When fans comb through the drama and messiness FOX’s Empire uses as its primary selling point, one can still see that there is a fairly credible account of the culture of Hip-Hop added to the fray. Such a feat is no coincidence as the show employs a handful of writers that are able to bring out the best of Lee Daniels’ crazy ideas.
Two of those writers in particular earned their stripes well before Lucious Lyon was a household name and they have been nabbed by Warner Bros. to create a biopic centered around the one sole figure who birthed the music industry with the rap game as we know it.
Carlito Rodriguez; the former editor-of-chief of The Source magazine when paper and print ruled the news world and screenplay writer Malcolm Spellman (2010’s Our Family Wedding) will take on the task of retelling the life and times of late artist and “Mother Of Hip-Hop” Sylvia Robinson, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The film will reportedly stray away from the traditional formula of music biopics and take on a more dramatized account as seen on the award-magnet American Hustle. Robinson, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 75, was not only influential but a pioneer in her field as well for she was the one who created the business model of Sugar Hill Records to propel the release of rap’s first classic record, “Rapper’s Delight” and subsequently Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s equally potent “The Message.”
Warner Bros snagged the rights for the film following the success of Universal’s Straight Outta Compton this past summer.
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Photo: Instagram/Empire Fox
