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Name of Show: Love & Hip Hop

Who: [Season 1] Chrissy Lampkin, Emily Bustamante, Olivia Longott, Somaya Reece

[Season 2] Yandy Smith, Kimbella Vanderhee, Erica Mena, Teairra Mari

When: 2011 to present

Network: VH1

Why We Watched: Hip-hop fans have always wanted to know about hip-hop behind the scenes. Love & Hip-Hop brought the struggle of the jumpoff turned main chick to television. During the first season, Chrissy established herself as the HBIC of the cast and threw her weight around like Jim Jones had Jay-Z status. A Thorn in the side of Chrissy was Jim’s mother. Mama Jones had so much beef to grill with Chrissy, she recorded a diss track and shot a video for it. it’s real out here on these scripted reality television streets.

The verbal warfare is at an all time high when the ladies would get together at any social event. During a memorable beef between Chrissy and Somaya, Chrissy explained what winging it meant in the most hostile way possible. Notice Olivia wasn’t mentioned too much. That’s because her storylines were a little boring or maybe nobody cared because before the show, Olivia hadn’t been relevant since Myspace was the hottest social networking site out.

By the second season, new characters were added to spice things up. Emily came face to face with one of Fab’s old jumps and learned of their relations at her independence party. Because of Kimbella’s confession, Chrissy went into Ryu Street Fighter mode and hadokened her in the face repeatedly.

Jim Jones’ manager Yandy became Chrissy’s next target to abuse. Yandy crossed the line by getting into her client’s personal business when things should’ve been kept professional. For her recurring meddling and love of getting checks, Yandy wound up losing a client and almost getting mashed out in a Miami club. Mind you, the ass whooping Chrissy tried to hand to Yandy came on the heels of her engagement to Jim Jones. Chrissy proposed to him in the first season and he said, “I’m with you,” which isn’t the most definitive answer.

Kimbella didn’t let Chrissy steal all the fighting shine, she got into a champagne flute throwing, hair pulling battle royal at a restaurant with former video chick Erica Mena because Mena had an imaginary beef with Kimbella. By the time season 2 wrapped, tension was so thick between the ladies, viewers didn’t get a proper reunion show. We got stuck with wack one on one interviews conducted by show producers. For a show known for the fights, that was worse than finally getting the good-looking woman you’ve been chasing to date you only for her to say you don’t have a chance in hell of actually getting any.

Impact: Immediately after its premiere, Love & Hip Hop became the topic of Black Twitter’s water cooler conversation on Monday nights. If you didn’t watch the show, you thought you did after reading your timeline. In a sense, the show became interactive because some viewers enjoyed Black Twitter’s commentary more than the actual show. You remember when Mama Jones got into a twitter beef with Olivia after Olivia’s impersonation of Mama Jones aired? That was a hilarious beef, if you find that sort of thing funny, which most of us do. The Ratchet Jump Offs of Rap Love & Hip Hop will return for a third season while a spin-off called Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta will start production soon.

Aftermath: Chrissy and Jim got their own spin-off show. Yandy and Kimbella are pregnant and working. Emily is still trying to get Fabolous to commit. He has committed by buying her Rolex watches and Bentleys, provided she immediately twitpic them. Somaya Got a breast reduction and is still pushing those struggle raps. Olivia signed a record deal and has yet to erase the memory of her first two ill-fated record deals.

Tami Talks: There were some messy situations but Yandy was the one that stood out to me.  I appreciated her work ethic and hustle. I love Chrissy too because she reminds me of me. Let’s just put it out there. But this season was way better than the last because the girls turned it up! Our backs were against the wall. We were like “We gonna have to kill a bitch to top Love and Hip-Hop.”

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Should ‘Love & Hip Hop’ Be Called ‘The Ratchet Jumpoffs of Rap’? [Reality Round-Up]  was originally published on theurbandaily.com