They claim there’s more love in L.A. than Hollywood shows, and this show aims to put it on display.
The Drop: A Snowfall Saga takes viewers into the rise of West Coast hip-hop, but the creatives behind the series are making sure ‘90s Los Angeles isn’t reduced to violence, gangs, and nostalgia.
Source: Ray Mickshaw / FX
We caught up with creator Malcolm Spellman, Glasses Malone, Jason Martin, and Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson about building the Snowfall spinoff and telling a fuller story about the people who lived the culture.
For Spellman, that starts with keeping the characters at the center.
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“The key is the human beings who are in the show,” Spellman told BOSSIP. “We are with this family and the extended family, and we are telling their story first.” Instead of stopping the story to explain the cultural history surrounding its characters, Spellman said the goal was to let viewers experience it alongside them.
Glasses Malone is a creative consultant for the show, and he said one thing portrayals of Los Angeles frequently miss is how much the community exists within the conflict.
“Personally, as somebody that’s benefited from the love of Los Angeles to get to this point, no matter which neighborhood, which gang I’m from, we never talk about how much love has to exist for so many people to still make it out,” he said.
That could mean friendships stretching across neighborhood lines or simply somebody being given a “pass” while moving through a place theoretically where they shouldn’t be.
“Even in all the madness, sometimes they were just cool,” Malone said. “That’s important to me to show how cool it was.”
Jason “Problem” Martin, who serves as a creative consultant, contributes original lyrics and produces vocals for the series, echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the importance of love stories within the larger narrative.
“What’s underrated is how much the world loves love as well,” he told BOSSIP. “Like, we act like love stories are not the biggest thing.”
He pointed to relationships between grandparents and grandchildren, husbands and wives, and people protecting the younger generation.
“This is a really dope love story about Los Angeles and trying to maintain in a place where it can be chaotic at times because of circumstances.”
The series is also beginning to explore what happens when Black culture becomes valuable to an industry looking to profit from it.
“It’s going to get worse in season two,” Spellman said. “Season two is definitely gonna get into the manipulation of our music by these labels.”
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And while much of the series is populated by men fighting to make something out of their talent, its center remains Wanda, expertly played by Gail Bean.
Source: Ray Mickshaw / FX
The men behind the camera were all adamant about giving the young ingénue her flowers.
“This may be season one for us. This is season seven for her,” Dopson said, referencing Bean’s years building Wanda on Snowfall.
Martin took the praise even further,
“Gail is sort of the head of the comet and the rest of us are like the tail coming off the comet,” he said. “She torching every time she walks on.”
Source: Ray Mickshaw / FX
For the team behind The Drop, expanding the Snowfall universe means showing not only what happened in Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s, but the love, community, and creativity that allowed people to survive it.
