The best Detroit moments from ‘BMF’ season 2 [PHOTOS]

Episode 1: The Raven Lounge

In episode one, K-9 invites Meech to a business dinner at the historic Raven Lounge, which opened in 1966 by Sam Watts and prides itself on being Detroit’s oldest blue’s bar. The club was created “to give up-and-coming Motown [talent] a place to play,” owner Tommy Stephens told National Geographic “It’s where stars came to listen to the blues.” Those stars included B.B. King, Diana Ross, Martha Reeves, and Smokey Robinson.

Episode 1: St. Cecilia Gym

Rayan Lawrence plays the part of drug boss K-9, a role loosely based on real-life Detroit drug dealer Lawrence “Dogg” Newell. “I didn’t know anything about K-9, whose real name is Dogg … Before I knew about him we looked at YBI, one of the first African American crime families out there,” Lawrence tells Metro Times.

During the first episode of season 2, Lawrence coaches a game inside the historic St. Cecilia gym. It was Lawrence’s first time in Detroit, and he admitted he hadn’t heard of the gym prior, but he coached the game in the scene as if it was a real game. “I was actually really coaching, ‘OK, you are going to shoot,’” he says. “I had them practicing like, ‘I need you to dunk,’ ‘I need you to shoot’ … I was actually able to choose who was going to take the last shot,” he says.

Episode 1: Chinatown

“My sister and I used to ride our bikes all over the place when Chinatown was still around,” detective Jin (played by Kelly Hu) tells her partner during a car ride. “And then they started displacing us to the Cass Corridor…”

The Chinatown comment speaks to the city’s Chinese-American community, which government leaders in Detroit unsuccessfully tried to relocate in the 1950s. It by far wasn’t one of Detroit’s finer moments, and oftentimes gets overlooked at how it impacted Detroit’s Asian-American community.

“I remember doing the research on that and how they really just got rid of Chinatown. They tried to move it to another area, and it never really stuck, and so much of the gentrification of Detroit started during that period,” Hu tells Metro Times.

Episode 3: Devil’s Night/Angel’s Night

Episode 3 starts off by giving viewers an oral and visual history of Devil’s Night fire-starters in Detroit, but also sees Charles Flenoy (Russell Hornsby) with his two sons (younger versions of Meech and Terry) chasing a would-be arsonist away.

“These things are saying, ‘Hey, we’re taking our city back, we’re here to protect our residents, our people, we’re here to keep everybody safe,’” Hornsby tells Metro Times. “I think things like that are needed all across the country. Detroit’s going to take something negative and turn it into a positive and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Episode 3: Gators

In episode 3, Alvin (played by Donnell Rawlings) watches Lamar (played by Eric Kofi-Abrefa) remove a deceased man’s gator shoes off his feet and put them on. “I know you ain’t thinking about taking a dead man’s gators nigga … you can’t do that, it’s a violation,” Alvin says in the episode.

The clip is a testament to when alligator skin shoes were a mainstay in Detroit’s fashion culture. When asked about it, Donnell Rawlings tells Metro Times, “To me, a pair of shoes is a pair of shoes, but what made me think of how important it was, was the Biggie Smalls line: ‘Pink gators, my Detroit players.’ And so for Biggie to acknowledge that and to know how important it is to establish that’s what Detroit is about, there had to be significance to it,” he says.

Episode 3: The Roostertail

Terry Flenory (played by Da’Vinci) and Markisha Taylor (Played by LaLa Anthony) have dinner at the historic Roostertail.

Although now mostly utilized as a space to host weddings, proms, and parties, the 65-year-old riverfront venue was once the preferred destination for private events among Detroit’s performers, politicians, and upper class. Elton John, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Stevie Wonder, and many Motown acts have had events and concerts held at the Roostertail.

Episode 4: Maserati Rick

Terry references famous Detroit crime figure Maserati Rick as he’s getting Meech out of the hospital. “This ain’t ‘bout to be no Maserati Rick repeat,” he says during the scene.

Notorious drug crime boss Richard “Maserati Rick” Carter was murdered inside of his hospital room at Mt. Carmel Mercy Hospital on September 12, 1988. Two days earlier, he had been shot in the stomach. On Sept. 16, 1988 Carter was famously buried in a Mercedes Benz casket at Peace Chapel.

Episode 6: Soul Night

One of the best Detroit visuals of the series so far comes when Meech steps out of his Mercedes Benz wearing a full-length mink coat and greets Jalen Rose inside of the Fox Theatre for Soul Night. Soul Night has been around for four decades, and it was captured perfectly in this scene. (Shoutout to DJ Kutz on the 1s and 2s.)

Episode 8: The EZ Rest Motel

When Charles Flenory (played by Russell Hornsby) chose to have an affair with Mable (played by Christina Horne), they picked a very familiar place to Detroiters: the EZ Rest motel.

Southfield’s EZ Rest Motel has been a preferred hook-up spot for secret lovers and couples looking for quick gratification since the 1970s.

Christine Horn didn’t know the EZ Rest was a real motel. “I didn’t know that, but that doesn’t surprise me,” Horn tells Metro Times. “One thing that really stuck out for me was Randy [Huggins] was like, ‘We are here to elevate. We’re elevating the writing, set, costume design.’ … You telling me a detail like that doesn’t surprise me because the writers are on top of it.”

Russell Hornsby was very aware of the E-Z Rest’s dubious history. “I did know, Randy told me that,” he tells Metro Times. “There is a spot in L.A. we got and it’s called the Snooty Fox. So they’re all over … Those hourly rates,” he adds with a laugh.

Episode 8: RollerCade Skating Rink

The RollerCade roller rink has been a staple in Southwest Detroit since 1955 — so it made perfect sense to see the whole Flenory family there for a skate night.

“I had so much fun, I was so excited to be on roller skates, but the thing about that roller rink is that it doesn’t have any railings anywhere,” says Micole White, who plays the role of Lucille Flenory. “I had never been in a roller rink without any railings, so it took me a minute to get my groove back, but I found my way. You didn’t get a chance to see all the slick stuff I was doing. That [was] off camera.”

Episode 10: Showdown at Belle Isle

Meech, Terry, and B-Mickie confronting Detective Bryant with the Belle Isle Fountain in the background was the Detroit moment we didn’t know we needed. And Meech holding the umbrella had Francis Ford Coppola vibes.

“I think it’s a great scene,” says Steve Harris, who plays Detective Bryant. “You being from Detroit know what we’re looking at right there. Anyone from Detroit knows we’re in Detroit. We needed to have Detroit to be a character in the show.”

“It was raining that day man, it was like 30 degrees outside,” adds Myles Truit, who plays B-Mickie. “We did that in about 12 different takes and 4 to 5 different camera angles. But coming back to the scene, I feel like it was that Mexican standoff, it was an understanding where Meech was coming from but also understanding the line in which Detective Bryant was willing to cross.”

Episode 10: Hair Show/Hair Wars

In 1985, a Detroit DJ by the name of Hump the Grinder started a weekly party known as exotic hair nights, which became a cornerstone of Detroit’s hair culture. The vibe was re-created in episode 10.

“I feel like I didn’t know anything about Detroit and the hair … I had to learn that Detroit was the new capital of these new styles and they always switched it up,” says Sydney Mitchell, who plays Lawanda. “So when we did the episode for the hair show and I saw all the huge pieces, it was crazy, so we learned a lot about that. That’s probably one of my favorite scenes of the whole show.”

Episode 10 :The Ambassador Bridge

Usually, Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge is only seen on TV and movies in skyline shots, so it was very refreshing to see Terry and Meech talk business under the 94-year-old bridge to Canada.

Detroit City Airport (throughout the series)

Detroit’s 101-year-old City Airport may sit largely vacant in real life, but in BMF it was a thriving airport where the Flenory Family Car service picked up customers.

Coney Island restaurants (throughout the series)

Just like in real life, Coney Island diners are like a character in the BMF series, where you’ll find coney dogs — and also drug deals, meet-ups, sex, and shootouts.

Episode 8: Al Wissam

Terry Flenory taking Markisha (Lala Anthony) shopping at the Al Wissam store was another classic Detroit moment. A leather Al Wissam jacket was a fave of dope boys, ballers, streetwear enthusiasts, and even former Mayor Kwame Kilpatirick throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

An immigrant from Lebanon, Bassem Souwaidan started the brand in 1992, and the scene also provides a bit of commentary on the history of relationship between Black and Arabic people over the years. “The funny thing is that Black people always say, ‘Oh the Arabs take our gas stations, they take our party stores,’ but the D wouldn’t be the same without Arabs,” says Terry Flenory during the scene.

Kash Doll (throughout the series)

Detroit’s reigning queen of hip-hop was the only native Detroiter that had an acting role in the series. Her presence was authentic and refreshing, though her character Monique was killed in the ninth episode of season 2. She will be missed.