Episode 18 “Is There Truth In Hollywood?”

Dave and Rick hold it down this week from Chicago and Atlanta. The hosts discuss S1 Ep6 of Snowfall and explore some interesting themes that come from watching this episode. Rick talks about how Franklin is sensing that some of his team may be dipping into the product and how difficult it can be to know when someone is using cocaine. They talk about the guest appearance by one of the hip-hop generation’s most iconic actors, Bokeem Woodbine, who plays Knees, the OG who gives Franklin the lowdown on the coke business. Dave and Rick talk about the idea that Knees shares: the FBI’s Cointelpro program destroyed the Black social and political movements of the 1960’s and how that is the root cause of the rise of violent street gangs in Los Angeles. Franklin is showing a remarkable level of determination to get his cocaine business going and Rick talks about some of this characteristics and motivations that led him to do what he did in the 1980’s. The idea in the show that the Mexicans were controlling the cocaine market in Los Angeles in the early to mid 1980’s is debunked and the hosts talk about how this diminishes the reality of how directly the government-backed flow of cocaine was into the heart of Black communities in Los Angeles and across the country.