Beyond the music and drama of "Love & Hip Hop"

Brut America

It helped launch Cardi B into stardom, and it stunned viewers with explosive drama, but that's not all.  “Love & Hip Hop” creator Mona Scott-Young spoke to Brut about how the show created a space for Black representation in reality TV…

Transcript

00:00When it comes to this music thing, I'm putting my heart, my foot, and my money in this thing.

00:04And one thing about me, when you put my money in jeopardy, now we got a problem.

00:22A lot of the criticisms that the show has received for me was all part of the design of it,

00:28showcasing the full breadth and scope of who we are as Black women.

00:39We are Michelle Obama and Kay Michelle. Even if it was encased

00:43in this outrageous story, the point is they were talking about the subjects.

00:47I think it's all about normalization at the end of the day, seeing them as part of our

01:01community holistically, as women living these lives that seem larger than life,

01:05and showcasing that they too have financial issues and emotional issues, and they deal with

01:12the prejudices and the ostracization that we all have experienced in our lives.

01:18I cannot stop what I'm doing for myself and my dream for a man.

01:23I have a whole year and a half to wait for this man to get out of jail. Is it even worth it?

01:28Even with Housewives of Atlanta, with all due respect, that wasn't the lives most of

01:45these people were living, so they couldn't relate to any of it. The community that was

01:50exposed to the show realized that they were finally seeing representations of themselves.

01:55Although the ratings weren't there in the beginning, what they couldn't discount

01:59was the social and cultural impact that the show was having,

02:03especially it was at the start of social media.

02:09I didn't kill nobody. I didn't have a weapon. I didn't hurt nobody.

02:12The justice system is completely unfair. They just look at it as a business,

02:17and they just want to get paid.

02:18Flippin' hip-hop, in essence, became a Trojan horse, right? Here was this massively successful

02:24show that was in everyone's homes, and here was an opportunity to take it one step further and

02:31showcase these very important issues and topics, and to, you know, make them part of the conversation.

02:48We want justice! We want justice!

02:59And it is time that we allow our voices to amplify the messaging of no more.

03:19Last week made a year of me transitioning. That year was very gratifying because in a lot of ways

03:32it taught me things, it tested everybody, and kind of took everybody out of their comfort zone.

03:37Knowing that the impact that the LGBTQ, you know, community had, whether it was, you know,

03:44as creatives, as stylists, as, you know, glam squads, and there was still always this cloud

03:52that hovered over that community and their acceptance, right? Because of all of the

03:58antiquated ideas that we know are systemic, we know that we are, you know, ostracizing and

04:04stigmatizing our LGBTQ community. Let's just deal with this and hopefully, you know, eradicate it

04:10and level it once and for all. And, you know, I'd like to think in some small way that

04:15love and hip-hop and its massive audience played a role in breaking down that barrier.

04:31I've tried everything I know to shake these thoughts.

04:37I can't. I just want to be normal.

04:42I always knew that there was the stigma associated with mental health and,

04:46and, you know, a lot of the health issues that we face with as a community. The idea that we're

04:50made to be, you know, embarrassed or feel shameful of, you know, seeking help, needing help, I also

04:57think that is something that is imposed on us as a community. I think it's important that we

05:02talk about from firsthand experience. So many of us have, you know, experienced this to normalize it.

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