Hip hop

While Def Jam Africa may be best positioned to sign talent on the continent, it will also work with its international counterparts to set up artists for global success. With Nasty C, for example, Dlamini told Billboard that Def Jam’s team in New York set up writing camps in the U.S., including a weeklong one in Atlanta. "Nasty C is as much a Def Jam artist in New York," Dlamini says, "as he is an artist from South Africa."  … [Read more...] about Universal Music Launches Def Jam Africa as Its Latest Big Bet on the Continent

Meanwhile, the Season 2 order for The Weekly comes a couple of weeks after one of the stories prominently featured in the first season earned a Pulitzer Prize. The episode count for Season 2 is still TBD. In January, FX brass indicated that if The Weekly was renewed, the format would remain the same but there likely would be a stronger emphasis on topical content. … [Read more...] about FX Greenlights ‘AHS’ Spinoff ‘American Horror Stories’, Renews ‘Better Things’ & ‘The Weekly’ As Part Of 2020-21 Programming Slate

Jane Doe Films (fka Chain Camera Pictures) has an exclusive first-look deal with Entertainment One for scripted and unscripted programming. Alongside Dick and Ziering, the company includes head of development Ryan Mazie and producers Amy Herdy and Jamie Rogers. … [Read more...] about ‘On The Record’ Filmmakers Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering Sign With WME

“Who we decide to listen to is predicated on who we value in America,” says writer Shanita Hubbard* early on in On the Record, Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick’s already controversial documentary about the numerous accusations against the hip-hop mogul. What keeps jumping out as you watch this undeniably moving, unsettling film is the bigger picture looming over these specific allegations, and the world of hip-hop in general. Dixon is African-American. So is Sil Lai Abrams, Sherri Hines, Jenny Lumet, Toni Sallie, Alexia Norton Jones, and several other of the 20 women who’ve accused Simmons. And while such crimes cut across racial lines (see: the victims of way too many other powerful men in show business and beyond), the film does a great job of underlining how even the #MeToo movement may have replicated social constraints and relegated such voices to the sideline. You can single out some weak spots in how Ziering and Dick, two cinematic muckrakers with a hell of a … [Read more...] about ‘On the Record’ Review: Doc Gives Russell Simmons’ Accusers the Spotlight