Mediaboss Marketing

Irv Gotti says he wants to shake s--t the f--k up with his new BET anthology series, Tales.

And Gotti, who created and produces the series, did just that in the shows June 27 premiere episode, Fk the Police in which a white man (played by Brody Jenner) was lynched by an African-American mob.

I am not a political guy at all. I just seen the chance to put the mirror up to the world with the concept of Tales, Gotti says. You get a glimpse of what black people go through. Now you see the same scenario being done to white people, so how does it feel? In real life these things are happening, so maybe we should rethink and change.

I created a fictitious world where white people are the minority living within zones separated by rich and poor, he says. Just watching over the past six years the injustices of seeing cops kill black people and nothing happens I felt [NWAs] Fk the Police record could be an interesting concept that can make a statement, cause a little change and get people to think. So I took the shot.

The Queens-born Gotti (born Domingo Lorenzo Jr.) is best-known as the co-founder (with his brother Chris) of Murder Inc Records, working with acts including Ja Rule, DMX and Ashanti. And he says that the music used in Tales will be an integral component of the eight-part series.

The songs I picked are very descriptive, he says. Cold Hearted by Meek Mill is about friendship, betrayal, jealousy and anger so thats what [this] Tuesdays episode will be about. Story To Tell by Biggie Smalls is telling you about adultery, cheating and the whole relationship aspect.

Gotti says he conceived the idea for Tales about six years ago, but it wasnt until two years ago that it finally got the green light. [Tales] was received with open arms but it was a process, he says. I had to fight for things that I wanted. For the first episode, BET was wary about doing a story based on race, and portraying white people like that so I had to really fight to have it that way.

I called up Brody Jenner I told him, I need a favor, I gotta hang you from a tree. He said What! I thought it would shock people seeing a white man hanging from a tree. [The Notebook director] Nick Cassavetes played the role of Rodney King in one scene. [King] got hit 56 times whats your explanation for whopping this guys ass like that? He was on the floor not handcuffed, it was filmed and [all the cops] were let off. With Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman wasnt even a cop and they let him off. Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, we see these things and nothing is happening. It sends the message to black people that Your life aint worth st and we are letting you know that.

The premiere episode also featured Chet Hanks, son of Tom Hanks and Gotti says he has other stars in mind for future roles on Tales.

My celebrity dream cast would be Denzel Washington, Daniel Day Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, and Samuel L. Jackson, he says. That would be epic.

Tales 8 p.m. Tuesday on BET

Continue reading here:
'Tales' creator flips the script on race in provocative series - New York Post