Issa Rae Reveals Her ‘Rap Sh*t’ Comedy Was ‘Inspired’ By Jermaine Dupri’s Criticism Against Female Rappers

Issa Rae Reveals Her ‘Rap Sh*t’ Comedy Was ‘Inspired’ By Jermaine Dupri’s Criticism Against Female Rappers

Jermaine Dupri might have gotten a ton of backlash for his remarks about female rappers in 2019, but it served as inspiration for one of Issa Rae’s latest projects.

Fans might recall Jermaine Dupri made the comments during an interview with People TV and said of female emcees:

“I don’t think they’re showing us who’s the best rapper. For me, it’s like strippers rapping. And as far as rap goes, I’m not getting who’s the best rapper. I’m getting like, ‘OK, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club.’ It’s like, ‘OK, who’s going to be the rapper?’ At some point, somebody’s going to have to break out of that mold and just show us?—talk about other things, just rap about other things besides that.”

While he received criticism from female rappers like Cardi B, Issa Rae said it was the foundation for her upcoming comedy Rap Sh*t. 

 

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She spoke on Jermaine Dupri’s comments during her cover story with Rolling Stone, 

“I was just like, ‘This is so unfair.’ So that inspired the writing of it.”

It’s an unscripted series that follows two childhood friends trying to become rap stars. It’s loosely based on Miami rap duo City Girls made up of Yung Miami and JT, who will be co-executive producers for the series. HBO Max has ordered eight episodes with production beginning this summer. Syreeta Singleton of “Insecure” will be the showrunner.

JT & Yung Miami of City Girls

Other co-executive producers include Quality Control heads Pierre “Pee” Thomas and Kevin “Coach K” Lee.