It was announced nearly two months ago that Desus and Mero were going their separate ways following a dispute regarding their manager and the Showtime network. While there seems to be no bad blood between the two personalities, it also doesn’t look like the two are in a rush to reunite for another TV show or podcast.
Mero recently spoke on the split in a recent interview with Blackbird Spyplane, saying that he and Desus singed individual deals and that the show was supposed to eventually end and they would then go off and do their own things.
“OK, super high-road and super-clean, but honest: When we signed to Showtime, we signed individual deals,” Mero said. “It was always, We’re gonna do our own things at some point. The way it ended seemed mad abrupt and weird, but that’s the way T.V. is. People pull the plug on T.V. shit all the time.”
He went on to dispel rumors that “creative disagreements” were not the reason for the split, but a disagreement between the two and Showtime to take the show back to its “roots” was major.
“That was the beginning of the end,” Mero said. “It was giving me mad anxiety, but I’m a first-generation immigrant kid, like, You never quit your job before you have a new one.” Mero said that at that point, Desus said “fuck it” and ended the show as well as their podcast.
When asked whether or not they would ever team back up in the future, Mero responded: “I don’t know.”
“I don’t know, man. I feel like—maybe? Never say never. Right now I think we’re on different trajectories as far as what we wanna do.”
Fans of the podcast and comedy duo Desus and Mero were saddened to hear of their sudden split last week. It had been announced that season 5 of their late night TV show would not be returning for its 5th season.
Last Thursday, it was reported by Puck News that the duo had split over a managerial dispute. Multiple sources said that Showtime had asked the duo’s manager, Victor Lopez, to no longer air the Desus & Mero tapings. Desus sided with Showtime who alleged that Lopez displayed “asshole behavior” that included “bullying, screaming, and making people on the show feel bad.” Mero, however, reportedly took Lopez’s side.
After the article was published, Mero was interviewed by New York’s WFAN where he discussed the split.
“It’s just natural progression,” Mero said. “It’s like we said on the podcast, ‘It’s Hollywood, baby.’ You develop strengths and things that you want to explore and do. And then things just happen naturally. It’s like Spike Jonze said on the Viceland show, ‘Everything is finite.’ What’s the corny cliche? Don’t be sad that it’s gone. Be happy that you experienced it.”
Mero then said that the decision to split was mutual, and that maybe in the future they come back and “form like Voltron.”
“Everybody grows,” Mero added. “I’m sure D’s got his things that he wants to do. I got my things I want to do. And they’re very specific to us. We’ve been a duo for a long time. I love everything that he’s done. It’s just natural. I’ve got my life, my worldview, my things going on, and he’s got his. So it’s only right that, instead of just staying like, We’re only going to do this one thing, we explore. Let’s break out. Let’s see what we do as individuals, and then form like Voltron later on. Who knows?”
Its good to know that there seems not to be any bad blood between the two.
Yesterday, Showtime announced that Desus & Mero would not be returning for a fifth season due to the duo’s decision to split and pursue separate ventures.
“Desus Nice and The Kid Mero will be pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward. SHOWTIME’s late-night talk show DESUS & MERO will not be returning for a fifth season. Its final episode aired Thursday, June 23,” a spokesperson for the network said in a press release.
Bodega Hive: The illustrious @desusnice and @THEKIDMERO will be pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward. #DESUSandMERO will not be returning to SHOWTIME. It’s been a good run, fam.
— DESUS & MERO on SHOWTIME (@SHODesusAndMero) July 18, 2022
Fans were shocked to hear about the split but wished the Bodega Boys much success in their future endeavors.
However, in a recent episode of The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne called out the “culture” for reporting negatively on the split.
“Two talented brothas, wish them success in their solo endeavors, but one thing this situation reminds me of is we really are a culture that’s quick to talk about bad news,” Charlamagne said. “Like, Desus & Mero been on TV for the last six years from Vice to Showtime—their show’s critically acclaimed, they got New York Times best-selling book, brand deals, they’ve done some amazing things together and I’ve never seen the culture collectively report on those great things the way they’ve done this breakup, but that’s just the way it is.”
“People will scream about what they think is your failures and they’ll whisper about your success.”
The camera then zoomed in on DJ Envy who also wished the two success in their future endeavors. This is surprising given their beef in 2018.
Johnny Carson. David Letterman. Jay Leno. Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Kimmel. Stephen Colbert. What do all those television personalities have in common? Sure, they’re all late-night television hosts… but what else do they have in common? You see it. Even if you don’t want to admit it just yet, you do. Let’s face it: Late night is a very white occupation. And sure, there have been some exceptions; Arsenio Hall, Joan Rivers, and Chris Rock spring to mind. But for the most part, the space has been dominated largely by older, white, straight, male, former stand-up comics. And before you scroll down to the comments to write “nuh-uh,” just hear me out.
Until very, very recently, there was one huge exception to this trend: Showtime’s Desus & Mero. However, last night, the show’s creators announced on Twitter that after four seasons, the show is coming to an end. Even worse, its two hosts, Daniel Baker aka Desus Nice and Joel Martinez aka The Kid Mero, were splitting up to pursue separate creative endeavors after nearly a decade of collaborations which included the Desus vs. Mero and Bodega Boys podcasts, the Desus & Mero talk show, and even an anime, Neo Yokio. The show’s cancellation isn’t just a loss of a beloved, underrated comedic pairing — it’s a loss for hip-hop as a whole.
Bodega Hive: The illustrious @desusnice and @THEKIDMERO will be pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward. #DESUSandMERO will not be returning to SHOWTIME. It’s been a good run, fam.
— DESUS & MERO on SHOWTIME (@SHODesusAndMero) July 18, 2022
Before Desus & Mero, it’s hard to find too many examples of hip-hop culture in the late-night TV space. Sure there was Arsenio Hall, doing his best to bring the fashion, music, and voice of the streets to America’s living rooms in the early ’90s. But while The Arsenio Hall Show was a landmark in bringing hip-hop to mainstream audiences, it was also watered-down, polished, and presented in a way that the whole thing slicker and more palatable to those audiences. It also largely avoided political topics, although the show did come under fire for booking — or not booking — some guests that audiences found controversial.
And certainly, hip-hop music remains a draw on late-night, with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon employing a house band that comes from the rap world in The Roots. Rappers with new projects to promote are often booked as musical guests, performing their viral hits on shows like The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live! But more broadly, the Desus & Mero show was a chance to see hip-hop as a culture on TV, in a space that not many of us get to touch. They were not buttoned up. They didn’t wear suits. Their set was modeled after a New York bodega, the type of place where you’d actually find rappers hanging out.
Decked out in fitted caps and Timberland boots, they spoke in the sometimes coded slang of the streets, with all the swagger born of growing up in The Bronx. They interviewed the rappers that the bigger shows wouldn’t; in the past year, they’ve had guests like Baby Keem, Bobby Shmurda, Cordae, and Nas — both the Queens legend who made Illmatic, and the Fox News frustrating Lil Nas X. They debuted underground crooner RMR’s “I’m Not Over You” video. And they got their non-rapper guests to open up about not just their favorite rappers (watch Yo-Yo Ma play DMX!), but all sorts of down-to-earth topics. They interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in their shared borough, taking the format beyond the confines of the studio.
And, in perhaps the biggest coup for the show to date, the duo interviewed former President Barack Obama, who roasted them as naturally as if they were having the conversation on a neighborhood stoop, rather than an empty rented auditorium undoubtedly surrounded by Secret Service agents. Whatever your feelings on the man’s politics, you have to admit that the moment lent legitimacy to hip-hop (and vice versa) in a way that, whether we want to admit it or not, is nice to see after three decades of politicians and pundits blaming rap culture for everything from school shootings to the overall decline of polite society.
So, pour one out for Desus And Mero. They showed that hip-hop could belong in yet another space that wasn’t made for it, that didn’t make provisions for it, and that mostly overlooked it. They brought us — our voices, our faces, our fashion, our outlook, our language, our interests, our culture — to millions of American homes. Late-night might have gotten a little less colorful without them, but those two guys from the Bronx undoubtedly opened a door — and the next Desus and Mero are likely right around the corner.
Sunday night, Cordae dropped by Desus & Mero to talk about his new music and his recent physical transformation posts on social media, but because it’s Desus and Mero, the conversation was quickly sidetracked into NSFW discussions about adult film, McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and of course, the inescapable juggernaut of popularity that is Netflix’s Korean drama Squid Game, which Cordae thinks is “oversaturated.”
“That’s like a head ass, now,” Cordae said of the show when asked whether he’d watched it recently. “N****s overdid Squid Game so much.” While he allowed that “a lot of n****s did some dope sh*t with it,” he adamantly rejected Desus’ suggestion that he make an album based on the show. He did, however, seem interested in a parody of the show mentioned by the host. “I gotta check that, just for curiosity,” he quipped.
On a more serious note, Cordae explained how he lost so much weight in the photos he recently posted. He admitted that “I was just eating terrible. This is my first time getting money like this and we eating steaks, going to Mastro’s every day, getting chefs to pull up.” He says that he was able to shed the extra pounds by “just staying disciplined.”
As one of the hottest emerging talents in hip-hop right now, Baby Keem is the perfect guest to appear on Desus & Mero, where the Bronx duo got in-depth on the 20-year-old Las Vegas rapper’s debut album, The Melodic Blue. One of the questions addressed to him by the hilarious hosts mentioned the wild ad-libs on his songs with Kendrick Lamar on the album, especially the head-turning “Range Brothers.” After becoming fodder for a plethora of memes, Kendrick’s repeated cries of “top o’ the morning” and “let’s get this sh*t” elicited chuckles from both the hosts and their guest as they asked where the two rappers’ energy comes from.
“I think in the booth is where I’m most myself,” Keem mused. “And I’m around the people that get the most out of me. I think that’s it. I’m just comfortable in my environment.” He also addresses the memes sparked by his album, saying his favorite is the dancing cowboy and expressing a wish to contact the creator.
Meanwhile, Desus & Mero is quickly becoming the go-to show for rap artists to promote their new work, as the laid-back vibe and insider perspective have proven to be perfect for drawing out gems from the likes of Lil Nas X, Bobby Shmurda, Chance The Rapper, and the original Nas in recent months. The Bodega Boys’ brand was always brolic but now, it’s becoming better defined — and helping to define the shape and direction of modern-day hip-hop.
You can watch the Baby Keem interview with Desus & Mero above.
It’s no secret to hip-hop fans that there are a lot of talented individuals locked up in prison. Many of our favorites, like Gucci Mane, Meek Mill, Offset, Tupac, and more have spent time behind bars — time they used to refine their rap skills so they can return with improved focus. One such rapper who has recently returned home from a lengthy bid is Bobby Shmurda, who was asked to comment on the quality of the rappers he encountered during his appearance on last night’s episode of Desus & Mero.
“What type of rappers were approaching you when you were locked up?” Desus asks. “Because I know people were coming with bars, people were coming with trash bars, you probably had people doing, ‘Mom’s spaghetti, mom’s spaghetti” — a reference to Eminem’s complicated intro to “Lose Yourself,” still the Rap God’s biggest hit nearly 20 years after its release.
“Funniest sh*t is when the C.O. [Correctional Officer] came up to me rapping,” Bobby replies, bursting into laughter. “But he had some sh*t. The next time is when I seen the cold people in there with talent. But what f*cked me up, is when I seen the cold people with talent and the number they got… I be feeling like, ‘Damn, bruh. You got too much talent to be in here locked up.’” He agrees with Desus and Mero that the encounters sobered him up to the reality that the same sentiment could be applied to himself, prompting him to change his mindset.
Elsewhere in the interview, the trio discusses how trying to eat healthy in prison is like a video game and demonstrates why some golf courses restrict certain demographics, in the words of Desus.
Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video is an undeniable hit; It currently has over 250 million views on YouTube. Of course, it didn’t arrive without controversy, as more conservative-minded folks didn’t care for some elements on the clip (like Lil Nas X giving Satan a lap dance, for example). The rapper was a guest on the Desus & Mero Showtime series over the weekend, and while on the show, he discussed the backlash to the video.
When asked about the clip, Lil Nas X responded, “I really just wanted to corrupt the youth.” He then quickly broke his faux-serious tone by laughing and insisting he was joking. He went on to note that while he expected to draw the attention of the pundits over at Fox News, he didn’t think the outrage over the video would be as extreme as it was: “Even when I was planning the video, I was like, ‘Oh, this is definitely going to hit Fox News.’ I definitely didn’t expect the outrage as much as it was at all, especially, like, governors tweeting me. Like, you’re a governor. You don’t have anything better to do?”
He also spoke about his “Satan shoes,” saying that he didn’t intend for them to be a big deal: “You know, complete 100-percent honesty: Those sneakers were just supposed to be a thing for fans. I didn’t think it was going to spread outside of my fan base. I was wrong.”
