‘Everything Has Stakes’: Issa Rae, Syreeta Singleton Talk Rap Sh!t Season 2

If you couldn’t get in enough seducin’ and schemin’ for the debut series of Issa Rae’s new show, Rap Sh!t, then you’ll be pleased to know that the hit show has returned for a brand new season two on Max.

Centering around Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion)—two estranged friends who reunite to form a rap group in order to level up their lives—we watch as they (alongside their “manager” Chasity, played by Jonica Booth) enter the big leagues by going on tour with fellow rapper and cultural appropriator extraordinaire Reina Reign as her opening act. In their climb to the top, they find themselves at a pivotal moment in their rap career, forcing them all to decide if they will stay true to themselves or conform to the demands of the music industry.

Those demands seem to mount in tandem with the internal pressures they all face to make something out of themselves and this newfound opportunity, placed in their lap by the once-shady producer from Shawna’s past Francois Boom (Jaboukie Young-White.) But much like anyone whose faced with a once-in-a-lifetime shot at success, navigating the path of money and fame can cause even the most convicted among us to sidestep a time or two. Or, in the case of our three protagonists, revert to drastic measures in order to make it, thereby making this season a bit more serious in tone and stakes.

“They’ve kind of dipped their toe—or really fully dived into this other world. Going with Francois Boom (Jaboukie Young-White) and deciding to go on this tour has taken them down just a really interesting and sometimes dark path,” showrunner Syreeta Singleton told The Root. “And so we just wanted to stay true to what that looks like, what that looks like for women who are still figuring out, for women who don’t necessarily have money right now—not just women but artists who don’t have money, who don’t have power, who don’t have say so a lot of times. And just staying true to that journey and what that feels like.”

Added Issa, “And when you’re on the edge of achieving a dream, achieving success, money whatever it is—it’s dire. It’s serious and everything is drastic. Everything has stakes. And like she said we just wanted to represent that, especially for someone like Mia who has a literal family to feed, she has a daughter to feed, she has to be an example. And Shawna who is catching cases and it’s like ‘this could be the difference between me succeeding or going to jail. And I want this so badly I can taste it.’”

When we caught up with the creative duo during a set visit pre-WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, Syreeta went onto explain how in this new season—each character’s issues are coming to light and coming in hot—so much so that the notion that they could deal with them on their own eventually gets thrown out the window.

“I think everyone still has their motives but I think they’re all starting to slowly merge and come together and realize: ‘if we really want to make this shit work, we have to do it together,’” she said.

And part of doing it together—specifically as it relates to Shawna and Mia—means learning how to lean into each other more and become more in sync if they wants longevity in an industry filled with misogyny, mistreatment, scrutiny and the like. That learning curve paired with their differing ideals of what message they want to send out continues to take centerstage in season two (along with some fire bars, of course). The rapping duo also continues to struggle with how they want to present themselves to the world and that, per Issa, is a large reason behind why they’ve yet to come up with a name for their group.

Acknowledging that the show is loosely inspired by the City Girls (separately known as Yung Miami and JT), Issa said that it’s the character’s lack of synchronicity that keeps them from moving as a unit—but that she loves it like that.

“I love that they are just ‘Shawna and Mia’ right now because they are not in sync just yet. They are very much different, they have different personalities, they have different ambitions,” the Insecure star told The Root. “And they’re not on the same page. And to be on the same page as a group, to even come up with a group name, you have to be together in that. So I think having them present as ‘Shawna and Mia’ is very characteristic of their dynamic.”

The first two episodes of Rap Sh!t season two—starring Aida Osman, KaMillion, Jonica Booth, Jaboukie Young-White, RJ Cyler and more—is available to stream now, on Max.