Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has built himself an impressive rap sheet in an incredibly short — but entertaining — period of time.
The breakout star of the buzziest new show of the summer — Netflix’s “The Get Down” — who will also be rubbing biceps with names as big as The Rock and as annoying as Zac Efron in the upcoming “Baywatch” reboot, seems to have turned into the hot new name on every casting agent’s short list.
“It’s been a wild ride,” says the 29-year-old, soon-to-be sensation. “But I’m enjoying the anonymity before the storm. None of my stuff is out yet, but I think I won’t be invisible for much longer.”
“The Get Down” is a back-to-the-future show about the birth of disco in the apocalyptic rubble of the Boogie Down Bronx of 1977 that brought the Bay Area-bred actor to another time and place where he instantly felt a strong connection.
“This is a show about a time and a place and a bunch of kids who don’t have much of their own except a drive and a desire to create something out of nothing,” he said.
“Growing up in a creative family and similar situation in New Orleans and later, Oakland, I really identified with that,” he added.
The son of a Muslim dad and a Christian mom, Mateen was open to anything, and the musical directed by Baz Luhrman (“Moulin Rouge!”) was the perfect fit for this free spirit.
He plays the flashy and trashy disco king and club owner “Cadillac” who’s holding his finger in the dam of the coming hip hop explosion and losing his empire in the process.
“He’s afraid of change because he’s at the top of his world — but that world is changing all around him,” says Mateen. “He’s like the city at that time. It was bold and brash, but the old Bronx was changing, jut like the music it gave birth to.”
The show has hit a much sweeter chord with critics than “Vinyl,” another New York music show that HBO has already scratched from its lineup. Mateen says “The Get Down” draws strength from its authenticity.
“We had Grandmaster Flash on set, so there wasn’t a lot in there that he was gonna let fly if it wasn’t authentic,” he says of the Bronx-born seminal rapper who vetted the clothes, the sounds and even the locations the production used.
Mateen is expected to make a big splash forward in “Baywatch” 2.0 when it washes up into theaters next summer. But he says he’s a small fish in those well-charted waters.
“It’s got Zac Efron, Pam Anderson, the ‘Hoff — and the world’s BIGGEST star — The Rock!” says Mateen.
“That guy is huge in every sense of the word. He’s got a huge personality and a big heart. But he welcomed me with big, massive open arms.”
“When he was on set, crowds would line up for blocks in Miami. He just overshadowed me.
“Honestly, he overshadowed the buildings.”
