October 8, 2019 — The story of South Bronx drug lord George (Boy George) Rivera will be made into a television show produced by hip-hop superstar-turned TV mogul 50 Cent and called Obsession in honor of Rivera’s signature brand of heroin sold in the 1980s. The news broke late last week on 50 Cent’s social media accounts. Besides being one of the best-selling rap artists of the New Millennium, 50 Cent, a native of Queens and one-time dope man himself, produces and appears in the wildly- popular show Power on Starz, which spins the tale of a debonair New York drug kingpin nicknamed “Ghost” (Omari Hardwick) and is in its sixth season. His slate of future TV projects will be anchored by the Boy George project and a highly-anticipated show about Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory and his Black Mafia Family (BMF), currently in pre-production with Power scribe Randy Huggins on board as the show runner. Flenory and his BMF crew controlled cocaine-trafficking across two dozen states in the late 1990s and first half of the 2000s and embedded itself in hip hop culture lore via their links to rap-industry legends Puffy Combs, Nelly, Fabulous and Young Jeezy. Big Meech and his brother and BMF co-founder Terry (Southwest T) Flenory both pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges in 2007 and are doing 30-year prison terms. The BMF television show has Big Meech’s blessing and his involvement as a consultant. It’s unclear at this point what role, if any, Boy George Rivera will have in 50 Cent’s project about his reign as a drug don. What is known for certain is that Boy George was a genuine boss, achieving OG status before his 21st birthday, widely respected across the New York underworld for his business acumen, fearless leadership and strategic diplomacy. Boy George Rivera ran the heroin trade in the South Bronx and parts of Manhattan in the late 1980s like a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Dubbed the Puerto Rican James Bond of the New York drug world for his suave demeanor, dapper fashion style and penchant for always having the latest gadgets on hand to show off inside his custom-made fleet of luxury automobiles, Rivera actually incorporated his narcotics business and structured it with employee profit-sharing, bonus incentives and health care benefits. His Obsession heroin mix became a must-have for junkies all around town and it was branded as select product comparable to a designer fragrance or clothing line. He introduced a new “cut” of his heroin called Sledgehammer to lesser acclaim later on in his reign. On Christmas Eve 1988, Boy George held a black-tie holiday party for his organization on a private yacht in the Hudson River where rappers Big Daddy Kane and the Jungle Brothers performed. The party was photographed by undercover NYPD narcotics officers. Rivera showing his appreciation for his top lieutenant Walter (Ice Man) Cook at the lavish soirée by gifting him a Mercedes-Benz and praising him in a speech he delivered about solidarity. The Boy George crew was a mix of African-American and Latino gangsters and headquartered out of the Bronx’s famous Club 371 and Rivera’s Tuxedo Enterprises, the incorporated entity he managed his drug business through. Rivera, 51, was busted in 1989 and convicted at a 1991 trial. He’s still behind bars today, serving a life prison sentence.
