“The Godfather Of Harlem” Executive Producer Markuann Smith Spills Season 4 Secrets

Photo Credit: Timothy “Patchw3rkz” Smith @Shotbypatch

Markuann Smith is spilling all on the upcoming fourth season of his hit show, The Godfather of Harlem. The  MGM+ crime drama, which returns April 13, tells the fictionalized story of infamous crime boss Bumpy Johnson, played by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, who in the early 1960s returned from 13 years in prison to find the neighborhood he once ruled  under the control of the Italian mob, and sets out on a journey to take it back, aligning with some real-life historical figures like Malcolm X along the way.

For Smith — who serves as executive producer and a recurring character, the series was an 18-year labor of love. Here, he delves into that love — and what we can expect from season 4.

Photo Credit: Timothy “Patchw3rkz” Smith @Shotbypatch

How did you get your start?

This is an 18 year journey for me; it took me 18 years to get this show done. It started off at my godmother’s apartment – in her living room – in this affluent tenement called Lenox Terrace. And if you know about Lenox Terrace, if you’re from New York City, you know Lenox Terrace is where a lot of athletes, politicians, musicians, artists, and creatives live. You will find them living in Lenox Terrace and that’s some Lenox Ave Harlem in New York. And every Sunday, I used to go to her house and she would tell me these magical stories about Harlem — how she used to walk out of a tenement building and smell fresh laundry hanging out of the window, or walk past 125th St., look up, and see James Brown’s name on top of the Apollo. Or even about walking past Sugar Ray Robinson’s barber shop and seeing his pink Cadillac sitting outside; looking inside to see if she might see Nat King Cole getting a haircut. Sam Cooke’s voice coming out of a transistor radio. She loved the 60s, but the 60s were a tumultuous time for African Americans. A lot of African Americans were migrating from the South trying to escape Bull Connor’s water hoses and his dogs coming up north. Regardless of whether you went to Washington DC, Philadelphia, Newark, or even Harlem, just to be an African American in that time was challenging. Even with simple things such as purchasing a hat from the store, the store owner may say, ‘I need you to put a plastic bag on my hat because you’re African American.’ Or a father of five worked all week to take his family out for a steak dinner and guess what? The owner says, ‘You can’t sit with the rest of the patrons. But you know what? We got to give you a meal to go.’ They were dealing with the civil rights marches.

She also told me about her grandfather. Now, her grandfather — on the street — was known as Bumpy Johnson. His real name was Ellsworth Raymond Johnson. Ellsworth was from Charleston, South Carolina. He was a geechee gellar, and when I say geechee geller, [I’m referring to people that] were basically slaves that lived in the South that were ruled with no masters, so they have a real sense of pride. Bumpy, or Ellsworth, came up here not to be a gangster, but actually to become an attorney like Malcolm X, and when he went to City College to apply for financial aid, the person said ‘we don’t give financial aid to African Americans,’ so he took the cards that life dealt him and he played it the best way he could. He was the first African American underboss to sit down with Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Maya Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Vito Genovese. He did 12 years in Alcatraz said, and it was said that he had the highest IQ for a person of color. So, he wasn’t just a gangster. He read Shakespeare, he had self-published poetry.

I made a promise to [my gothermother] that I would get the true story of who her grandfather was. That’s how The Godfather of Harlem became a creative force for me.

Photo Credit: EPIX

What is the vibe for season 4? How does this progress to where we are now?

Season 1 started off actually as a very diverse show. It deals with civil rights. You have Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell. You have the Italians such as Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. In season 1, everybody was trying to fight for this inlet called Harlem, right? This piece of land called Harlem, and Bumpy Johnson was the conduit to get the doogie. We call it doogie because that’s what they called dope back in the day. So, you see it progress from Season 1 to Season 2 to Season 3. All these ethnic groups are fighting for this money grab, which is this land, which is Harlem. So, our show transgresses from 63 to 64 to 65, and this year we’re at 66. You’ll see how the Black Panthers started showing their imprint in Harlem at this time.

How do you know when to take creative license and when to embed the real-life historical things, and how do you separate those two things? 

Well, there’s a big disclaimer before the show comes on that says ‘these are based on events that are true and not true,’ right? But I also hired an individual by the name of Professor James Smalls James. Smalls is the African American historian. I brought someone into our fold that was there — that actually marched with Malcolm X, that actually saw how Adam Clayton Powell interacted with Bumpy Johnson — so a lot of these things that you do see we created. There’s some embellishment, but a lot of it is just history, and history always repeats itself.

Photo Credit: Timothy “Patchw3rkz” Smith @Shotbypatch

What kind of historical figures are we going to be seeing in this season?

You’ll be seeing historic criminals like Vincent the Chin Gigante. You see Tommy Lacaze, you’ll see Black Panthers such as Tupac’s mother. You’ll see Frank Sinatra. You know, he might have come up singing somewhere. There’s a lot of characters in there that you could actually Google and see what was real. You see Truman Capote. These are all magical stories that we have that we’re showcasing during season 4.

The show really taps into bigger social and political themes. So what conversations are you starting to or are you hoping to start this season?

If you asked me in the elevator pitch, the show is the collision of civil rights and the underworld. History repeats itself. You’re seeing what happened in 1963 when we first started reflected in what’s happening today. For example, the Harlem riots are no different than the Ferguson riots. Muhammad Ali, who is a character in season 4 and was in seasons 1 and 2, is similar to Colin Kaepernick. All of these are historical events that are happening are so similar to what’s happening right now in our country.

If you take a step back and look at the show’s impact, where do you see The Godfather of Harlem fitting into the bigger conversation about black history and power today?

What I love about The Godfather of Harlem is it’s just not an African American show: it’s a show for everyone. If you look at our numbers, African American viewership is 50%. That means everybody else is watching it. It’s you know, it’s not like the BMF’s of the world or the powers of the world. That is the one demographic, you know, if you ask my opinion, right? But with The Godfather Harlem, you’re seeing every experience that America was going through, you know, just not one demographic. So, this is to say that everyone will like it and enjoy it. I mean, we’re talking about  Italian civil rights with Joe Colombo, talking about the Black Panther party; it’s like a smorgasbord of current events that are happening that everyone can enjoy.

This is obviously a very important project for you. Are there other things that you’re working on as well at the same time?

Yes, one thing about me is like, I’m a creator. I love to be creative, and when you take my creativeness away, it’s like stealing oxygen from me. I have to keep creating. I have a wonderful project I’m doing right now based on Washington, DC. From 1985 to 1990, you know, Len Bias, gogo music, Marion Barry, how the country was divided. And it’s really just the position of what we’re seeing right now when we’re looking at CNN, when we’re looking at MSNBC and we’re seeing Fox News, and we’re seeing how our country is so divided right now. I’m not a politician, but I do like to create stories that people may find relevant and relatable.

Photo Credit: Timothy “Patchw3rkz” Smith @Shotbypatch

For you personally, what do you think this season will represent and how does it feel to be at this point in your journey with this particular show?

This season represents cheering for the underdog. It shows the gangsters trying to transform and trying to fight the evils — the cards that life dealt him — and is trying to morph into someone else. It’s like running an uphill battle, when someone is always throwing rocks at you and pushing you back down. And that’s what happened to me trying to sell this show. But in the end, we won.  There’s such a great actor in Meredith Tucker, such a great casting director in Sarah Luck, and such a great costume designer. All of these individuals brought their own stories to the table. Then you have Swizz Beatz, who is our executive music producer, and he’s able to paint these wonderful stories. And being able to share that with your family on Sunday is amazing to me. It’s like almost like I wanted to bring back that aura when The Cosby Show was out and when we all ran to our living room with our family and enjoy something together.  I was able to bring every type of demographic together, [race-wise] and even age-wise — because the music is contemporary as well as old school. So, you might hear Martha and the Vandellas and Sam Cooke, but you will also hear A$AP Ferg or something of that sort. But I just wanted to make it a conversation, you know? And so, when I’m on Facebook and I’m trolling on Instagram, seeing people having heated conversations or debates and talking about different characters, it feels like, you know, my team, Chris Brancato and myself. We did what we needed to do to put out a good show you know and now we have an Emmy.

How easy or how organic was it to get  Swizz and Forest on board?

Being the fact that I’m the only African American executive producer and the youngest one — and you know, RIP to Paul Epstein, who was also African American on our show — I work with a lot of individuals who are open-minded. They look at and lean on me as someone who’s in tune and in touch with the culture because I’m in rooms where people don’t even know who Jay-Z is. I know you’re like, ‘huh?’ Well, it happens. Because if I’m eating at a cafe, and I’m with a friend of mine who knows that’s a billionaire Asian mogul and I don’t know who it is because that’s not my culture, right? It happens. My showrunner didn’t even know who DMX was. I had to educate him. So, bringing Swizz, it had to be done, because I wanted that New York edge, and I knew he would give it to me. As far as my big brother Forest signing on, I couldn’t ask for anyone more special. I mean, he’s a gentle giant. He was in every pitch meeting with me. But the show was so special. We had the president of ABC, Pat Moran, Tracy Underwood, Nina Yang, Bon Jovi, my partner Jim Atchison, and Chris Brancato and James Smalls. We were like a little village pitching this to everybody. So, no one was bigger than the program or bigger than the show. Everyone was sitting there, boots rolled up, shoelaces tied, and ready to go.

What to you is the greatest luxury in life and why?

Luxury life is waking up doing what you want to do, not what you have to do. I mean it, it feels good when you’re not waking up Sunday dreading to go to work on Monday, right? And there’s a lot of people living like that; they’re on that hamster wheel. I’ll tell you this: a lot of people want success, but are you ready to eat tuna fish sandwiches? Are you ready to sleep on somebody’s floor because you can’t afford hotel.com or these five star luxury hotels? Are you really willing to say, ‘Hey Laura, do you have a hook up with buddy passes? Because I have a meeting Monday at Netflix, and I can’t afford a market going rate flight and I have to get out on Sunday.’ I also tell people that you can knock on opportunity’s door, and if it doesn’t open for you, go to Home Depot, buy some lumber, and build your own door. When I talk to kids or adults, I tell them that life is real: there are no bunk beds in the graveyard. Meaning:  when the Reaper knocks on your door, you can’t call. I can’t say, ‘Hey, Laura, it’s time for us to go.’ It’s like, he’s calling. So, waking up doing what you want to do, not what you have to do, is a true luxury.

WATCH THE SEASON 4 TRAILER