Cheo Hodari Coker

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Rappers are not the only ones in Hip-Hop bringing their A game to the big screen. LEVEL Magazine has detailed how several journalists have been winning in Hollywood.

As the world continues to celebrate the culture’s 50th anniversary the media outlet showcased another way Hip-Hop is influencing the world. LEVEL recently featured several writers who have originally worked at Hip-Hop magazines during the early parts of the career and have since gone on to to pen television shows and films. Included in the panel was Kim Osorio (The Source Magazine), Erik Parker (Vibe Magazine), Elon D. Johnson (XXL), Selwyn Seyfu Hinds (The Source Magazine), Cheo Hodari Coker (The Source Magazine), Laura Checkoway (Vibe Magazine), and Carlito Rodriguez (The Source Magazine).

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When the roundtable was asked how they made the transition from covering the genre to creating shows the response was simple; they had to put in the work. “I work in the documentary genre, and coming from print journalism, our skills definitely translate, especially the reporting and interviewing” Parker explained. “You really do need to trust yourself and just do the thing you want to do. Laura used to do some fact-checking when we were at Vibe. That definitely translated into her work in documentaries as well.”
Further into the discussion Coker, who was the mastermind behind Marvel’s Luke Cage on Netflix, explained how his tenure in print journalism translated while working on set. “After all these years, I can get star-struck on a set. If I’m working with Mahershala Ali or Regina King, and I’m like, “I have to tell these people what to do?” Just for a hot second. And then, I remember, if I were interviewing them for Vibe or The Source, it would be easy” he revealed.
You can read the panel discussion in it entirety here. 

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