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‘Rap Sh!t’ Season 2 Delivers Another Standout Soundtrack

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rap sh!t season 2 interview
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Issa Rae’s City Girls-inspired musical dramedy, Rap Sh!t, has returned for a second season of Miami-based indie rap shenanigans on Max. With its return comes another season soundtrack packed with the underground hip-hop and R&B talent that makes the show’s tale of a burgeoning buddy rap duo sing.

As with Rae’s prior hit show, Insecure, the soundtrack not only lends the narrative its authenticity but also propels the story forward as songs written for its stars Mia and Shawna (portrayed by Kamillion and Aida Osman, respectively) reflect their struggles and triumphs, while songs inspired by show’s events set the tone for their quest through Miami’s nightlife in search of their big break.

While the last season’s soundtrack highlighted songs from rising rap stars like Dreezy, Jean Deaux, Tokyo Jetz, and more, this season brings even more emerging voices to the foreground, like Cam & China, Connie Diiamond, and Guapdad 4000 (and many, many more, including breakout sensation Sexyy Red). They, along with Raedio VP Sarah Bromberg and the label’s General Manager Xtina Prince, gave Uproxx some insight into how the show highlights the future of music — and how the music makes the show another Issa Rae hit in its own right.

What is the core theme of this season narratively and how does the soundtrack/song tie into that theme?

Sarah Bromberg – Raedio VP, Music Supervision & Library: The season taps into the artist’s struggle to succeed and all of the outside factors that can influence a breaking artist when they are on that journey to become established. In creating music for the show, especially for the soundtrack, we brought in both artists that have reached that established place and those that are still on the journey there. In that way, some of the pairings on the soundtrack are almost a reflection of the story told this season.

Xtina Prince – Raedio General Manager: This season is full of drama. Drama with family, Drama with ego, Drama with competition, Drama in relationships. This season was hard. It has light and funny moments that create a balance but it is definitely serious. Records like “He Can’t Reach,” that talk about moving on from a relationship with your pride and self-respect and the airy and sinister production on tracks like “On Site” and “Want No Beef” were the perfect backdrops to the moments of intensity and struggle reflected in this season.

What are the challenges and advantages of writing/producing a song intended for television/narrative rather than radio/playlist/stage?

Connie Diiamond: When it comes to television there’s usually a narrative/topic they need you to stick to. When I’m creating dolo, I can do and say what I want. Overall it’s still a great experience and it pushes me to be greater than what I already am.

Cam & China: One of the challenges we come across is writing lyrics outside of ourselves as artists and seeing things in perspectives within the task we have at hand without sounding cheesy. Since we own being authentic artists ourselves, we take pride in spilling that into everything we do no matter the circumstances.

With that being said, one of the great advantages of writing for anything/anyone outside of ourselves is creating our own imaginary character and putting our all into assuring it feels real and loving what we’ve accomplished and sometimes wanting it for ourselves lol. We appreciate these tasks because not only do they challenge us, but they also better us as artists.

Guapdad 4000: They often don’t use the whole song; it’s very specific so each section needs to completely articulate the energy or mood of the scene. This, of course, contrasts with making something for radio, or the playlist, or stage, because there are a lot less controlled elements. Both are challenging and fun to me either way.

Which Rap Sh!t character do you relate to the most and how are you alike/different from them?

Cam & China: We relate to Shawna the most. We know how it feels for your family to resent you for rapping and having a lot to lose. We also know how it feels to get turned down or humiliated for standing up for yourself and calling out people’s bluffs, especially the ones in higher power that people try to overlook because of it. We also relate to how driven she is for her career and how she likes to play the back.

Guapdad 4000: Some days I am Shawna standing on my feelings, some days I am Mia trying to stand on business, so I switch off as they make mistakes and develop. Fortunately, I am pretty much never Reina Reign.

Connie Diiamond: Definitely KaMillion, that’s my girl on and off camera. I resonate more with her because I know her struggle in real life. It’s very similar to the script. Just a creative tryna make it. I love her, I love the show, and I love Issa Rae for shining the light on the girlies.

The show is oddly true to life in how it depicts the music industry. Which of your own experiences would make a good episode?

Guapdad 4000: Oh nothing much in my life to write an episode about. I’ve only dealt with small things such as poverty, traumatic brushes with death and jail, tragic losses of houses and loved ones, severe combination type ADHD — that might actually be autism — manic episodes followed by my famous season-long mental breakdowns, and not to mention my career working backwards and the constant battle that is being an independent artist. So you know… I clearly don’t have much to talk about.

Connie Diiamond: My experience would be the entire signing process for me. From creating a freestyle, going viral, & then having the CEO of a major label having an interest in signing me. I think that’s every artist’s dream. To genuinely make a statement and then being rewarded with the recognition of a major label.

Cam & China: Being told what to look like, what sells, and what to wear to be successful, or how we should dumb it down and rap sexier, all while taking away from our authentic self and ignoring what we can do with music. People hear music differently once they see what you look like but if you have an ear for talent, or just a dope ass artist all around and relatable? Nothing else matters.

Rap Sh!t season 2 is now streaming on Max. Rap Sh!t: The Mixtape (From The Max Original Series, S2) is out now via Raedio, LLC and Def Jam Recordings.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Sexyy Red And Her Girls Show Off Their Assets In Their Car Wash-Themed ‘No Panties’ Video

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Controversial interview responses aside, Sexyy Red is still one of the hottest names in rap right now. The St. Louis native was recently tapped to contribute the sexy single “No Panties” to the soundtrack for season two of Rap Sh!t after capitalizing in a big way on the success of her breakout hit “Pound Town.” She returns to her eyebrow-raising raunchy ways in the video for “No Panties,” running a variety of sex-themed businesses, including a massage parlor and a car wash.

Sexyy Red has been creating controversy almost since she first appeared on the scene with her Vanessa Carlton-sampling viral single “Ah Thousand Jugs.” When she released “Pound Town” and “Born By The River,” listeners on Twitter were quick to express as much exasperation with her ratchet ways as interest and appreciation for her over-the-top explicit content. And once Nicki Minaj joined the party on the “Pound Town” remix, not even Ben Shapiro could resist chiming to voice his distaste for her unapologetically racy raps.

But now, those Twitter fans she’s since won over are concerned after she praised Donald Trump, inaccurately crediting him for the stimulus checks that helped Americans weather the pandemic and pardoning rappers like Kodak Black and Lil Wayne despite ending a number of initiatives designed to counter racial inequality in the legal system. Hopefully, someone near her can explain the fault in her logic so we can all get back to enjoying the ratchet bops.

Check out the “No Panties” video above.

Issa Rae Inks Multi-Year Deal With Def Jam Recordings For Raedio

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Issa Rae owns her own media company, Hoorae Media, and the audio division, Raedio, now has a new home. Def Jam Recordings and Raedio have partnered up for the long-term, with a multi-year deal in the works. This includes everything from publishing to podcasts to digital content and music distribution. Also, Issa Rae and Raedio can now sign and market Def Jam artists. This adds to the potential influence Rae has in hip-hop culture.

She was the brilliant mind behind the HBO series Rap Sh!t, a 2022 comedy in which two Miami high school friends reunite to form a female rap group. Their hope is to come together after being estranged to make it big in the music industry. Innovative ideas like that — as well as collaborations with artists — are exactly why Def Jam struck a deal with Hoorae Media and Raedio.

Read more: N.O.R.E. Admits Issa Rae Helped Him Realize “Drink Champs” Was Getting Too Messy

Issa Rae’s Raedio & Def Jam Recordings: A Perfect Pair

issa rae def jam records raedio deal
LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 12: (L to R) Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, and Will Ferrell attend the European Premiere of “Barbie” at Cineworld Leicester Square on July 12, 2023, in London, England. (Photo by Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/WireImage)

Raedio previously had a contract with Atlantic Records that started in 2019. This new deal effectively ends that contract. Speaking about the deal, Raedio president Benoni Tagoe said, “Our mission at Raedio is to continually evolve how and where people discover music and the opportunities for artists behind it. Def Jam is the perfect partner with a storied legacy to align with Raedio’s mission and vision of disrupting the music industry as we know it.” Def Jam chairman and CEO Tunji Balogun also was ecstatic about the deal, saying, “Def Jam is thrilled to partner with Issa and the incredible team at Raedio on this new venture, and we look forward to telling more amazing stories together.”

This has been Issa Rae’s year. In 2023 alone, she starred in both Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as Spider-Woman (voice acting) and Barbie as President Barbie. The latter comes out next week. Add to that a multi-year contract for her media company, and there’s nothing Issa Rae can’t do in pop culture.

Read more: Anne Hathaway Pauses Interview To Gush Over Issa Rae: Watch

[Via]

The post Issa Rae Inks Multi-Year Deal With Def Jam Recordings For Raedio appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

‘Rap Sh!t’ Hit ‘Seduce & Scheme’ Gets An Official Release Via Issa Rae’s Label, Raedio

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Issa Rae’s follow-up to Insecure is already off to a strong start, as fans have taken to the first two episodes of Rap Sh!t on HBO Max the same way they took to her breakout show. And, in an immaculate example of Issa’s marketing prowess, the signature song from burgeoning on-screen Miami rap duo Mia and Shawna, “Seduce & Scheme,” has received an official release from Issa’s Atlantic-backed label, Raedio.

In the show, “Seduce & Scheme” is the result of a drunken late-night reunion between the two lead characters after their post-high school falling out. It goes viral, becoming the launching point for their rap group ambitions, with Mia encouraging the passionate but preachy Shawna to loosen up while Mia learns to take herself and her own talent more seriously. The show, which is also executive produced by City Girls, is a loose re-telling of the Quality Control hitmakers’ own origin story, with some Issa Rae flair thrown in.

So far, fans have been loving the show’s subtle social commentary on subjects like the double standards for women in rap and the seemingly incessant cultural appropriation surrounding the genre. Highlighting the latter, viewers were delighted by the show’s use of a real-life viral moment to promote an in-show character’s “hit” song. Atlanta rapper Omeretta The Great had posted what looked to be a white woman covering her viral hit “Sorry Not Sorry,” imitating the streetwise declarations that the surrounding suburbs were “not Atlanta.”

In reality, it turns out that the rapper, Reina Reign, was actually an actor, Kat Cunning, gamely playing the role of a clueless appropriator who switches from doing acoustic covers of rap songs to full-on Black girl cosplay in an effort to bank off the increasing popularity of female rappers. And just like that video went viral, Rap Sh!t‘s signature single — which was penned in part by real rapper Dreezy and some of the show’s staff, looks like it’s going to be a hit as well.

You can listen to “Seduce & Scheme” above.

Raedio is a subsidiary of Warner Music. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Issa Rae Says Music Is ‘The Worst Industry I Have Come Across’

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issa rae
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Issa Rae, fresh off the series finale of her acclaimed HBO show Insecure, has a variety of endeavors in front of her, including more television, some movies, and her Atlantic Records label, Raedio, with which she’s trying to change a system that she sees as corrupt and toxic. In a new interview with Los Angeles Times excerpted by Variety, the multitalented creator called music “probably the worst industry I’ve ever come across.”

Comparing it to her experiences in film and television, she pointed out many of the issues she has with the music business that she likely hopes to change with her work with Raedio. “I thought Hollywood was crazy,” she said. “The music industry, it has to start all over again. There are lots of conflicts of interest. Archaic mentalities. Villains and criminals! It’s an addiction industry, and I really feel for artists who need to get into it.” She called it “shocking” to learn how the business works from the inside.

Indicating how her approach with Raedio contrasts this status quo, she explained, “I do not want to be too specific, but even with making our own appointments [for soundtracks] with labels or artists, it would be so intricate. And to find out how artists were treated on other labels … When I myself am a creator and know what I want in relation to a relationship with a production company or a producer, I would like to think that we are more artist-friendly than much of other brands and companies out there. I want to renew things.”

Issa also talked about the music for Insecure, which she curated, and which fans said they’d miss as much as the show. Of curating the vibes for the show with new and rising talents, she said, “As a music lover, nothing excites me more than feeling like you’re on to an artist first.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Issa Rae’s Artist NCognita Balances Her Career With School In Her ‘Nita Unfiltered’ Docuseries

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It’s not always easy balancing work with school — especially if you’re a recording artist. While more and more artists attempt to complete their educational goals at the same time as their career ones, you might wonder: What does that balancing act actually look like? South Central LA rapper NCognita attempts to answer that question with her new docuseries, Nita Unfiltered. Kicking off today, its first episode follows her NCognita as she prepares to return to Loyola University New Orleans, talking it through with her family at home and describing the differences between LA and New Orleans.

Ncognita is just starting her career, but she’s already got a lot of weight behind her thanks to the co-sign of Insecure creator Issa Rae, who signed the young rapper to her label Raedio earlier this year after holding a competition for an invitation to a writing camp for the show’s final season. Issa Rae has been curating the soundtrack for Insecure all five seasons, leading to expanded work on the soundtracks for shows like 50 Cent’s Power and HBO’s Betty. Raedio previously partnered with Baby Tate to release her After The Rain EP as well, spawning the hit record “I Am” with Flo Milli.

So while Ncognita may not be a household name just yet, there’s a strong chance you’ll be hearing her in at least one of the places Issa Rae currently holds sway. Take the chance to get familiar now.