The premiere episode of Irv Gotti’s Tales Tuesday (June 27) brought a lot of conversations to living rooms across the country with the topic of reverse racism. The hip hop anthology series, which opened up with a retelling of NWA’s “F**k Tha Police,” took things up a notch by swapping racial roles and stereotypes. While the episode was focused on the killing of an unarmed white man by black cops, the episode’s ending has left people talking.
During the riot scene with Troy (played by Chet Hanks) two reenactments fly across the screen. One is the 1991 beating of the late Rodney King and the other, a lynching. Continuing the theme of reverse racism, both actors are white. Noticeably, Brody Jenner (former reality star and the son of Caitlyn Jenner) is seen hanging from the tree.
Gotti hopped on Instagram to break down the scene and questioned Hollywood’s role in depicting people of color. “I put it in the ending riot scene at the end with D’Angelo’s “How Does It Feel” playing because I wanted to show in reverse,” he said with a collage of the lynching. “What Hollywood always shows black people reminds us of the fact that our ancestors hung from a tree, so it goes with the whole race reversal vibe of the episode. Who did I call to get hung? MY F***ING BROTHER @brodyjenner who was totally down for what I was trying do and the message I was trying to get across.”
The closing scene shows military arsenal finding its way to the streets with the end credits listing the victims of police brutality. Gotti continues to speak on the topic and what he hopes viewers learned from the episode. “[It] doesn’t matter if someone is black, white, [Hispanic,] Indian, Asian. What’s wrong is wrong and these cops need to get PUNISHED for killing innocent people. So maybe seeing it done to white people in this FICTIONALIZE piece and seeing these things done to them. Maybe people will have a little more compassion when 12-year-old Tamir Rice gets gunned down. Or Philando Castillo gets killed for nothing. Or Alton Sterling and Eric Gardner. Trayvon Martin. The list is too long and needs to stop.”
Jenner hasn’t commented on his cameo of sorts but fans have commended him for the role. The next episode of Tales will take on Notorious B.I.G.’s “I Got A Story To Tell” with Woody McClain, Jennifer Freeman and Elise Neal. This time, the episode will be told from Atlanta with references to Instagram models and the NBA social world.