EXCLUSIVE: As Nas marks the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking debut album Illmatic, a half-hour series project loosely based on his life as a hip hop artist in the 1990s is getting off the ground with a deal at XBox Entertainment Studios. Titled Street Dreams, the project, from Jamie Patricof and Lynette Howell’s Electric City Entertainment (The Place Beyond The Pines), is set in the 1990s in Long Island City’s Queensbridge housing complex, where Nas grew up, and takes a look at music, family and the
trials and tribulations of the rap game. Street Dreams is being written/directed by Jonathan Levine, who also grew up in New York, spending his formative years in the 1990s. New York in the 90s was the backdrop for his coming of age feature The Wackness, winner of the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Street Dreams is now being developed, with Nas involved in the writing and music. His manager, Anthony Seleh, executive produces with Patricof, Howell and Levine. Patricof and Howell recently developed bodybuilding half-hour Muscle for HBO. Xbox has been actively buying scripted projects though it is yet to launch its first series. It also has in the works a pro skaters comedy series from writer Ian Edelman.





LOL
… and it’s a half-hour.
Cause I’m sure there’s plenty o’ jokes in all that thuggin!!
Seriously, what is Nancy Tellem doing? She completely missed the XBOX One launch with ZERO content available. Every show they announce is completely uninspired. I thought she was going to take Microsoft into the world of entertainment – where is it???
Hey Black Republican,
“Thuggin'”? Nowhere in this article or in Nas’s history is there ever any mention of “Thuggin'”. Keep your racist remarks to yourself.
Probably some out of work useless untalented writer anyway…
^Well said.
You’re kidding, right?
Have you ever listened to a Nas song? All he does it talk about thuggin, bro. That’s the premise of his entire music catalog.
Get off your high-horse. I can’t wait till the episode where he’s robbing folks on the train and runs into his Mom.
Within the first bar of said Illmatic‘s “New York State of Mind,” Nas talks about: Scarface sniffin cocaine, M16s, bullet holes, Nines, E&J, Cee-lo, Baseheads, Mac-10s… You get the point. Thuggish to the max. And I love it.
I Can, If I Ruled The World, Dance, Most of the Distant Relatives CD, Daughters from his most current CD. Unless your completely clueless about Nas you would never put a thuggish to the max label on him.
Painting a well developed, layered, black male artist in to a postage stamp of a corner called “thug” for Anglo mass consumption seems to be a full time job for some internet trolls.
This could be an interesting angle for a series. It will definitely be a decent indicator of how Xbox develops shows that don’t fit into the mold of most pilots you see every fall.
I’m pretty sure he wrote a song called “Thugz Mansion.”
Go back to your Imagine Dragons album.
I guess all the people ever wrote any contents in regards about violence and such are “thuggin'”
So, Nicholas Pileggi, and Mario Puzo were “thuggin'” too for writing their works like Nas writing his.
Lack of perspective is killing your reasoning.
Oh, look, someone is playing the race card.
Just what America needs, more hip-hop.
Exactly. If there’s one thing Hollywood has historically told too many stories about, it’s “urban” music.
It began and ended with 8 Mile. No more please. It’s always the same damn story.
^ Simply don’t watch then. Why waste time hating on something when you can simply ignore it? Either you can relate to the struggle of a young man making something of himself against all odds or you can’t. But don’t down the separate perspective because you probably were born and raised at the pearly gates. I apologize for the assumption.
Another thing..do any of you even know what Hiphop is? Because if all you think you know about it is that it’s a music genre, you’re completely misguided. Those who know they are Hiphop have atleast learned how to build instead of destroy. Such is a metaphor for loving and hating.
You could pretty much say about everything damn genre. Hey look it’s Superman and Batman – kill that crap, because, it’s the same old story about some bad villain coming from another planet to get Earth’s resource. Dumb troll needs teaching.
America don’t need no more dumb “smh” type. More commercial country music about their pick up truck, only, if there’s more Johnny Cash “thuggin'” in his music of watching a man die.
This could be fresh
That picture of Jonathan Levine makes me hate this whole thing already.
It’s a blessing to be able to see a legendary poet in action again. Thank you and One Love
Nas is the greatest rapper of all time. I love the xbox one. This is great news for me. Can’t wait to see this.
Will there be Casting Calls for this series??