Maybe uncertainty was something? Issa Rae started to build her TV empire, but her latest offering is anything but.
Rap Sh!tRae’s latest half-hour comedy series HBO Max, is a case study in confidence; the show follows two estranged high school friends from Miami who form an unlikely rap group, determined to fulfill their dreams of making waves in the music industry.
“I came up with the show while we were on season five [of Insecure], and it’s always haunted my head. I’ve always wanted to do a show in the music business, so I thought, ‘What’s a show that I want to see right now, that feels fun, of the moment, and that’s a reflection of the culture right now?’” Rae , who serves as lead writer and executive producer, told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s premiere on Wednesday. “I saw these comments from a prominent producer about female rappers rapping about their vaginas, to put it euphemistically, and I thought that was so unfair. So I thought, let me tell this story now.”
Rae – who signed up to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film and will reportedly be playing a version of the iconic doll (“It’s so much fun,” she confirmed) — saying she never considered taking a part in Rap Sh!tunlike her other creations.
But KaMillion, a rapper who stars as the energetic and unapologetically raunchy Mia, knew a role on the show was her destiny. “When I entered the audition room, I literally said, ‘I’m Mia and Mia is me,'” she said.† Shooting the show over the course of six months in Miami (from South Beach to Little Haiti) was familiar to the Florida native and working with Rae was an inspiration. “Issa is a great multitasker, boss lady, actress, writer…this lady is a mogul and I strive to achieve some of the things she has,” she said.
†[KaMillion] embodied the character I had in mind and she really helped us determine who [her counterpart] Shawna was,” Rae said. †[I was] writing Shawna’s pieces in me but I didn’t want to cast someone like me so that was such a long process trying to find the right Shawna – seeing her bring something new to the table in every audition made me realize what I wanted to see Shawna.” When KaMillion and Aida Osman, who got the role of tame and intellectual Shawna, did a chemistry lecture, “it was a wrap,” Rae added. “They had such a great connection.”
Jonica Booth, RJ Cyler, Syreeta Singleton, Issa Rae, Aida Osman, Sadé Clacken Joseph and KaMillion.
MovieMagic
Osman, a writer on the show and half of the rap group, said the switch between writing and acting was a “constant ebb and flow.”
In terms of creating the storyline for the eight-episode series, Osman said, “We all wanted to talk about the fact that our bodies are so often politicized and controlled; women’s bodies in rap get intellectual before they’re celebrated.”
“Any young woman trying to make it in the rap game isn’t going to be free from those critiques and she’s going to have that inner monologue and have to find out what she thinks about it,” she continued. “So we wanted to show all the different sides of the come-up journey.”
The premiere took place at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, where the first two episodes were screened for guests and other cast members, including Jonica Booth, RJ Cyler, Daniel Augustin and Jean Elie. The museum courtyard was transformed into a quasi-club in honor of the show’s premiere and the show’s underlying summer party atmosphere.
Fans have pointed to the show’s resemblance to the lives of Yung Miami and JT of the real-life rap group City Girls, who are executive producers on the show. Syreeta Singleton, who collaborated with Rae on Insecure and is Rap Sh!t’s showrunner, said, although the team “wanted to have the City Girls’ blessing” — given that the show is set in their native Miami and follows a story somewhat similar to their rise in the music industry — “when it came to creating Shawna and Mia, we drew from so many stories. We drew from our personal lives, and also a lot of other women in rap — Tierra Whack, Noname, Rhapsody, Azaliea Banks. We looked at everyone’s story to try to give their travels a real authenticity.”
One thing many of these artists have in common is the challenge of forging their own path in an industry that simultaneously sexualises, but also criticizes, women when sensuality is their central focus. “We were enraged and inspired by this double standard in female rap, we wanted to talk about that on our show and explore both sides too [of that point of view]’ says Singleton. “I think a lot of female rappers we see now refuse to compete with each other; they work together instead, and as a culture we all come into our power as women. That’s the same thing we want to do in our show and I see that in the music now.”
Speaking of women in power who control their own stories, Osman spoke of working with Rae, saying, “Issa is the most intelligent, balanced, perceptive, considerate genius. The fact that my success can come from someone who looks like me is the sweetest thing in the world.”
rapsh!t begins streaming on HBO Max July 21.