Flavor Unit, the production company founded by Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere, struck a multi-project first-look development deal with Audible for a slate of exclusive podcasts.
One of the upcoming projects under the pact is Queen Latifah’s “Unity in the Community,” a seven-part limited series in which she goes in search of good news — and delivers it, focusing on community activists who are the glue that keep their neighborhoods together. Each 30-minute episode will profile an activist implementing a concrete plan that can be modeled in other communities.
The first podcast to be released under the Audible-Flavor Unit partnership is “Streets, Rhymes & Sugar: A Hip-Hop Memoir” from screenwriter Michael Elliot (“Brown Sugar,” “Just Wright,” “Like Mike”). Set to premiere Aug. 5, the short-form original series chronicles Elliot’s path from homeless teenager on the streets of Philadelphia to successful screenwriter. Also coming from Elliot is a scripted romantic comedy, “Technically Speaking,” about a single mom who falls for the founder of the big tech company she works for in Silicon Valley.
Additional audio-only projects from Flavor Unit are currently in development exclusively for Audible.
“We are so excited to collaborate with Audible on a collection of shows that will highlight different communities, community leaders and friends of mine,” Queen Latifah said in a statement. “A common thread within all of these shows will be to share stories that bring hope and entertainment to those at home who’ve had a tough year.”
Audible Studios head Zola Mashariki, a former senior exec at Fox Searchlight and BET who joined Audible this spring, said she has worked with Queen Latifah, Compere and Flavor Unit for years across various film and TV projects so “I’ve had a front row seat to watching their creative magic at work.”
“Profoundly talented, multi-hyphenate Newark native Queen Latifah has always honed in on culturally relevant, representative and hugely entertaining content,” Mashariki said. (Amazon-owned Audible is based in Newark, N.J.)
Audible has stepped up its efforts to land high-profile audio programming deals. Those have included pacts with Laura Dern and Jayme Lemons’s Jaywalker Pictures, Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco, Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Productions, Charlamagne tha God’s CTHA World Productions, Steph Curry’s Unanimous Media, LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Company, Topic Studios and Treefort Media.
