Effective Immediately - The Drop: A Snowfall Saga Creators On Behind The Scenes Storylines, Casting & Possible Spinoffs

DJ Hed (0:00)

Welcome to Effective Immediately, a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Yo, it's Effective Immediately, I'm DJ Head.

Gina Views (0:10)

What up, bro? It's your favorite homegirl, Gina Views.

DJ Hed (0:12)

We have special guests in the studio. The Drop, a Snowfall saga, is tearing shit up all over Hulu, Disney+, and FX.

And we have the amazing showrunner, creator. His name is Malcolm Spellman. Malcolm Spellman is here.

Malcolm Spellman (0:25)

What's up, y'all? Glad to be here.

DJ Hed (0:26)

We got writer, producer, director, executive producer of The Drop, a Snowfall Saga after show, as well as writer on The Drop, a Snowfall Saga and all around contributor, Emil Pinnock is here.

Emil Pinnock (0:39)

Thanks for having me.

DJ Hed (0:40)

And of course, another producer. This man needs no introduction to the city of Los Angeles at all. Creator, producer, all of the things, consultant, everything you want to call him on The Drop, a Snowfall Saga, Jimmy Crest is here too.

Gina Views (0:53)

Yes. Thanks for having us. Man, thank y'all for being here.

DJ Hed (0:56)

And also, Rashidi is here too. Rashidi is somewhere around here too. He was the director of episode six.

Emil Pinnock (1:02)

Kilted.

DJ Hed (1:03)

Kilted. Shout out to Rashidi Harper. Okay. First and foremost, Malcolm Spellman, bro, you had an incredible task in front of you approaching The Drop, a Snowfall Saga, okay?

Big draws to feel coming off Snowfall. I just want to know how you feel to have a number one TV show globally on Disney Plus, Hulu, and FX.

Malcolm Spellman (1:25)

It's been beautiful. I've said this before, it was terrifying coming into it, A, because of my relationship with John.

DJ Hed (1:31)

John Singleton.

Malcolm Spellman (1:32)

And then the Snowfall fans are, they're hardcore. Snowfall is one of the most legendary shows every month. So that's a lot of pressure on you. And you don't know until the fans tell you, there's no... So we was getting to a point where we felt like we was doing something special, right? And it was feeling good to the inner circle. But you don't really know until you get it out to the streets. But I know we played it for... Who was the two biggest haters we played it for?

We played it for... I know Top and his man, G-Wheed.

DJ Hed (2:06)

Top Dog?

Gina Views (2:06)

Yeah.

Malcolm Spellman (2:07)

And they came up together too. So that turns into a certain energy. And I'll tell you this, like, Jim will tell you, Top be like this with us. I don't fuck with it.

Gina Views (2:17)

He'll just...

Malcolm Spellman (2:18)

And that would be to extend the conversation. So once the inner circle and people like Top and shit like that was, hey, I gotta stop saying his name in his interviews, two people are gonna think I'm joc'ing.

Gina Views (2:27)

We knew we was good on our end.

Malcolm Spellman (2:29)

But it was when the people embraced us. Man, I'm gonna tell you this, more than I was happy, I was like, the fear is gone.

DJ Hed (2:36)

The fear of getting it wrong. Yeah. Okay.

Also, I gotta give you credit as well. You have created these characters. I mean, you and the team, I know it's a team, I was in the writers' room. First of all, you let me and Salas and G Malone in the writers' room, which we didn't belong there initially, and you're crazy for that, you and Emil, and Jim for letting us-

Gina Views (2:57)

That's a wild writers' room.

DJ Hed (2:58)

Let us hang out in the writers' room is fucking crazy on a multi-million dollar television show.

Credit to you, but I gotta know from your perspective, when you did have that fear initially from going, like taking the reins from a John Singleton creation and then kind of spawning your own, was there a fear of not getting it wrong? Did you have fear of success? I don't know if that's the right way to phrase it. Because like, what happens if you get it right?

Malcolm Spellman (3:25)

It's, I think like for me and the way I work, you know, I was talking to Jason about this problem, is he's like, we was in New York and it was, we were big and it was up, right? And the show was doing great and he's like, yo man, have fun or whatever, right? And my, I just kind of die and shut down when things are going good, right? And what I, what, he was like, well, what part do you enjoy? And I'll tell you, the best parts of this for me was being in post, when an episode, post is the edit room, and you spend weeks and weeks and weeks on these episodes. And then there'll be a moment where one of it when it comes in and you're like, this is it, it's the feeling, it's exactly like producing music. It ain't no different when the song really comes together.