UPN debuts hip-hop drama ‘Platinum’ Tale of 2 brothers running a record label faces stiff time-slot competition

It’s easy to list successful series with predominantly minority casts: “The Cosby Show,” “The Jeffersons,” “Sanford & Son,” “Good Times,” “What’s Happening?”

But the list gets a whole lot shorter when it comes time to list the dramas of color that endured for any length of time on network TV. There’s none. Zero. Nada. Bupkis.

So history is one strike that the black family drama “Platinum,” debuting at 9 tonight on UPN, has against it.

Also, it’s set in the hip-hop music industry, a setting with a storied history of real-life drama going for it. How are we viewers in the flyover states supposed to relate to that?

Still, it’s all about the Benjamins, baby. Hip-hop draws the 18- to 34-year-old demographic over which advertisers salivate. Also, UPN has always had a strong minority presence among its programming, so if such a drama is to take off somewhere, it would have to be there.

“Platinum,” which moves to its regular 9 p.m. Tuesdays time slot tomorrow night, is the compelling rags-to-riches story of two brothers, Jackson and Grady Rhames, who rise from the streets to build their own independent hip-hop label, Sweetback Entertainment. Jackson (played by Jason George, “Barbershop”) is the savvy entrepreneur and family man, Grady (rapper Sticky Fingaz) is the talent scout who is living the hip-hop lifestyle to excess.

Unfortunately, the brothers have hooked their star to VersIs, an Eminem-lookalike rapper (played by Eminem wannabe Vishiss) whose second album tanked, leaving the label in tough straits financially.

Rather than taking a buyout offer from a white media mogul, the brothers instead try to solve their money problems by stealing the star rapper of another independent label, setting off a turf war in the process.

“Platinum,” co-created by John Ridley and Sofia Coppola (her father Francis Ford Coppola is a co-executive producer), does a winning job setting up the action in the debut episode. The hip-hop industry is an intriguing place to visit, although some scenes could certainly use subtitles.

Still, despite the show’s quality, is there enough of an audience left over for “Platinum,” which is opposite “Frasier,” “The Guardian,” “24” and “Smallville”? That’s for a hit-starved UPN to decide.