Somaya Reece Talks Leaving ‘Love & Hip Hop’ Franchise, Says Behind The Scenes Cast Is Provoked

ON HER DEPARTURE FROM LOVE & HIP-HOP:

Everyone left for the same reason – it was time to move on from the show. It does not, from the beginning, reflect my brand or what I’m doing. Prior to Love & Hip-Hop – I mean people do know this – I had a very large fan base from Myspace. I was the #1 independent artist from Myspace that was brought to get signed. I was doing music and acting, and that was pretty much my goal, so when I got on the show, I thought it was going to be what they promised, which was girl power, and it wasn’t. And when that happens, I think it’s just time to move on, and it doesn’t matter if the ratings are – you know we got the ratings to 7, 11 million – if it doesn’t reflect your brand, it – I’m not for the fame, and that’s something that my fans have known from the beginning before Love & Hip-Hop. If it’s not giving you a platform that’s positive – I want to highlight women, and people in general, that are in the struggle and that come out from it in a positive way – and unfortunately, I was not allowed to do that on the show. Nor was I allowed to develop my brand on the show at all. And while we kicked it off, it was a great experience in the sense of I definitely learned a lot about that type of television, and as well as that it only opened up my fan base from the ones that I already had existing because I was already doing my thing in Latin America.

ON HER RELATIONSHIP WITH MONA SCOTT-YOUNG:

Everything is fine. I just decided to move on from it, and she was cool with it, and that was really about it. I think it’s something juicier to say we have drama, but we don’t, and it was just not for me, at all, and we did discuss season 3, but it’s just not for me. It’s not for me, it’s not for Chris [Chrissy], it’s not for Emily, it’s not for Kimbella, it’s not for none of us that left the show. Everyone left for the same reason, and sometimes it’s better to do that, then to continue to work on something you’re not passionate about anymore.

ON HER OPINION OF LOVE & HIP-HOP ATLANTA:

You know what, everybody on that show is exactly how they are on the show in person. Some people just act extra crazy when the cameras are on, and that to me is not really authentic. They’re definitely authentic. It’s a show that I would really not like to be on because it’s so much going on, but they know what they’re doing, you know. They know what they’re doing. It’s TV that’s built for people to tune in to. I have met Joseline, Stevie J, Benzino, and they’re really cool people to me. I don’t really watch it, I caught two episodes from the first season, and never watched it again. From what I did see, that’s what Mona wants, you know, to push that type of television. She knows what she’s doing, and so does the production company, and I can’t say that I would watch it. It’s not my thing, but it doesn’t mean I would bash anybody for it, you know.

ON THE EXTRA-NESS OF LOVE & HIP-HOP LEADING PEOPLE TO BELIEVE IT’S SCRIPTED:

Oh, there’s a lot of extra, there’s a lot of extra, you’re right. There’s a lot of situations that they purposely do to provoke people; they purposely put people in situations on purpose, but how people react is a different story. That’s a natural reaction, unless someone tells them in the beginning, ‘you should do this.’ But I’m not a puppet, so no one could ever tell me what to do, and maybe that was part of the problem.

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