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“Sisterhood of Hip Hop” recap (1.1): The Battle Begins

Oxygen’s new series Sisterhood of Hip Hop is a reality series focusing on five female rappers trying to make it in the industry. These aren’t women who are new to the game-they are professionals who have been working at their craft for several years (in some cases, half of their lives) and are signed to labels or collaborating with chart topping stars that believe in their talent. The first MC we meet on the premiere episode is Siya (pronounced like “sigh-uh”), aka the reason I’m recapping this show.

Siya is 27-year-old out gay rapper who challenges listeners with the kinds of things she speaks on. Don’t expect the typical lyrical fodder about dudes, ass-shots and Louibitons-Siya has rhymes about corpses, abortions and her sexuality, which is something she says labels are threatened by.

The show opens with Siya being interviewed by Big Boy on Power 106, where he confirms she’s a lesbian. (Her song “Dyke” being the first clue.) Siya says she’s indeed an out gay female artist and she just wants to make a point with her music. It’s not about the fame or the money for her-she has a message and she wants to be heard.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Siya said she was involved with crime early on life but turned to music around 12-years-old. “Rap music saved my life,” she said.

Unfortunately she’s still surrounded by a lot of sad realities, as she takes her girlfriend Renaye on a tour of her hood and mentions that her cousin was recently gunned down in a crossfire shootout. Renaye, who just moved to NYC from California to be with Siya, doesn’t seem to thrilled about this story. (Can you blame her?)

Siya and Renaye are super cute and cuddly in their bed in the morning, and Siya explains she fell in love with Renaye after seeing a photo of her on Instagram. “I thought she was bad,” Siya said. “I hit her up, I asked her out, and it’s really been the best two years of my life. She’s everything to me so having her here with me is amazing.” Foreshadowing some drama right about now.

Siya is so happy to have Renaye’s support, because she feels a little dissed by her current mentor, Tank. (If you are unfamiliar with Tank, please go listen to “Maybe I Deserve.” I just did and it holds up, unlike the fur vest he wears in the video.) Siya is upset because Tank, a man she says is always on his phone, is sending her to voicemail when she calls. She knows it means he just doesn’t have any news for her, but still. She’s ready to get in the studio and she’s frustrated.

“It’s gonna pay off in the long run!” Renaye says cheerfully.

“It’s nice to have your support and have you around,” Siya says. Aw. Matching neck tattoos for the win!

We meet another MC in the studio, down in Miami. Brianna Perry has a momager telling her she’s not convincing us on her song about coming one hundred and doing her.

“Be more convincing!” Momager Kiki says to her daughter. “Do you mean what you saying?”

Brianna explains she’s a little stressed because she’s balancing studio time with schoolwork, as she’s a senior at University of Miami. She’s hoping her business classes will teach her to be a mogul like Diddy, so she can be in charge of her own career. She has been on a label, Poe Boy Music, since she was 12. Her uncle was G-12, a rapper who hooked her up with her current mentor, Rick Ross. (Rozay!) Now Brianna is signed to an even bigger label, Atlantic Records, so she feels like she has to grow into herself a bit, which includes a move out of her mom’s house. Of course, Kiki is not thrilled she can’t momager from inside the same house.

Brianna is basically my femme dream with songs like “Marilyn Monroe” and being a fierce diva. She’s classy, and hopes that her success will empower other women. “[I want to] show them this is possible and you can do it,” she says. I’d love to see another collaborator of hers, Trina, come on the show, but at least we’ll get some Eve action in the future, as trailers suggest. Currently all of the mentors for these women are male. While I’m glad the men of the industry want to see women come up, I do hope that the mothers of hip hop are doing a little mentoring themselves. It’s too often we hear of feuds between the old school and the new school, like Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj. So when Brianna says she wants other women to benefit from any success she might have, I want to give her a high five and a hair swish.

Next up is Diamond, who has been rapping for a long time but is unfortunately more well known for her relationships with rappers like Lil’ Scrappy and Soldier Boy. Diamond describes her relationship with the former as such:

“His mom always tried to steal my clothes, my bags, my jewelry. And then he was a cheater and couldn’t manage his money. You’re not going to be cheating, broke and abusive. That’s a conflict of interest.”

Oh hell no. So I understand why her mentor, Lil Jon, tells her to stay out of the drama and date a nice regular dude, like someone who works at the post office. Diamond jokes she would love him to set her up on a blind date. But real talk, Diamond asks Lil Jon his opinion of her trying to be more sexy in her image.

“God gave it to you use it, and just keep it classy,” says Lil’ John. “Sexy, classy, empower the ladies. guys gonna listen to it but you want the women to follow you like Beyonce or Rihanna.”

Can we just pause for a second to realize this is coming from a man who once rapped the following rhyme on a Ying Yang Twins track:

“Face the wall shawty, put your hands on it Bounce that ass up and down make a n**** want it Roll that ass round and round like a motherfuckin’ wheel”

Anyway, Diamond currently lives in Atlanta where she has a huge family that she helps financially so she’s worried about what they might say about her wanting to move to New York. Luckily, they all support her in her want to move away from the ghosts of relationships past. Her best friend sees her off at the airport, where Diamond says she hopes she can find a friend in her city. She says she wants “no drama.” Good luck, Diamond.

Someone who seems to have no drama, at least not yet, is Bia. Bia says her life is “music, music, music,” and she’s signed to Pharrell’s label. Pharrell saw her on YouTube and knew she had something special.

“Snoop is downstairs, TI’s next door, but I’m talking to you because you matter,” Pharrell tells Bia when they meet up in the studio. He gives Bia some great advice, telling her to go with how she feels, not how she thinks, and she needs to trust herself. He wants her to make decisions based on how they will make her feel when she turns her lights and sits with herself and her thoughts in bed at night. Bia is grateful for his help, and she is recording bars for a new track with the “Happy” man.

Bia has a 13-year-old sister named Trinity and she wants to be a good role model for her. (I wonder if Trinity has seen Bia’s video for “High”? Just curious!)

In the Bronx, Siya takes Renaye to a rap battle. Siya doesn’t participate in that kind of brutal spit contest, though. It’s not her style, but she finds it entertaining. Renaye can’t believe how in-your-face it is. Earlier that day she’d mentioned missing California and her mom, but Siya is hoping to introduce Renaye to her friends and help her get her make-up artist career pop off on the East Coast. Unfortunately, Siyah has some female friends and Renaye is not pleased.

“When someone’s possessive at first it can be kind of playful and cute but after a while you can’t be like that, especially in this industry,” Siyah says. Siyah spots Nyemiah, another star of the show and a friend, and waves her down. Renaye instantly becomes uninterested in participating in the conversation and pretends to be engaged in the battle. Editing makes it appear that Nyemiah can tell something is up, but it’s hard to say if her stank faces were truly directed at Renaye.

There’s no denying, though, that Siyah can tell something is up, and she asks Renaye what is going on. Renaye wants to go home – to California. This turns into the ultimate girl-girl fight that everyone has had: Over dramatic whispers in a public place at a very inopportune time. I feel for the both of them because I have been there.

Back to Nyemiah, aka Nyemiah Supreme. She’s linked with Timbaland, who says she reminds him of Missy Elliott. He says she and Missy both have “sexiness,” and Nyemiah acknowledges they are also both Cancers. The stars align! (Bring Missy on this show, please.)

We don’t get too much about Nyemiah on this episode, but I do like how her Twitter say she’s “The genius without a penis.” Get it girl.

So this premiere served as an introduction to each of the women, who look to be at similar levels in their careers, hoping to become bigger in the business with the aid of some heavy hitters. I love how Siya and Renaye’s relationship was presented to be as normal as any other male and female relationship would be, and their both being women not having to be discussed whatsoever. Outside of their battle at the battle (which was tame by most lesbian fight standards), they seem to really care about and love one another, and are making a big adjustment while on camera.

Of course, promos tease all kinds of drama to come for all of the women, so let’s just hope they can channel the crazy into some cool tracks.

Sisterhood of Hip Hop airs Tuesday nights on Oxygen. You can watch the first episode online right now.

 

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