July 22, 2021 — The date is finally set. The definitive story of BMF will hit television screens in just two months.
The Black Mafia Family scripted television drama will make his much-anticipated premiere on September 26 on the Starz cable network. Red-hot on the heels of his Power franchise, rapper and actor 50 Cent is executive producing the BMF show, which chronicles the real-life rags to riches story of Detroit drug bosses Demetrious (Big Meech) Flenory and Terry (Southwest T) Flenory. The Flenorys rose from humble beginnings in the Motor City during the crack era to rule the American cocaine trade in the first half of the 2000s, their BMF crew influencing culture in a way and at a level that no criminal group had ever done.
Power is Starz’s signature scripted property and has spawned two spinoffs and a frenzied fanbase. 50 Cent brought along much of the team behind Power to the BMF show, headlined by Randy Huggins, a native Detroiter, who is show-running the series following crafting storylines for Power, a fictional gangland drama centered around a New York drug kingpin named “Ghost.̶
The BMF series has been in production in Detroit and Atlanta since the winter. Aspiring rapper Demetrius (Lil’ Meech) Flenory, Jr. is playing his dad, the iconic “Big Meech.” Rapper and actor Da’Vinchi plays Big Meech’s little brother, “Southwest T.” Veteran character actors Russell Hornsby and Michole Briana White are cast the Flenorys parents, Charles and Lucille.
Snoop Dogg will play a recurring role on the series as a shady, but charismatic church leader. Rumors have swirled that the King of Detroit hip hop, Eminem, makes a cameo in the show’s first season as well. The Queen of Detroit’s rap scene, Kash Doll, is making her acting debut in the series as paralegal in a high-powered criminal defense law firm engaged in a romantic affair with Big Meech.
The Flenory brothers launched their “Black Mafia Family” in Detroit in 1990 and by the end of the decade had expanded throughout the country. At the time of the Flenorys arrest in 2005, BMF operated franchises in 23 different states, with Big Meech stationed in Atlanta and Southwest T living in L.A. and overseeing affairs in Michigan from afar. Their social strata included celebrities, actors, musicians of all kinds and their entire organization became famous for its lavish partying. Big Meech commissioned billboards put up along I-75, the expressway running from Detroit to Atlanta, advertising BMF as a brand and music label.
Both Flenory brothers copped pleas and received 30-year federal prison terms for heading a drug trafficking conspiracy. Southwest T, 50, walked free last spring from a compassionate release relegating him to serving the remainder of his sentence under home confinement. Big Meech, 52, is serving his time in a Oregon correctional facility and isn’t scheduled for release until October 2027.
