Where to find it: No UK streaming
Length: Eight 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: Odd couple form a rap duo
Recommendation rating: 5/5
What I like about it: great comedy in first half, great drama in second; knows itself well
What I don’t like about it: Instagram gimmick feels forced (but is used less as the series goes)
Review:
Shawna is an independent conscious hip hop artist. She was briefly signed to a big-shot producer but after refusing to compromise her artistic vision for commercial success, she is now working in a Miami hotel and posting topical political raps to an Instagram audience of a dozen people. She reconnects with her old friend Mia, a confident beautician and dancer, and convinces her to start a rap duo after they drunkenly freestyle. The two are opposites in many ways: Mia is outgoing and likes dancing to popular rap with her friends in clubs, Shawna sits alone in her apartment ranting about how popular rap is vapid. They attempt to overcome this and find fame with the help of a hustling local pimp and Shawna’s sideline in credit card fraud.
The show is really funny and its biggest strength is that it doesn’t make a single concession for a broader audience: this is a show by and for Black women, not one line is wasted on awkward exposition and although I’m outside of that target audience, I found it much better for it. It has great satire on the rap game and its portrayal of chasing fame in that field seems cynically realistic (the show is loosely based on City Girls, who also consult).
Content notes (may contain spoilers): explicit sex, sex work, drugs