Photo credit: Asante Black, Peyton Alex Smith and Buddy
In The Drop, the Snowfall spinoff now airing on FX, music is not just an art form. It is a negotiation between ambition and survival, between family loyalty and personal vision, between the world you came from and the one you are trying to build.
At the center of that negotiation is Wanda, a woman with a plan that nobody around her fully trusts yet. Lamar believes in it. James has his doubts. Artillery, the young rapper at the heart of the music itself, has something attached to his talent that cannot be manufactured or explained.
Three of the actors behind those characters, Asante Black as Lamar, Peyton Alex Smith as James, and rapper Buddy as Artillery, sat down to talk about what each of them stands to gain, what each of them fears, and why in 1990s Los Angeles, every record deal and every opportunity carries the shape of a trap.
Lamar and James are brothers, but family does not always mean seeing the same opportunities or the same danger. Asante, what does Lamar believe Wanda’s plan could make possible, and what is he afraid it might cost?
Asante Black: A billion dollars. He does not know exactly how he is going to get there, but that is the goal.
Beyond the money, I think Lamar honestly just sees the opportunity that music has to bring people together. Living in such a divided time, what he really wants is to bring the community together in a different way and bring the family together in a different way. The billionaire aspirations are definitely real, but he is at the beginning of his journey. So it is one step at a time.
Peyton, same question for James. What does Wanda’s plan make possible, and what might it cost?
Peyton Alex Smith: James is not necessarily concerned with Wanda’s plan, and I think that is something the show tackles directly. Labels on people. In the back of James’s mind, just like family members I personally know who have struggled with addiction, there is that voice saying, oh. Any plan coming from a place like that, you are not automatically behind it, and you definitely think there are holes in it.
Being involved in the streets, especially in 1991 during a very violent time in Los Angeles, he also thinks it could cost them their lives. When it comes to music specifically, James thinks his brother is genuinely talented. He could play Carnegie Hall or play for the church. However, seeing Lamar in the rap game as James understood it at that time, through N.W.A., Ice-T, and what was happening on the East Coast, James simply does not see his brother like that. Which is exactly why he still shows up and tries to be there for him anyway.
Buddy, Artillery has the talent to change his circumstances, but trouble with law enforcement and his environment could close doors before he gets through them. What does music give Artillery that nothing else in his life can?
Buddy: An audience. Expressing yourself alone in a room is completely different from the reaction you get when word spreads. When something is so impactful that it reaches the police department and they actually retaliate against the words, that is just an aspect of power. We saw that in real time with N.W.A. When words carry that kind of weight, that is not just talent. That is something else entirely.
A record deal can look like a way out while also bringing new pressures and new people into your life. Buddy, as Artillery, how does he tell the difference between an opportunity and a trap?
Buddy: He is really good at it because he is well protected by the Bloods, by Dara. There is his own vision of the situation, and then he has multiple eyes behind his head. Everybody is looking through everything on his behalf. Wanda is even waving the Artillery flag in rooms he has not walked into yet, before they have ever met.
There is a level of grace attached to the talent that helps him recognize the opportunity in a contract versus a trap. The trap never really had a chance to be set because someone got dealt with as soon as they pulled up with that contract. The move is essentially: let us get ahead of the consequences before anyone does something foolish. That awareness, combined with real people in his corner, is what separates him.
Asante, how does Lamar recognize the difference between an opportunity and a trap?
Asante Black: Lamar thinks his whole life is a trap. There is nothing else for him to do except jump out on a whim and put his own abilities to the test. Without doing that, he would end up in a situation that by some people’s standards looks positive, but would it make him happy? Would it fulfill his soul? Would it serve his ultimate purpose?
Lamar understands that there are traps and opportunities in every scenario. He is doing his best to navigate both sides of the coin at the same time.
Peyton, how does James read opportunity versus trap?
Peyton Alex Smith: Coming from survival mode, which is all James has ever really known, life has made him pessimistic. He thinks everything is a trap, but in a different way from what Lamar is saying. For James, it is not a philosophical view of life. It is a very specific belief that someone is always trying to get over on you or backdoor you. So he is constantly on ten, always asking what is really going on, always saying he does not think you should trust this person or this situation.
That defensive posture is his default setting, and it shapes everything about how he sees what Wanda is trying to build.
The Drop airs Tuesdays on FX and streams on Hulu. Watch the full Snowfall saga on Hulu as well.
Source: Revelance, featuring Porsha Monique with Asante Black, Peyton Alex Smith, and Buddy
About the Author
