Tristan “Mack” Wilds is ready to make his mark on “The Breaks,” VH1’s movie inspired by Dan Charnas’ book “The Big Payback.”
Wilds plays DeeVee in “The Breaks,” a chronicle of the hip-hop industry — and its culture — that’s based on three college friends who embark on a quest to make it big in the music business. The movie co-stars Afton Williamson and David Call.
“I can relate to [DeeVee] because he does not take no for an answer,” says Wilds, 26. “He’s headstrong, and his love for hip-hop is an ingrained tenacity that makes him go for what he wants.”
Viewers first met Wilds when he played Michael Lee on HBO’s hit series “The Wire,” before he moved on to play Dixon Wilson on The CW’s teen series “90210.” You may also recognize him as Adele’s love interest in the music video “Hello” — and his resume promises to grow with talks of “The Breaks” possibly turning into a five-part series.
“It’s important to portray the different kinds of kids in this movie because there’s more than one type of person in urban communities other than what the media consistently shows you,” says Wilds. “These are college kids who are legitimately trying to make hip-hop what we want and what we feel it to be.”
“The Breaks” is set during the pivotal summer of 1990 at a time when hip-hop was believed to be a fad. Wilds feels that this was an honest sentiment felt by many music executives at the time.
“Disco just came and went so the higher-ups believed [hip-hop] was going to be another fad,” he says. “But they did not realize the [power of] the voice of the kids and what they wanted to say. I believe that hip-hop was compared to disco because so many thought it was just another genre that would quickly die out.”
And when it comes to today’s hip-hop generation, Wilds does not see much of a difference compared to the past.
“Our generation of today can absolutely relate to these characters of the ’90s because we have so much that we want to say and are going to the end of the world to get that message across — to get their form of music out so people can hear what they have to say. I think that if there’s something you want to do so much, then you should have a similar mindset to DeeVee — just make sure that what you feel inside comes to life.”
Those are similar sentiments to what Wilds learned while growing up in Staten Island with fellow rapper Clifford Smith (aka Method Man) of the Wu-Tang Clan, who also plays Wilds’ father in the movie.
“We’re both from Staten Island so I have known him since I was a kid,” he says of Method Man. “My father owns a barber shop so he would cut all of Wu-Tang’s hair. So it was cool and hilarious to have [Method Man] play my dad — a man who was so strict and just wanted me to go to school and get a job — versus the real Method Man, who told me to follow my dreams and go for what I want.”
So what does Wilds think of the state of hip-hip today?
“It’s grown up and has diverse sub-genres. A lot of the music we have today could be considered the babies of hip-hop,” he says.
“Hip-hop is a mother now.”
“The Breaks” airs Monday at 9 p.m. on VH1.