force on TV falls under the banner of black, and black is a problematic issue for network TV,” George said.
That attitude means network executives are ignoring how fluid the issue of ethnicity has become, especially among the younger Americans who are TV advertisers’ most coveted demographic.
“There’s been such a tremendous paradigm shift,” said “Platinum” star Lalanya Masters. “We’re now in a society where the No. 1 golfer is African-American and the No. 1 rapper is Caucasian-American.”
Hip-hop and its artists clearly are mainstream, with actress-rapper Queen Latifah hawking Cover Girl cosmetics and boasting an Oscar nomination (for Chicago) and box-office hit (Bringing Down the House) and LL Cool J being named 2003’s “male star of tomorrow” by a theater exhibitors group. And Eminem found movie success with 8 Mile.
But it took three years for Ridley and co-creator Sofia Coppola to get “Platinum” on the air, during which time a deal with HBO fell through and the project was at Fox “for a minute,” as Ridley puts it. (Coppola’s father, Francis Ford Coppola, is an executive producer of the show.)
Fledgling UPN came through. The network, which already attracts a diverse young audience with black-oriented sitcoms, is trying out six episodes of the drama about an ambitious family’s music industry empire.
Masters, Jason George, Sticky Fingaz, Steven Pasquale and Davetta Sherwood, N’Bushe Wright and Vishiss star in the series, which debuts with a special episode 9 p.m. EST Monday, April 14 (followed by a second hour in its regular time period, 9 p.m. EST Tuesday, April 15).
For the uninitiated, George defines hip-hop as a musical genre in which performers speak rhyme over a beat and as an urban-born culture that embraces music, fashion and “attitude.” It started as a undercla** statement but “I don’t think it’s totally that anymore,” he added.
Ridley has ambitious plans for “Platinum,” which is set in New York, but filmed in Toronto. He’s trying to be true to hip-hop culture, avoid exploitation and give the series a broad reach.
“I’m 36 years old and I want to write a show I might perchance sit down and watch if I wasn’t involved in it,” Ridley said.
Aiming for an ethnically diverse audience, he said, is just honoring the genre: “My wife is Asian. She loves hip-hop.”
In the ripped-from-the-headlines style of “Law & Order,” “Platinum” intends to explore real issues and conflicts in the music industry through the series’ fictional characters, Ridley said.
“The headline is that somebody pulls a gun at a club and Puffy and J.Lo (Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and Jennifer Lopez) were there and it’s in People magazine. But what happens to the person who got shot or what happens to Puffy and J.Lo when their names are in the paper and they have to deal with it?”
Ridley also plans to use elements of the well-publicized dispute between Michael Jackson and record industry executive Tommy Mottola, whom Jackson accused of being a racist.
While Jackson isn’t a rapper, “to take a story that’s in the zeitgeist and put it in the hip-hop world, I think that works fine...I don’t want to do a show that’s going to appeal to a narrow audience.”
Guest artists will perform but “Platinum” won’t be simply a music video anthology, Ridley said: “If we’re just chasing what’s on MTV, we’re going to be in a pretty bad place.”
Will the violence that has led to some hip-hop artists’ deaths, including Tupac Shakur and Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace be part of “Platinum”?
It won’t be avoided but it won’t be sensationalized, Ridley said. “I try to curb violence. I’m just not big on putting violence on screen,” he said, adding it’s more likely to be implied than shown.
While recognizing that the series is on broadcast television and not unfettered cable, Ridley said, he means to make a forthright drama.
“When I write my script, I put everything in it,” he said. “The language, the sexuality, I put in there and let the [network] censors dial it back. I’m surprised at the frankness they’ve allowed me. But I’m more concerned about having a deep show than saying dirty words.”
If “Platinum” is a hit, could other networks be inspired to mine the hip-hop genre?
Ridley is skeptical; George sees potential for change.
“If networks are trying to reach 18 to 30 [year olds], they’re going to have to deal with it at some point,” George said. “I’m sure CBS, NBC and ABC will be looking at this and saying, ‘Are we ready to go there?
http://