Comedy Series About Life of Hasidic Rapper Nissim Black Coming to HBO
HBO Max is developing a comedy series about the life of Nissim Black and his spiritual journey to becoming the world’s first African American Hasidic hip-hop artist, the streaming service said Monday.
“Motherland Bounce,” named after Black’s song of the same name, is being created and written by Moshe Kasher and directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield from “The Gilded Age.”
Born in Seattle, Washington, Black was selling drugs by the time he turned 12 and joined a gang shortly after. He was raised as a Muslim and converted to Christianity when he was young, but after a confrontation with a rival rapper, turned to Orthodox Judaism. He and his wife converted in 2012 and in 2016 they moved to Jerusalem.
Black said on Twitter that he hopes the HBO Max series “brings Joy, and dispels a lot of the misinformation going on out there, with G-d’s help.”
Kasher and Black will executive produce the show with Richardson-Whitfield through her HBO-based Early May Productions and Erwin More. Eric Schulman and Aaron Fogelson will be co-producers.