Written By: Jame Face
ABC’s The Rookie is tackling the tough issues of our current times in their latest season. We talked to Titus Makin, who plays Jackson West on the series, all about how the show was able to confront these issues head-on. We also caught up with Butterfly Ali (that’s the name he uses when making music) on his latest music!
Photo Credit: Rowan Daly
upfrontNY: For our readers who are new to The Rookie, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Titus Makin: It’s about this amazing middle aged man who’s lived a whole life already. He’s had a successful career and other jobs and decides to follow his dreams, his desire to be a cop. He decides to do that and he goes to the academy. There he meets myself and another rookie and it just follows our lives as cops. It follows what we deal with in our everyday lives that would suggest the choices we make while on the force, while on the job.
upfrontNY: Now that you are headed into season 3 where do we see your character Jackson West headed and how has he grown?
Titus Makin: Before, Jackson has been on the struggle bus. We see him not be the most courageous, doesn’t want to put his foot down, doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers, but in this season it has honestly been an honor to play him. We’re tackling some really intense issues. In my storyline this season you get to see Jackson take on some racial injustice, police brutality and really speak his mind. We see him stand his ground and you get to see a lot of maturity and growth. So it’s obviously been really cool to portray that storyline.
upfrontNY: Since the new season covers these current issues of police brutality how does the show ensure everyone’s voice is heard?
Titus Makin: Honestly, they’ve been really sensitive and have their hearts open to us being boldly honest. ABC is letting us not shy away from the topic. Our show runner, before we started filming the season, he came to us (we had a zoom meeting) and talked to all of us. He said “How do you feel? Where are you at? How do you feel in particular playing a cop? How is it being a young African American male in general and then on top of that playing a cop?” We were all able to speak our minds and he took from where we were and what we wanted to say and applied that to the story in a way that fit.
upfrontNY: As a black man playing a police officer have you ever felt pressure or hesitation taking on this kind of role?
Titus Makin: Absolutely, yeah. Honestly, three years ago or so when I was first considering going in for it I did have a really hard time with it. I remember contemplating is this something I want to portray because I was afraid at the time that people would associate me with a cop. They would think ‘oh he’s playing a cop so clearly he agrees with all things cops do’ and that was one of my fears. Through the process while actually playing the character I have gained a little more knowledge about both sides of the fence and how difficult the job is to do. At the same time, just like there are bad people there are bad cops. It’s unfortunate and that is the reality that we are trying to change. The show is aspirational. That’s what we’re trying to do with the show is create a conversation and space that would make people feel comfortable handling things the way they should be handled. Police policing themselves and policing the community better.
upfrontNY: Was there anything that surprised you while playing this role?
Titus Makin: There’s a couple things. I did learn that I could never be a cop in real life even by doing these little acting scenes, even those are intimidating with airsoft guns and all that stuff; they’re loud! It honestly taught me real quick that I do not have what it takes to run towards any gunfire to try and diffuse any major situation. It’s like look Titus is getting out of there I hope everyone is okay, but we’re going to have to get to safety.
upfrontNY: Does the show bring on those with actual law enforcement experience?
Titus Makin: For sure! We have a tech adviser named Chic Daniel and he is a cop himself. He ranked really high. He’s there every day making sure we do things like we’re supposed to and according to standards. One of our writers on the show is actually a black LAPD officer. So, we have a lot of angles of people trying to keep us as true as possible from different experiences of law enforcement.
upfrontNY: Switching gears can you tell us about your music? You have a unique sound, what led you to your style of music?
Titus Makin: Absolutely! My music name is Butterfly Ali and that kind of describes a little bit of my genre if you will. I consider myself Funk/Soul and that’s because the musicians who inspire me were Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, Pharrell, CeeLo. I’ve always pulled from a more eclectic sound. I’ve always appreciated urban music if you want to call it R&B that was a little left of center. All those things kind of created what I would call Funk/Soul lane.
upfrontNY: Why the name Butterfly Ali?
Titus Makin: That’s a good question. I was originally making music under Titus Makin for many years, but because of the roles I play I noticed people weren’t separating the two. I would always get those comments like “What is Jackson West doing, you’re an officer,” when performing or on the set of a music video. People still do this and it’s flattering, but people clearly don’t separate Hollywood from reality very well. So, I decided to use a name that felt like a description of my energy and vibe as a musician. People always ask me if this is like an alter ego or like a Sasha Fierce. I’m like no it’s the name that I felt like described my sound so people can latch on to me as Butterfly Ali which is technically the true me vibe wise and they can respect the police character or the Glee character under Titus Makin and be able to separate the two.
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about your latest single Pray for ‘Em?
Titus Makin: Yeah, so I wrote Pray for ‘Em because it was one of those things where I was sitting in my house quarantining, obviously, and watching all the things going on in the news, racial injustice and all those things and I had people asking if I was going to post anything like on Instagram or say what I think or feel. I didn’t want to post some long three paragraph caption on Instagram so I thought why don’t I just put my thoughts into a song. That’s what the song stemmed from about how I feel we should be making it through the times we’re in with all the racial injustice.
upfrontNY: You attended school in New York, what is something you love about New York?
Titus Makin: I did like New York. It wasn’t for me to stay there, but I did like that it felt forward if that makes sense. I always felt like progressively working. It’s moving. It created the hustle in me because out here in California you’re in your own space so much you really have to be self-motivating. In New York, everyone is on the ground, you step outside and people are moving, people are going to work they’re going somewhere and you’re like “Oh, I have to go somewhere too!” I do like the hustle it created in me. I wasn’t a big fan of the clutter. People forget like when you’re sick, you don’t feel well, you have a migraine, or you’re nauseous you still have to get on the subway and be closed in that space. You forget about the days that are cold and rainy. It sounds nice until its below zero and you have to walk to the train station. But, of course there’s stuff that’s awesome like the shows. New York is beautiful, but the way people visualize it is like you’re living in a penthouse, not my little apartment that was the size of a shoebox. Overall the esthetic of New York though there is nothing like it so I do love visiting and vacationing there.
upfrontNY: Do you have anything else you would like to let our readers know?
Titus Makin: I plan on releasing an ep or more music in a few months. We don’t have an official release date yet, but keep an eye out and keep watching The Rookie!
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