Brother Nelson George has a wide-open smile that, at first glance, gives the appearance that you are staring into the eyes of a gentleman who’s been slumbering away. To the untrained eye, that smile can be described as deceptively simple. In fact, Brother George was awake long before the world knew or used a hashtag to express an individual aware of the paradoxes of life.

He is an author, a columnist, a music and culture critic, a journalist and a filmmaker. Twice nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, George is one of those rare men that can talk with intelligence, wit and firsthand knowledge on how the music of the ’80s and ’90s influenced America, with an important emphasis on social justice flashpoints.

As the moderator of the Tribeca Talk: Storytellers conversation and performance with Common—which was made possible in partnership with Citi, and part of the Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T—George took a moment to address the rumors that have been circulating about “The Get Down.”

“False!” shouted “The Get Down” supervising producer George. “False!”

“The Get Down,” now in season two and playing on Netflix, is a fictionalized tale that explores the lives of a young poet, an aspiring singer and a graffiti writer-turned-DJ chasing their dreams to become a part of the bubbling new culture, hip-hop, that would change so many lives.

Perhaps some of the rumor stemmed from mixed reviews and the fact that Netflix hasn’t announced official viewership numbers. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the show received a 74 percent rating, far less than the 95 percent and 96 percent ratings for the networks’ other projects, “Stranger Things” and “Orange Is the New Black.”

Variety cites data from third party metrics that indicate “tepid reception” for the most expensive Netflix original series to date, with costs of $120 million.

Here is an excerpt from George on the real deal with “The Get Down.”

Question: Are the rumors true that “The Get Down” is being canceled?

George: That’s a good question. Next week, in Los Angeles, we are having a big event for the Academy. So, we are hoping that we will come back with the response that [it] has been fantastic. There is a hashtag that says #renewthegetdown on Twitter. Everybody in here should hashtag renewthegetdown, please. It makes an impact. There is also a renew “The Get Down” petition. Any help we can get will love to have. There is a new show coming to Netflix in a week or two called “Dear White People.” Those of you who saw the film, it was a brilliant film. It was kind of like: What if Spike Lee was young again? Like “School Daze” updated. That show is coming on [Netflix] and it’s supposed to be fantastic. So, please support that. What’s been interesting about working with Netflix … a lot of things can be said about Netflix, but they supported so much minority talent. I do not want to name any of the [other] networks … but having “The Get Down,” having “Dear White People,” “Orange Is the New Black,” the range of … these are shows with no stars … often young Black and Latino talent being showcased for a global audience. “The Get Down” is in over 180 countries. This is the kind of stuff that people would say, you couldn’t get released [in the recent past] … no one around the world gives a damn about people of color in all these countries. But, I can tell you truthfully that [“The Get Down”] is one of the biggest shows in Brazil, that we are very popular in Korea, that we are very popular in Germany and France. It just says that there are a lot of glitches in the film business about minority images, the Black image, around the world, and the truth is that they are always lies. And what Netflix has done is shown, very clearly, there is an audience around the globe for all of our stories. So, we should be embracing that and looking into this new medium as a vehicle for all

of our great storytelling.

The first season of “The Get Down” is available to stream on Netflix.