Atlanta Rollin’ is back
TV RAP KING BACK ON AIR ON FOX AFRICA THIS MONTH
Next week, the second season of Atlanta Rollin’ is back on air. It follows two cousins who work through the Atlanta rap music scene in order to better their lives and the lives of their families.
It stars Emmy nominee Brian Tyree Henry as Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles, a new hot rapper trying to understand the line between real life and street life.
The versatile actor’s career spans film, television and theatre.
This year, Henry will return to Broadway in Kenneth Lonergan’s play Lobby Hero, alongside Chris Evans and Michael Cera.
He will also be seen in several films, as he has completed production on Steve McQueen’s Widows opposite Viola Davis, Hotel Artemis with Jodie Foster and Sterling K Brown, the indie comedy Fam-i-ly alongside Taylor Schilling and Kate McKinnon, the romantic drama Irreplaceable You with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, White Boy Rick co-starring Matthew McConaughey and thriller Only You with David Oyelowo and Barry Jenkins.
In South Africa, you can catch him from March 29 at 9.50pm on FOX Africa (DStv channel 125). Here’s what Henry says about the new season: How does this season differ from the first, and why is it called “In the first season, we didn’t really have any themes. But instead of calling this one “Atlanta Season 2”, we called it “Robbin’ Season” because with the notoriety and the fame that’s happened for all these characters, there is a sense of danger and darkness now.
“We filmed the first season in the summer and this one we filmed in the fall and winter and in Atlanta, especially, that’s the time that people flex. So you’ve got your Christmas gifts and your new jewellery and people are going to jack you for that, and there’s home invasion, getting mugged.” In this political climate and in the era of President Donald Trump, how important is it to have a show about young black Americans trying to make it? And how overtly political is this season going to be? “There’s no way to walk in this country as a black man and not have it be political.
“What we’re trying to do is show that whatever you think you see in the silence, it doesn’t speak for us, for where we come from, who we are as a family, or what we want to make of ourselves.” How does this season examine the idea of exploitation? Exploit is a great word because that is what’s happening to us – how we’re exploiting each other and the environment exploits us.
“Alfred has been known as Alfred his whole life, and now, all of a sudden, around the block he’s Paper Boi to everyone – but no one knows what he’s lost to get there.” How did Donald Glover – your co-star and the show’s creator – approach this season, and how has your working relationship with him evolved? “I think his eye is still as meticulous and sharp as it was, but I think he realises that beyond it all, the closeness of us as a cast is so important. There was this sense of protection that we needed for each other this season.” – Citizen reporter