TV

Brandy gets back in the TV game with an ABC hip-hop drama pilot that sounds wild

The Grammy winner and Cinderella star has joined Queens, a musical drama from Scandal vet Zahir McGhee.

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Published on March 8, 2021 03:35PM EST

This could be the year that Brandy Norwood gets back in the series TV game. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-actress has signed on to ABC's pilot Queens, a hip-hop drama from Scandal and Stumptown vet Zahir McGhee.

According to ABC, Queens follows as "four women in their 40s reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they had as the Nasty Bitches — their '90s group that made them legends in the hip-hop world."

Oh, and it gets better. Brandy will play Naomi, "better known as Xplicit Lyrics," and "the highly-skilled musical engine of the Nasty Bitches." Brandy will also be creating original music for the show.

More from the network's official character description for Brandy's role:

A true artist with boundless musical talent — Naomi was certain she'd go on to mainstream success after the group's demise. She hasn't, singing and playing her guitar in crappy dive bars where all people want is her old persona. When the group gets back together, Naomi is reunited with the only man she ever loved, and the rival bandmate who stole that man from her. But what Naomi wants more than anything is to build a relationship with the daughter she was never really there for — if she only knew how.

Already, Queens sounds like DVR-season-pass material. Can you imagine the '90s flashbacks?

Also, the group's name is the Nasty Bitches! This show is doing the most. And readers, we haven't even gotten to the other characters. Rapper/talk-show host/actress Eve will play another member of the Nasty Bitches: Brianna, a.k.a. "Professor Sex." (She'll also be contributing original music.) Here's more on her character:

Twenty years ago, Brianna was Professor Sex — one fourth of the iconic 90s hip-hop group, the Nasty Bitches — rapping about money, sex and her all-around glamorous lifestyle. Today, Brianna is a proud wife and mother of five — in a stained sweatsuit who barely has a second to breathe. Not glamorous. But Brianna loves her life. The Nasty Bitches are a distant, distant memory. But when an opportunity arises for the group to reunite, Brianna will grapple with whether or not she still has the swagger and confidence that made her an icon decades ago.

Creator/exec producer McGhee really didn't disappoint with this lineup of female characters. Pepi Sonuga is playing a "hip-hop it girl" who's nicknamed "Lil Muffin"! Nauturi Naughton is co-starring as a founding member of the Nasty Bitches, Jill, a.k.a. "Da Thrill"!

Of course, Queens is still in the pilot stage, but truly, if ABC doesn't pick it up to series, it'll be a huge injustice.

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