Between shows like Empire, Star and The Get Down, its pretty safe to say hip-hops been enjoying a television renaissance for a while now. And with Mondays (Feb. 20) series premiere of The Breaks onVH1, we have a feeling were only at the beginning of an untapped world of story possibilities.

The series starring Wood Harris, Mack Wilds, Afton Williamson and David Call continues where the film left off: Not only diving further into hip-hops business beginnings, but exploring the bond between Nikki (Williamson), DeeVee(Wilds) and David (Call) as they pursue their music dreams.

While there will seemingly be drama aplenty, the series will continue adhering to Dan Charnas highly acclaimed book, The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop, which is a detailed documentation of the movement, and its evolution.

To get a further understanding of how the VH1 series will tackle the subject matter and where The Breaks will fit in todays television landscape, Screener sat down with executive producersSeith Mann (The Wire, The Walking Dead) and John J. Strauss during Januarys TCA Winter Tour.

RELATED: Hip-Hop Evolution is a nice companion piece to Netflixs The Get Down

John J. Strauss: To me, good entertainment is about characters and engaging an audience. If you look at any given time in the history of television, there have been multiple law shows on the air, multiple medical shows on the air, multiple procedurals on the air So, I dont really see it like were competing for space in the world of hip-hop, as much as we have a very particular set of characters and a very particular point of view. I think the world that were presenting is really grounded, gritty, realistic and dramatic. It has people who you are going to be invested in. I think thats really what its about.

Seith Mann: Inspired by, but not necessarily based on real people. They are inspired by the types of characters that you found in the hip-hop community and culture in the late 80s and early 90s. In terms of why now Im not sure I know exactly why now. I know that I was very interested in telling a story that would get into the history of how this music how this nascent subculture became this dominant world power. At the same time, as Im interested in that and doing research on my own across the country, Dan Charnas is finishing his book that covers that exact subject matter! So, I feel like there is a certain zeitgeist that is happening or has happened that were a part of, you know?

Seith: I wouldnt call it our bible because we take a lot of dramatic license. We are telling a fictitious story, but we are attempting to tell a story about characters that didnt necessarily exist. But they couldve existed you know what I mean? So, the book

John: It keeps us straight especially with the history of the era. He writes all the way from the 70s to the present, but its so comprehensive. Hes been great, too hes an executive producer on the show and hes been sort of our policeman saying stuff like, This never happened. This did happen. This cant happen. This should happen.

Seith: Hes our banker. He always talks about and we all agree, its one of the things that is very important for us in the room we are telling a fictitious story about characters that didnt exist and companies that didnt necessarily exist but we want to believe that they did exist. We want these characters to represent the kind of people that transformed the world. What Dan started talking about, that we all leaned into, was the notion of an authenticity bank. We can only make so many withdrawals from the authenticity bank before our show becomes bullsh**t, so were very rigorous about making sure we dont take too many withdrawals. You know, thats a delicate dance when youre telling dramatic fictitious stories.

John: We have a tremendous responsibility. We really do.

Seith: One of the things that was so gratifying in shooting this was people saying things like,Oh yeah, you got them Fila warmups! You know what I mean? Hip-hop has always been tied to fashion people are paying attention to that! Theyre paying attention to the music, the language were very rigorous that we dont let some slang that didnt come around till 1993 slip into our 1990 story.

Seith: A-F-R-O is in the show. He comes back!

Seith: For me, it was pretty amazing. You know, I come from a film school background, and Ive worked mostly with actors. I believe a lot of musicians and musical talents can act but its not a given that just because you have a presence on stage, that its going to translate in front of a lens.

Sowhen A-F-R-O was introduced to us by DJ Premier who was our executive music producer on the movie/pilot/whatever you want to call it, and now executive producer of the show he said,You guys really need to take a look at this guy!We looked at him and saw the same thing everybody else saw and was like,We gotta bring him in!

It really was like a family affair, because when we shot The Breaks he was 17 or 18 itwas all very new, and everybody just took care of him. Wood [Harris] worked very closely with him his first day on set, and then when he came back for the series, he was just like an old pro. He just got it, like fish to water!

John: Eight.

Seith: And see, this is what I love about John. When John came into this, he always raised the game. My number was seven. But Im going with Johns number.

John: I just feel that theres that much to do! Dont forget, we did eight episodes were not doing 22.

Seith: Yeah, its an eight-episode season.

John: And there are a lot of characters, man. Theres a lot of history!

Seith: Its like, with the movie we just scratched the surface of the world. With the first season, we dig deeper but theres just so much breadth, and so many interesting characters. How the music expanded, how the business expanded at the end of the day, its still about how the business grew and affected the culture around it.

The Breaks Season 1 premieres Monday, Feb. 20, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.

Read this article:

These are 'The Breaks': Inside VH1's 'grounded' new hip-hop series ... - Screener