Uncle Luke's 2017: Movies, Miniseries, and Corrupt Politicians

We survived the first year of the Trump era without the 45th president obliterating the United States in a nuclear war with North Korea. In light of all the scandals and controversies seeping out of the White House, 2017 felt like seven long-ass dog years to many of us. Then there were all the powerful men in media, entertainment, and politics who have been taken out by the #MeToo movement of people exposing perverts and creeps in just about every major industry.

But it was a pretty good year for your favorite uncle and New Times columnist. Lionsgate is producing a biopic based on my memoir, The Book of Luke. The film will chronicle the rise of 2 Live Crew and my role in establishing Miami as the mecca for Southern hip-hop. On another Hollywood front, Springhill Entertainment — a company owned by LeBron James and longtime confidante Maverick Carter — is bringing Warriors of Liberty City to Starz. The docuseries is about the youth program I founded, the Liberty City Optimist Club. Meanwhile, I finally received some long-overdue recognition from the music industry when BET gave me a lifetime achievement award.

And, of course, New Times readers still can't get enough of my columns. My September 15 take on how African-Americans in Miami are the last ones to receive hurricane relief and aid got people riled up. That column generated more than 20,000 page views and was the most-read of 2017. Taking second place was a piece about Florida Atlantic University head coach Lane Kiffin's chances for success, with 7,907 page views. It seems there are more FAU Owls fans than Miami Hurricanes fans reading New Times: My column about the U's annual battle with rival Florida State University received 4,803 page views.

Readers were also interested in what I had to say about NFL players protesting the National Anthem. My columns criticizing the now-former police union chief John Rivera and detailing Colin Kaepernick's exposing NFL owners' hypocrisy when it comes to fighting social injustice were the third and fifth most-read columns, with 6,325 and 5,037 page views, respectively.

The fourth most-read column, published June 2, was when I compared then-Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco to Donald Trump after Grieco made some lame comments about the black tourists who visit the city for Memorial Day weekend.

Follow Luke on Twitter: @unclelukereal1.