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       *Former Sony Music Entertainment chairman-CEO Tommy Mottola has optioned "Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler," the new book by New York Magazine contributing writer Ethan Brown.       

       Mottola plans to use the work as a platform for a TV series, which he'll executive produce with partner Jeb Brien.

       The Mottola Co., formed to make movies and series, will bring on a producer to work with the author, who used police wiretaps and interviews with drug kingpins and hip-hop insiders to explain how the streets and housing projects of southeast Queens became a force in rap music during the 1980s and '90s.

       "Having lived the ins and outs of all the characters as much or more than just about anybody in the entire business, the book resonated for me in a big way," Mottola told Daily Variety. "We were very fortunate in that Ethan saw eye-to-eye with us on exactly how to take this from the printed page to the screen."

       The first series from the Mottola Co. will be "The Shop," a reality series due in February for MTV and set in a Queens barbershop frequented by the hip-hop crowd.