Brand Tag

Before seeing his face, I’m first greeted with a plume of cannabis smoke across my computer screen. Because the cloud clears, I’m in a position to make out his smile—the identical one the remainder of the world has fallen in love with when it lit up their TVs every Sunday this past summer. “How are you today?” I ask, as our Zoom interview begins. “Can’t complain,” actor J. Alphonse Nicholson responds. Paradoxically, I doubted that that was entirely true. Although the P. Valley breakout star is having a well-deserved Cinderella moment, it hasn’t come without its backlash. Nicholson’s beloved character, Lil’ Murda portrayed within the strip club-centered dramedy has consistently been the topic of social media fodder because the...