July 25, 2019
By Lapacazo Sandoval
Contributing Writer
First impression, Walter Mosley, author and consulting producer/ writer on FX’s “Snowfall” for the past two seasons, has a distinctive and comforting voice. His cadence reminded me of jazz. He confessed that he doesn’t like his voice suggesting that it’s nothing special. I will agree to disagree.
But it was exactly Walter Mosley’s voice—on the page—that the late John Singleton wanted when he first approached him to be a part of the writing team of FX’s “SnowFall.”
Walter Mosley is simply one of the most versatile and admired writers in America. Always in motion to create new work he’s the author of more than 50 critically-acclaimed books including his novel “John Woman,’’ “Down the River” and “Unto the Sea,” which is an Edgar Award finalist for Best Novel as well as the bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins. Mosley has a global following and his work has been translated into 25 languages and includes literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs, and a young adult novel. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times and The Nation, among other publications. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame and is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a Grammy and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Based in New York and Los Angeles as a consulting producer and writer, Singleton wanted him to be his expertise to the show which chronicles the true story of the crack epidemic. Winding the clock back, it’s the summer of 1984, and it’s snowing in Los Angeles. In season three of FX’s “Snowfall,” crack cocaine is spreading like wildfire through South Central and like a wildfire, it continues its path of destruction, changing the culture forever. As addicts grow and bodies drop, the police are finally waking up to this growing epidemic, and Sergeant Andre Wright, played by Marcus Henderson, has set his sights on budding kingpin and next-door neighbor Franklin Saint, who is played by Damson Idris. While local law enforcement fights to stem the tide, Teddy McDonald, played by Carter Hudson, and the CIA are working hard to make sure the flow of cocaine into L.A. doesn’t stop. To continue funding the war against communism in Central America, Teddy will need to find new routes into the United States using Gustavo “El Oso” Zapata (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) and what's left of the Villanueva family. As the stakes and losses continue to mount, our players truly begin to understand the destructive force they have set in motion and must reexamine their motivations and the cost of continuing forward from here.
Here is an edited phone conversation with author and consulting producer Walter Mosley.
L.A. Watts Times: You have a great voice, Mr. Mosley.
Walter Mosley: Really? I will accept that. I don’t think that.
LAWT: What is your role as a consulting producer on FX’s ‘Snowfall?’ I understand from press notes that you wrote episode three, which I screened, and half of episode nine which, I’m told, is being edited. How did this journey begin for you?
WM: Four years ago, John Singleton called me and told me that he was doing this show and it’s about the advent of crack between 1983 and 1988 in Los Angeles and how these Black people were dealing with the CIA and how the CIA was using that money to pay for the war in Nicaragua. I said so what do you want?
LAWT: And what did John want?
WM: He said that he wanted me to come in and sit in the room and I want you to respond to things that are happening. I need you to be my other side basically in the room. For a couple of years, I did that. The first year, we were just thinking about the show. By the second year, the show existed. The third year, I was doing the same work, but on top of that someone said, well Walter, as long as you’re here and you are a writer, why don’t you write. So, I wrote an episode in the second season and I wrote an episode and a half in the third season. So, it’s gone like that.
LAWT: You wrote episode three in the third season called ‘Cash and Carry.’ Can you share how you shaped that episode?
WM: That’s hard to answer. You asking that question is like asking a whole bunch of different questions. What’s so interesting is that all writer rooms work differently. I was in a writers’ room where there were eight or nine people and we would sit around and discuss the arc of the whole season. Like, the whole season is a big story. And then, what are the independent stories? And along the way you get assigned a story, like, ‘you’re going to do number three’. I said, ok, that’s fine.’
LAWT: So that’s what happened in FX’s ‘Snowfall’ writers’ room? It begins with conversation.
WM: We’re talking about it. How Franklin is going to Panama City and then to Mexico and then to Costa Rico and then there is the Nicaragua connection. And there’s stuff going on in America and pretty much we outline what the story is going to look like. The interesting thing about it is this is that even once the story is outlined and once you give it to the writer—which was me in this case—the writer writes all kinds of stuff. There is a kind of identity, a signature of the writer in any episode. But on the other hand, I’m also following what the other eight or nine writers are thinking about that episode.
LAWT: Can you push in a little bit about the signature of a writer in any episode?
WM: It’s really easy to tell my writing versus other people’s, because I write differently. But at the same time, I have to follow the story of the whole 10 episodes to make sure that everything fits and not only because of the aesthetics, but also there is a story that we’re trying to tell, and we don’t want to mess that up. Was that a good answer or did I go a different way?
LAWT: You gave me a Walter Mosley answer and a sneak peek into “Snowfall’s” writers’ room, so thank you. As a novelist, you write alone. How does it feel being in a writers’ room?
WM: It’s just different and working on a show like this, we are very much together and I like both things. It was great with John. You know John was a great guy.
LAWT: I heard that.
WM: He’s kind of wonderful and he was working hard to express what it was like to live his life in South Central and he was so committed to that. So, when he asked me to do it, I had to say yes because John was a major guy. I did love it.
LAWT: Director Dallas Jackson shared some great stories on how John helped him get his film career going.
WM: John was like that almost every day of his life. There are hundreds of people whom he made their careers. Hundreds not dozens.
LAWT: Hundreds? That’s amazing.
WM: One of the hard things about being Black in America is the pressure. If you’re Black in America you have all kinds of pressure on you but John said it was his job to help his people. His job.
LAWT: His job.
WM: In talking with him he would say to me it’s our job to help our people.
LAWT: Our job is to help our people. I agree.
WM: Those are the two things that he would say to me: it’s mine or it’s ours.
If you could not do it, if you failed, if you messed up, well then you did, and that was ok, but he was committed to giving you a chance. I know so many people who have major careers that were started by John. He was a great man.
LAWT: You know where FX’s ‘Snowfall’ is going can you share?
WM: (laughing) And you do too, all you have to do is look it up. There was crack. There were Black people and they were selling crack. They made millions of dollars. It made lives. It destroyed lives but it was also underneath supported by the CIA and Ronald Regan and all those people. And John said, I just want to tell the truth.
FX’s “Snowfall” episode 3 entitled “Cash and Carry” airs on July 24.
July 18, 2019
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
Lawyers for Meek Mill will ask an appeals court Tuesday to overturn a 2008 drug and gun conviction that has kept the rapper on probation for a decade and made him a celebrity crusader for criminal justice reform.
Defense lawyers believe the city judge who has overseen his case and sent him to prison in 2017 over minor parole violation has become overly involved in the performer's life – once checking on his community service efforts at a homeless shelter – and lost her impartiality.
And, they say, the only prosecution witness at the nonjury trial was a drug squad officer whose credibility is now in doubt.
“When a trial judge injects herself into a probationer's personal and professional life and creates an appearance of bias and, on top of that, makes multiple legally erroneous rulings, the whole judicial system suffers,” appellate lawyer Peter Goldberger wrote in a defense brief filed in advance of Tuesday's arguments before Pennsylvania Superior Court .
The retired officer, Reginald Graham, is on an internal do-not-call list of police officers District Attorney Larry Krasner won't use in court because of credibility concerns, according to a brief Krasner's office filed in support of the new trial bid.
“Although he was not charged federally with the other officers in the narcotics unit, Graham resigned from the police department prior to being formally dismissed,” Krasner’s office wrote, referring to a 2015 police corruption trial that ended with the acquittal of six officers. “The Commonwealth cannot call a witness whose credibility it mistrusts.”
Mill, whose real name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, became a champion for criminal justice reform after Judge Genece Brinkley sentenced him in 2017 to two to four years in prison for minor probation violations. He spent five months in prison before a court ordered him released last year.
He has hired a large team of top criminal lawyers to fight his conviction and probation issues, prompting the judge herself to hire a high-profile city lawyer to defend her actions.
“She's a tough judge across the board,” said the judge’s lawyer, A. Charles Peruto Jr. “When you have this kind of money and fame you use it to your advantage to try to show she’s prejudiced against him. If he wins, it just demonstrates that he’s above the law.”
At the 2008 trial, Graham testified that the 19-year-old Williams pointed a gun at him during the arrest outside his southwest Philadelphia home. Williams has acknowledged having a gun but denied pointing it at police. Brinkley found him guilty and sentenced him to concurrent jail terms of just under one year and two years, followed by 10 years of probation.
Williams, now 32, has frequently tangled with the judge over terms of the parole, especially over reporting requirements and travel rules that he says conflicts with his soaring music career.
Brinkley, after a 2015 hearing that included testimony from Williams' then-girlfriend, superstar Nicki Minaj, said she “has done nothing but try to help the defendant.”
Williams, whose top-selling albums include the 2015 ``Dreams Worth More Than Money'' and last year's ``Championships,'' is a fixture at NBA games in Philadelphia and has the support of many high-profile celebrities and athletes.
He appeared in last month’s season finale of “Saturday Night Live,” performing beside DJ Khaled, John Legend, SZA and other artists in a tribute to slain rapper Nipsey Hussle.
A documentary on his legal travails, produced by music mogul Jay-Z, is set to be released next month.
July 18, 2019
Associated Press
Beyonce's new album inspired by “The Lion King” features collaborations with husband Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy Carter.
Beyonce announced Tuesday that “The Lion King: The Gift,” which will be released Friday, also includes songs with Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Pharrell, Tierra Whack and Jessie Reyez.
In the new version of “The Lion King,” in theaters Friday, Beyonce voices the character of Nala and Gambino, aka Donald Glover, is Simba. Beyonce curated and executive produced “The Lion King: The Gift,” which also features collaborations with Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage and 070 Shake.
Jay-Z appears on the song “Mood 4 Eva.” Blue Ivy is featured on “Brown Skin Girl.”
Beyonce's song “Spirit,” released last week, is featured in the film and appears on both the official “Lion King” soundtrack as well as “The Lion King: The Gift.”
July 18, 2019
By DON BABWIN
Associated Press
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered R. Kelly held in jail without bond after a prosecutor warned that the singer accused of having sex with minors and trying to cover up the crimes would pose an extreme danger to young girls if set free.
“If he was attracted to middle school girls in 1999 then he's still attracted to middle school girls,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Angel Krull told U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber. “That's who the defendant is and that, your honor, makes him a danger today.”
Leinenweber said that under federal law Kelly would have to prove that he was not a danger to the public and Kelly's attorney, Steve Greenberg, had failed to do so.
Kelly was arrested while walking his dog in Chicago last week and faces an array of sex-related charges in Chicago and New York . Appearing in court wearing an orange jumpsuit and shacked at the ankles, he said only two words, “Yes, sir,” when the judge asked him if he understood the charges. Two of his girlfriends, Azriel Clary and Jocelyn Savage, attended the court hearing Tuesday.
The ruling Tuesday means that Kelly, who pleaded not guilty to the charges contained in the Chicago indictment, will remain in custody to face a separate indictment in New York. He is charged there with racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor and the sexual exploitation of a child.
It was unclear when that hearing would be held and if he would have to be transported to New York for the hearing, or could appear via a video linkup from Chicago.
The decision to deny bond raised the possibility that the 52-year-old Kelly could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, said that “each of the federal indictments could take one to two years to go to trial.” Depending on delays in the case, Mariotti said Kelly’s stay in jail awaiting trial could go on a lot longer than that.
Krull portrayed Kelly as a predator who went to great lengths to find young girls and kept them under his control. She said that the evidence in the federal indictments against him is overwhelming. If convicted, the maximum sentence for the charges contained in the Illinois indictment is 195 years in prison and 80 years for the charges contained in the New York indictment.
Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was first arrested on sex-related charges in 2002 after a video of Kelly having sex with 14-year-old girl was sent to the Chicago Sun-Times. After extensive delays, a Chicago jury acquitted him in 2008 in part because the girl did not testify at the trial, Krull said Kelly was acquitted only because he paid off the victim and her family. She said the alleged victim in that video has since testified before a federal grand jury and confirmed it was her.
“Electronic monitoring can't stop obstruction of justice, witness tampering...” Krull said. “He can entice victims to his own home.”
Kelly's legal troubles mounted when he was arrested in February and charged with 10 counts in Illinois of sexually abusing three girls and a woman. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and was released on bail.
Then on May 30, Cook County prosecutors added 11 sex-related counts involving one of the women who accused him of sexually abusing her when she was underage. The federal charges filed last week are separate from the Illinois case.
Greenberg said preparing for trial will be a long process made even more difficult because Kelly does not know how to read and therefore someone must visit him in jail to read him the reams of documents the case will generate.
He said Kelly is no longer rich and has filed for bankruptcy.
“How could he flee?” Greenberg asked. “He has no money.”