“This part of the story is extremely important because it shows the world how he started from the ground up,” Demetrius Flenory, Jr., who plays his father, Demetrius “Meech” Flenory, told Blavity’s Shadow and Act ahead of the Season 3 premiere.

“The world usually just knows about the glitz and glamour and money and everything, but they don’t know how Detroit was a murder capital of the 1970s and filled with poverty-stricken neighborhoods without a lot of opportunities,” he continued. “So my father and his brother had to grow up and walk to school with holes in their shoes during brutal snow storms, you know? It was just a drug-infested neighborhood and they couldn’t just go to school and get a good education. Their mom and dad were working two and three jobs and still couldn’t afford to pay bills so they had to step up to be those men for their family and make the decision to actually care for them. It’s very important that we started from the time and place that we did.”

With new territory, comes a new set of people, problems, and personalities, including the introduction of Rodney “Greeny” Green (Ne-Yo), the Atlanta pimp who introduces Big Meech to both strip club culture and how things work in the Dirty South.

“One of the things about Greeny is that he’s kind of ‘what you see is what you get,’ but at the same time, like don’t ever underestimate him or ever think you’re so cool that your relationship will ever come before the business,” said Ne-Yo of his character.

He continued: “As I was reading and researching, I found that Greeny is an entrepreneur, and at the end of the day, he’s gonna be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on the situation, circumstance and finances involved. It was a really cool role to play and it was an interesting role to play because it was something I never did before. I hope that when people see it, they see Greeny and not just Ne-Yo in a lace front wig every week.”

What’s more, with Greeny exposing him to an entirely different side of the game, Meech finds himself making lots of sacrifices to achieve the level of success that he was able to reach through his organization. 

“I think there’s an underlying respect there initially because they’re both kind [like] of game recognize game,” said Ne-Yo of the relationship between Greeny and Meech. “It’s like, ‘I see that you’re an entrepreneur, I see that you got a business mindset, I’ve also got a business mindset… Let’s figure out a way to come together and elevate together and I think that’s where it starts.’ Then, the relationship from there on [has] twists and turns. I think, initially, it starts out with a business-minded respect that they have for each other and you’ll just have to watch and have your popcorn ready and be ready for your jaw to hit the ground at some point because that’s what this season brings.”

New episodes of BMF drop Fridays on Starz.

Watch the full interviews above.