Hollywood celebrities, flashy cars, sexy models, pro athletes, and rappers poppin' bottles in the club. Does that sound like South Beach to you?
It does to John Legend. According to Deadline Hollywood, the singer-songwriter is helping to develop a series for HBO called Down Lo, set in Miami and featuring all your favorite SoBe stereotypes.
The story is set in South Beach (obviously) and promises to tell the stories of Miami's music scene and "sports and fashion circles." You've got your "top models" and your "athletes with their penchant for big money, fast cars, and beautiful women."
And yes, of course the show's title is embarrassingly literal:
[Down Lo] deals with fame and secrets, with the stories told from multiple points of view. One of them will be that of a gay rapper living on the down-low as homosexuality is still not readily accepted in the hip-hop community. (In an interview just this week, Snoop Dogg said he doubts that homosexuality will ever be accepted in the "masculine" rap world.)
Legend's contribution to the series: his own "firsthand knowledge." Wait -- knowledge of South Beach? He knows that mediocre pizza joints and drunken Midwesterners outnumber elite bajillionaires at least 2,000 to one here, right? Deadline also reports he'll coordinate access to his colleagues in the music world, which implies the series could become a playground for rappers and musicians who want to try their hand at acting. And we all know how well that usually works out. (Sorry, Rick Ross.)
But there is hope. Down Lo will be written by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, who penned a handful of episodes of the underrated How to Make It in America. Maybe this series will take an insightful, critical look at Miami's culture of celebrity.
Or maybe it'll just be more strippers and blow. Either way.
Follow Ciara LaVelle on Twitter @ciaralavelle.
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