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Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

Okay, everybody, we need to talk about a media mogul who has found himself in a lot of, we'll say, mess lately.

His name is Tyler Perry, but some of you may know him better as,

Mud to the damn DEA, okay?

Medea, aka Tyler Perry's gun-toting, sailor-mouthed drag persona, who has garnered millions of fans over the past two decades, becoming something of an icon.

And from the movies,

It's hot as hell and as Calaccona, I don't have no air conditioner.

To the plays.

I'm trying to leave that pole alone.

I can't drop it like it's hot no more.

Tyler Perry has built a media empire that has spanned theater, film, and television.

Sometimes the work pops up on Amazon.

Sometimes it pops up on Netflix.

It's just happening everywhere.

That's William Bryant-Miles, professor of theater and performance at SUNY Purchase College.

And you don't see that often.

Tyler Perry built his core audience off of the plays.

That's entertainment journalist and author, Trey Bell Anderson.

And then there is a shift that happens in his career

...