Welcome to the Hour Two roundtable
discussion of "Shots Fired."
I'm co-creator Reggie Rock Bythewood.
Pleased to be joined by Sanaa Lathan, Aisha Hinds, Mack
Wilds, and part of our music team,
Jabari Ali, Antonique Smith, and BJ the Chicago Kid.
MAN: (SINGING) Where do we go from here?
And hour two is called "Betrayal of Trust"
because while Ashe and Preston are
assigned to work the same case, they're
not really partners yet.
They're investigating behind each other's backs.
One of the things that I love about Ashe and Preston is
it's a popular convention in movies and TV--
the whole older cop, the seasoned cop and the young cop.
But you usually see it with two males.
And you never really see it with a woman and a man,
especially her being the more seasoned cop.
And Ashe has been doing this for 20 years.
She knows what she's doing.
She knows the in and outs.
And here comes this young--
in her eyes, he's arrogant.
Maybe you wouldn't call him arrogant, but Ashe--
Yeah, he's arrogant.
He's arrogant.
His nose is in the air.
You know, he's smart, Ivy League.
And she has really no investment in him in the beginning
except that she has to get this job done,
and I think quickly learns that in this environment,
they're going to need each other,
and they are going to have to work together
whether she likes it or not.
You don't work another case behind your partner's back.
You questioned Sheriff Platt about a witness
in the Joey Campbell case.
And he notified the bosses.
What the hell were you thinking?
I was thinking he'd notify the bosses.
I don't have the clout to bring the Joey Campbell case to them
myself.
So you got the sheriff to get it on the books.
So Mack, one of the things that we were really
interested in exploring is what would
happen to Beck if we really had the walls closing in on him.
Mm-hmm.
If you could talk about that a little bit.
I think in the writing room, you guys
did a beautiful job illustrating a great commentary
on the country.
When we see the headlines and everything that goes on
with these police officers, we don't necessarily
know the inner workings.
We don't know what's going on in their households.
There's so many different things that you guys added into this
to show that this comfortable world that he tried to make
was starting to slowly collapse.
I'm the father of the boy you killed.
[cocks gun]
Sir, I'm a father too.
All right?
And if anything would have happened to my boys,
I don't know what I'd do. - It doesn't matter.
Your boys are fine.
Listen to me.
I'm not gonna to tell you I understand your pain.
I don't.
But you weren't there.
If you ever want to know the truth
about what happened that day, you
need to drop your weapon now.
When the father approaches you, you get the upper hand.
And you show restraint.
I mean, if you took him out right then and there,
you would have well been in your right.
Exactly.
To show restraint and kind of try
to commiserate with the guy, you know,
just how I say in the clip, I can't
say that I know exactly what you're going through,
but I'm a father as well.
So we connect on that level alone.
I think, like, the other thing that was very compelling
is Pastor Janae's journey in Hour Two.
and one of the things we talked about in the writers' room
was do movements create leaders, or do leaders create movements.
I feel like the two things are sort of reliant on the other.
If I were in the head of Pastor Janae,
I would reach for that scripture that
talks about God creating us.
You know, before the foundations of this Earth, he knew us.
And I think Pastor Janae was somebody
that he knew and created for such a time as this.
When we think of and when we talk about church,
traditionally, we sort of think about church as the building,
the brick and mortar.
But we come to learn, the church is not the building,
it's the people.
And that's the same thing for leaderships and movements.
The movement is made up of a collection of leaders.
And for this particular episode, it definitely
was one of those situations where was she was coming
into herself in a new space.
I think she's comfortable as the leader of chosen house.
But here was this incident that incited a necessary movement.
I think there are those who are pastors because that is
their position, and there are those who are pastors
because that is their purpose.
I think the other thing though that's really fascinating
about your character was not making Pastor Janae the most
noble person in the world.
Well, she's still human.
You know, that is, she took the throne from the dude.
You know?
He was, like, the civil rights icon and gate station.
And she just snatched it.
And the way you played that was just so perfect.
May I pray with you, sister?
Of course.
Dear Heavenly Father, please--
Please let us know you are with us.
One thing that you gave us that Gina
and I were like, wow--
and this came from you, that whole line, anger is not a sin.
You dropped that.
And we knew where the speech was going.
And when you gave that to us, we just ran with it.
Yeah, I definitely believe that God allows us to be angry.
But we shouldn't be mastered by that anger.
We should definitely function from a righteous anger.
We should be angry about injustice.
Absolutely.
I think it's amazing how you and Gina
use music in your work.
It really just kind of is another level
of the storytelling.
It's almost like another character.
It is.
And we all know that music goes straight to the soul
and to the heart.
And this story should get to everybody's heart.
And one of the things that I really love in Hour Two,
we just go into this amazing song written
and sung by Antonique Smith.
You didn't narrate it.
But you still really helped with the storytelling.
Can you just talk a little bit about how
you approached that song?
Well, this particular song was inspired
by the outline for 102.
It said that the sheriff comes in
and tells Beck that the union is dropping him.
They're not going to support him.
And so I just said, you know, it feels
like he's losing control, losing control of the situation.
It felt like he was in control of it.
Everybody got your back. We got you back.
We good. You good.
You're good.
And now, you're not good.
And so I was just inspired by that lyric, losing control.
That just hit me.
(SINGING) I'm at your mercy cause you chose [inaudible].
I was in the studio with Jukebox and Brian
Farmer and [inaudible].
And I said, what do you all think about losing control?
It just seems like that's what happening right here.
And everybody's like, yeah, we love it.
So Jukebox and Brian started to play some beautiful chords that
became the music to the song.
And Brian was sitting across the room.
And he was just like, oooo.
And I was like, (SINGING) feels like I'm losing--
wow.
And I was like, what do you all think?
And everybody's like, yeah!
That just gave me chills.
That's how it came about, you know.
It was just one little step after the other.
We gave our music supervisor Jabari Ali the task to let's
create some Top 40 music, but let it
always be about storytelling.
Jabari, why don't you just talk a little bit about your process
and the process of your team?
The process was most definitely a bar raiser,
just the overall tone and just the spirit
of the writers' went.
And the tour that we got--
Well, you've bee to our writers' room.
And you know it was, like, set up.
It was like a museum.
One of the first things you see is Emmett Till.
And you see pictures, whether it's, like, a politician
or something from the '60s.
And so we had pictures all over the wall that were
relevant to our storytelling.
And we have a writing team for the scripts.
And then we had a writing team for the season.
Yes.
There's seven original songs that we--
We approached it like the music was a character.
Absolutely.
We really did.
Let's also talk about the song, "The Choir"
that we see at the funeral.
Well, it was really exciting for me
because, like, I didn't grow up in the traditional Baptist
Church.
So when Reggie was like, OK, Jabari, we have to do gospel.
And I'm going, man, I'm really going to have to lean on you.
Like, that really made me go in and do some serious homework
because Reggie was hitting me with all
of these songs that were 300 years old, 200 years old.
I'm going, yo, really?
And he was like, yeah, this is what we're aiming to do.
I mean, I remember saying something to you like what
if it was like they were singing something
like about him being an angel.
And then you guys did-- like, it was just
really interesting to kind of throw a concept to you
and then your team just ran with it.
Can we just talk a little bit about Terence
Blanchard, an amazing composer?
His tone, his sound, the way he
puts together music is just-- like, it's his fingerprint.
You know?
And when it lands on any piece of work,
it just elevates the work to another level.
Well, it was great because Terence, like, got some steel
pan guitar and all these instruments
and just created the sound that he called gate station.
And that was really amazing.
Like, the other thing that we just have to deal with
is our incredible main title song.
BJ, can you just talk about your decision to be a part of this
and to bless us with your voice?
I had no choice in deciding.
I really believe that it was ordained long before.
I think it was meant to be.
Jabari will tell you.
We've been excited since the call.
I think it's an amazing opportunity, man.
I mean, the lyrics, "If stars don't shine in the darkness,
where do we go from here?"
And that can mean a lot of different things.
Yes.
I mean, actually, it gave me chills in the booth.
I don't like singing stuff that don't speak back to me.
It's an honor to be a part of something that
is really so thought provoking.
So I appreciate you guys. - Right.
Well, I think the other thing that is as exciting
is just what we're going to see from Pastor Janae
as it comes up, like where Ashe goes.
And then we just never know what to think of Beck.
And I think that that's just, like, one of the things that
just keeps everybody at the edge of their seat
and makes this exciting.
Thanks for joining us for our Hour Two roundtable
discussion of "Shots Fired."
Keep the conversation going, hashtag #ShotsFired.
And we'll see you next week after Hour Three.
[music playing]
For more infomation >> Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI BIT QUATTRO S EDITION - Duration: 1:06. 
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