Randy Huggins thinks his hometown is long overdue a TV series as stylish and suspenseful as "BMF."
"I think it’s about time the rest of the world sees how special our city really is,” saysthe Detroit native who's theexecutive producer andwriter of the latest Starz crime dramafrom legendary rapperCurtis (50 Cent)Jackson.
Set in 1980-something Detroit, "BMF," which airsat 8 p.m. Sunday, is inspired by the real-life story of Demetrius and Terry Flenory, two brothers from southwest Detroit who built acocaine-trafficking empire and ventured into the music industry before being sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The show debuted Sept 26. Less than a week later, it was renewed for a second season.
Huggins, 49, feels connectedto the project in a personal way. He points out that his middle name isDemetrius, just like the Flenory brother known as Big Meech. He grew up in the Motor City during the same era as Big Meech andTerry (aka Southwest T)and understands theobstaclesthey faced.
”I remember I asked Terry, 'What did you want to be?'He was like, 'I really wanted to be a businessman and own the most businesses in the country,'"says Huggins.
What Huggins really wanted to do was become a writer. Ittooktalent and determination for the former Detroit public school teacher to move to Los Angeles and buildan impressivecareer inthe TV industry.
Along the way, he foundencouragement fromErykah Badu andDavid Mamet, among others.
Huggins talks about his life so vividlyyou start hoping his next prime-time serieswill be autobiographical.
Long before he was in charge of "BMF," Hugginswas earning mentionsin local newspapers as an all-state football player from the now-closed St. Martin de Porres High School. Sports have always been part of his life, he says, and theycontinue to guide him in building teamwork among hiscast and crew members.
He was able to attend college through aColeman A. Young Foundation scholarship. Formed in 1982 by Detroit's iconic first Black mayor, the foundation provides financial support and mentoring to promising students. In a 1996 Free Press story, Huggins revealed that after leavingtwo colleges because of grade issues,he got help in focusing on his studies from thescholarship's staff and obtained a history degree from Louisiana's Grambling State University.
At Grambling, he took a drama class and told entertaining stories about his life that prompted aclassmate namedErica Wright to urge him to write them down. "She used to be like, ‘You’re lying!You’re not telling the truth. Nobody’s life is that dramatic,'” he recalls with a laugh.
“Cut to three years later, she had graduated, and I was going to Chicago to visit my friend,” Huggins continues. “And my friend says, 'You know, Erica’s album is out. Erica Wright is actually Eryka Badu."
Through thoseearly years, Huggins held on to Badu's advice. "She was the first person that told me I needed to start putting my life into movies.”
After college, Huggins returned to Detroit as part of his scholarship commitment to help the city. For five years, he worked as an elementary schoolteacher and also mentored new Coleman Young Foundation scholars. Yethis writing dream persisted.
He heard abouta New York Film Academy program in Los Angeles, but heneeded to raise about $8,000 to attendit.Determined not to miss the opportunity, he attempted some grassrootscrowd-sourcing long before it became a trend.
“I wrote a letter to all my family, friends and co-workers," he recalls. "I asked them for donations of $100, $250 and $500. Within three weeks, I had $10,000. I hopped in a car and drove to California and just hustled my way from the ground floor up.”
Finding work as a writer was a challenging process. Although Hollywood is paying more attention todayto diversity and inclusion, the majority of TV show creators back then were— and still are— white men.
Huggins says he got hisfoot in the door through the Streetlights Production AssistantProgram, which helps men and women of color gain experience forbehind-the-camera careers. He started working as an entry-levelassistant on TV commercial shoots and began earning close to $1,000 a week.
Then Huggins received an offer to be a production assistant for two months for$500 a week. That was a hefty pay cut, but he knew he wouldbe working onaTV pilot. The show turned out to bethe popularcrime drama “The Shield” starring MichaelChiklis, which ran on FX from 2002 to 2008.
On that assignment, Huggins metthe pilot's director, actor Clark Johnson from "The Wire" and "Homicide: Life on the Street." Remembers Huggins: “I’m the only Black guy in the office. He'sthe Black director. Sohe speaks to me. And it just so happens that Clark Johnson used to play ball at Eastern Michigan University.”
Johnson wound up introducinghim to Shawn Ryan, the creator of "The Shield," who later asked him to return to the show once the pilot was picked up as a series. Before that happened, Huggins worked on Fox's “The Bernie Mac Show,"where one ofhis tasks as a production assistantwas to haveBernie Mac’s favorite beer, Miller Genuine Draft, on hand and to keepit cold for the star.
”Every Friday, Bernie would just do stand-up about everyone on set. ... This was the greatest job ever," he remembers.
Huggins says when he rejoined "The Shield" as a writer's assistant, there was one other Black writer on the series at that time, Kevin Arkadie ("The Temptations" miniseries). WhenArkadieleft, he notes, “I was the only voice in that writers' room that represented the (Black) community.”
When Ryan became an executive producer of “The Unit,” Huggins went along to be his assistant for what was supposed to be a brief period. Then fate — and David Mamet — intervened.
Mamet,the Pulitzer-winningplaywright and screenwriter known for"Glengarry Glen Ross," "The Verdict" and "Wag the Dog," had created "The Unit," a CBS drama about a covertspecial forces team.Says Huggins:“David Mamet met me and said, 'I love this guy. We’ve got to hire him.” After one season there, Hugginswas promoted to staff writer.
Since then,Huggins has been a writer and producer for several shows, including CBS's "Criminal Minds," the American version of "Prime Suspect" and Fox's "Star." He also was the showrunner (the industry term for the day-to-day creative boss of a series)for the one-season BET drama "Rebel."
Huggins knew 50 Cent from working as a writer and producer on the original "Power," a major hit for Starz.Jackson was the co-star and executive producerand eventually helped shepherd the show into a veritable franchise ofsequels and spin-offs for the network.
Jackson had long wanted to do a show about the Flenory brothersand theirBMF organization (as in Black Mafia Family), He turned to Huggins, who knows and loves Detroit,to shape the series and become itsshowrunner.
Huggins immediately began getting toknow BigMeech, who's still in federal prison, through phone calls and lengthy visits. He spoke with Big Meech's younger sibling, Terry Flenory, who was released to home confinement in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also met withtheir sister, Nicole Flenory, and mother, Lucille Flenory, in order to be true to the real-life spirit of the story and weave actualfamily detailsinto his fictionalized narrative, which isloosely based on the truth.
Crime is only one element of the eight-episode first season.Huggins says "BMF" is the saga of afamily, just like those essential mob dramas “The Godfather” and “The Sopranos."
More:First episode of 'BMF' TV series earns an A for Detroit authenticity
“The thing that I really l love about this story is just their brotherhood. I’m a sports guy, so I always liken (Big Meech and Southwest T)to Shaq and Kobe. … When they were together, they were unstoppable,” he says, referring toLos Angeles Lakers greats Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the dominant NBA duo whohad famous clashes.
Huggins uses a sports analogyto describe hisadvice toDa’Vinchi, who portraysSouthwest T, and Demetrius (Lil Meech)Flenory Jr., who was chosen and mentored by 50 Cent to play the role of his father, Big Meech. Hugginsencouraged them to work together as teammates and draw on each other’s strengths, specifically Da’Vinchi’s more extensive acting experience and newcomer Lil Meech’s in-depth family knowledge.
Huggins wanted to shoot the entire "BMF" season in Detroit, butthe bulk of filming was done instead in Atlanta because of Georgia’s film incentives program.He was able to spend a week here shooting and recalls bringing his mother to the set to be an extra.
From filming on Belle Isle to dropping "What up doe?" into the dialogue, Huggins set out to includeas many authentic Detroit details in "BMF"as he could. Andhe advocated for casting Detroit rapper Arkeisha (Kash Doll)Knight to playMonique, a love interest of Big Meech's who is pulled into the rivalry between the brothers and their main adversary, the menacing Lamar (Eric Kofi Abrefa).
He becameconvinced that Kash Doll would be perfect for Monique after hearing her perform on Big Sean's 2020 song "Friday Night Cypher." When he suggested her to "BMF" director Tasha Smith, he remembers, she immediately said, "You want me to call her right now?"
Says Huggins, "We know how dynamic (Kash Doll)is on the microphone. I think she has even more talent on screen.”
Now that "BMF" will have a second season,there ismuch history left to inspire more story lines.For instance, Huggins (speaking before the show's renewal was announced) mentions what happened after the 1980s,whenthe brothers moved away from Detroit and relocated BMF's base to Atlanta.
"What’s really interesting about Demetrius and Terry is they really didn’t blow up in Detroit," he says, referring to the growth of Big Meech and Southwest T's famein the 1990s.
Huggins sounds as if he'sthinking about future plotsas he talks. There are stories left to tell here, whichmeanshe is right where he wants to be.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
