Rap Sh!t

As a huge fan of Insecure, I was excited to watch this show. I know it wasn't going to be exactly like it, but still I was so anxious to watch it. It is mostly shot through someone's phone or camera, which is different but got annoying after awhile. The two main actresses had no character development what so ever. All they could do was rap and have intercourse in every episode. There wasn't anything to look forward to during this show, no cliffhangers , no anticipation of what would happen the next episode, nothing. It's like a wanna be P-Valley except P-Valley has more interesting plots to go with Murda trying to improve his music career. And more characters with actual back stories! I'm 26 and I don't even record every single thing in my life the people were doing in this show. Super cliché of what they think all younger people do.

The narrative is hard to follow and I don't care about any of the characters. The part of all humans that connects us is missing. It's too niche. And kind of shallow. It's kinetic. Personally I need something to hold on to, a character or actress I like, a goal I'm waiting to get to in the drama, a revelation I sense might be coming. I feel bad that it's Issa Rae and it's not speaking to me in any way.

I wanted to watch the whole thing before giving my opinion but since I saw or heard so many negative reviews prior to watching the show I figured I'd give it my 2 cents.

Now I just finished episode 3 and while it's not Insecure, I don't think I'd want the exact same show. I do dislike the recording with phone cameras angle but there are moments without it. Someone said in a review that the show sucks and all they do is have sex every episode, as I stated I'm on episode 3 and I've yet to see someone have sex 🙄 Someone else mentioned that it's a wannabe Pvalley. Maybe I just haven't seen enough episodes yet but it's NOTHING like Pvalley, excluding the fact that it's a black cast.

I will say I think they advertised the wrong people when promoting this show. I had NO IDEA that RJ Cyler was in this! He has been my man since Me, Earl &The Dying Girl. If he had been shown as part of the main cast I would've hopped on the show sooner.

I appreciate the music. I find it interesting that she used so many of her previous cast mates in this show. It's simply a show about a younger generation than mine and how they tackle adulting. So far it's not worth all these negative reviews.

This is Insecure for a younger generation. It isn't better and it isn't worse. It's what you could expect from a younger generation for that. Insecure wasn't the best show, definitely not as good as people were making it out to be because it felt like Girlfriends, which felt like Living Single, and so on, and so forth. Black women friendship, Sistahood and all of that, which is definitely needed.

Basically people just keep making the same show over and over again. You have one woman that wants to be conscious and bougeious and ends up indulging other sides of her personality when she forms a group with her rachet, "hood", friend. Which is something every Black person does, because it is part of life. I don't get all of the reviews about how disappointed they are because this isn't The Cosby Show or A Different World. Those shows were good for the time but those story lines wouldn't hold people's attention now.

The show also conveniently has artists from the music industry make appearances, as if to legitimize it's need for existence, but it isn't necessary. It would be a lot better if it stayed in character. The production methods, which include a lot of Instagram Reels, to tell us that young people exploit Instagram to market themselves and promote their brand, was unnecessary and makes the producers seem like old timers that do not respect the subject material. It isn't a mockumentary and I'm confused why they have that type of energy in this project. This has been done several times before to show us how technology is changing the culture, in particular that FaceTime episode of Modern Family and it really sucks that they're doing that here.

Anyway I'm going to keep watching it even though I'm a few generations away from their target demographic. Not sure if this show is satire or not, but it gives me Spike Lee vibes at times and I'm not sure that is the intention.

I'm gonna be honest - these aren't the best actors and some of it IS cliche BUT it's highly entertaining! The behavior seems spot on for the rappers they are portraying. It has potential to last because of all the places the story can go. Something light to pass the time with a few chuckles sprinkled in.