Photo Credit: VH1

The 3 part Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood reunion just ended and it didn’t disappointed in the drama department. I try to gauge how I judge the show around the fact that it’s supposed to be about those in the hip hop industry, the behind the scenes of the music, their relationships and a few that are coupled with people in the business. With that being said, there were a lot of very dramatic moments on the show as well as the reunion with threats of beating people up which predictably came from the person doing the least. That would be Paris Love whose claim to fame is being an assistant to K Michele that allegedly defrauded her credit card with phony Uber receipts. She clowned Brittany B, along with Lyrica Anderson talking about beating her up, questioning her resume etc. But again, Brittany is on the show with a resume and a recent Grammy nomination, something which Lyrica, by the way, does not have. That’s an important footnote.

As for what Paris was doing while on the show, no one knows, but she finished the reunion by saying she was going to beat Brittany up when she saw her. Brittany told her they live in the same neighborhood, that she sees her all the time and wasn’t going to do anything. She also told her she was only there because she was in between jobs and not even from LA. That’s another good point. At least Brittany fits the definition of who should be on the show. I also have to point out how disgusting the colorism digs from Lyrica were. This is the second show on the network showing signs of colorism with Basketball Wives being the other. In the end, regarding Brittany B, respect the grind and acknowledge the difference between people who are actually working and everyone else.

Then there’s Ray J and Princess Love. These two have come a long way. Ray J’s a dad with a second child on the way trying to multitask with his businesses including his scooter he’s branded and selling to trying to put a tour together with Immature. He’s always money minded. Even dating back to the reality show he had with his sister Brandy in around 2007 when his partying and drinking had gotten out of control, he made it clear that he couldn’t just not go to the club because he makes his money in event hosting. These two are in a good place together as a couple, or at least were during the time of the reunion. They’ve since been in the news discussing divorce, accusations of him leaving her in a hotel room abandoning her in Vegas, etc., but things are supposed to be better now. Typical Ray J/Princess Love drama. We’ve sort of come to expect that from these two. And when asked if there were any plans to open a sex dungeon of their own since they had that scene on the show, Princess Love said it wasn’t her thing and Ray J said he didn’t like having ropes and chains around him. Now that was a completely fumbled bag right there. Kandi Burruss had an entire sex dungeon tour based on one scene where she was accused of having one on the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Hopefully those two rethink that. They can just have an event. It doesn’t mean they have to participate. And as forthe header image for this article, it seems the one recurring theme during this year’s reunion was Ray J ducking things being thrown in his direction he kept ducking. At one point he refused to sit down because it seemed things kept flying at him. For once he actually hadn’t done anything but kept getting hit anyway. It was kind of funny.

Now A1 Bentley and Lyrica Anderson saw things take a turn a season ago when K Michele revealed that they had a “music marriage” without any love. We’ve been watching them go back and forth about the future of their decade long relationship with both of their mothers yet again getting into it, especially A1’s mother talking about beating up Lyrica’s mother, Lyrica G. Surprisingly at one point when asked to do something about her daughter and son-in-law on stage, Lyrica G said she was asked to stay out of it. It’s literally the first time after all the years she’s been on the show that we’ve seen her respect either of their wishes in real time about their relationship. They seem to be willing to work on things after both crying on the reunion stage. A1’s nonchalant demeanor is what both didn’t translate well on camera and was the constant problem for Lyrica who said he wasn’t showing remorse. I can relate as a person that’s not the most emotional but so long as they’re willing to work things out, especially having a child together, that’s a good thing.

The big announcement on the show came in the form of Moniece Slaughter stating that she’s leaving the show. She opened up crying, speaking about her bouts of depression, feeling that she needed to check herself in somewhere and how unaccommodating and difficult co-parenting with Dreux (Lil Fizz is). When she said she calls him to say that she feels she’s having a breakdown and asks if he can take his son for the remainder of her scheduled week, he interrupted her saying the answer is no and that he wasn’t going to give in to her foolishness. He said it’s her week and that she should take care of him. It was such a caustic and condescending back and forth demeaning her mental issues that a short PSA about mental health had to be done. This is the exact same thing that had to be done about colorism on Basketball Wives when Shaunie was accused of colorist behavior towards OG. Even Keyshia Cole’s ex Boobie Gibson told Dreux that that was his responsibility and essentially said he was going too far. In the end, he did say that she should do what she needed to get herself together and he will take care of their son in the meantime. He also made it clear that their son will be waiting for her when she’s done so she won’t think this is him seeking full custody, something he brought up earlier when he said he asked her for. The insensitive part came with him telling her she needed to admit to not being right in the head, that she should ask him to take full custody while she took care of their child. The problem with reality tv is that it’s only a snapshot of their lives. While he came across very a**holish, we don’t know what he’s had to deal with behind the scenes with a baby mother that has some mental issues. She even reminded him during the reunion that he chose to have a baby with her so in so many words, he knew what he was getting into in the first place. The important part is that her exit from the show is on a positive note and that is that she and Dreux are finally in a and they’re doing what’s best for their son which is all she wanted in the first place. ou positive place together

The Apryl Jones and Fizz situation is what we described as eyeroll worthy in the past. You can’t parade around with a girl in a relationship everyone knows about and then refuse to claim each other, playing people for stupid. It’s insulting. And when money is involved, it’s all the more important. If you’re on tour with someone who keeps making headlines for stupid sh** you can clearly see them doing, but they keep denying it, you can’t be surprised when they don’t want to f*** with you anymore and that’s what was going on with Apryl dating her ex Omarion’s bandmate Dreux. Despite being clowned by Moniece on stage and Apryl admitting that she wasn’t friends with anyone on the case, Moniece did step in to defend her desire to go on tour again when K Michele said she felt they were playing and demeaning music as a whole. Moniece acknowledged that Apryl was talented, that she was pretty, which she is, and said if there was a way for them to make money on the road together piggybacking on their BD’s (baby daddy, as she refers to them) on tour then there’s no reason they can’t do so. And again, seeing these two work things out when they’re obviously going to have to deal with each other in the future as it pertains to co-parenting is a good thing. The unfortunate part is the fumbled bag of Fizz not having a B2k tour to be on since Omarion doesn’t want to work with him, likely over the obvious awkwardness of his relationship situation.

And in keeping with the show’s theme being about hip hop, I’ll be looking forward to seeing what Fizz will be doing working now that there’s no B2k tour. The same goes for Misster Ray which I just realized, I don’t remember seeing him do anything but get slapped this season. Yoyo, however won this season hands down with her industry comeback and in the end, when asked what she had going on, understand the importance of adequately using her new platform and had her 30 second elevator speech about where her career was going, new single, etc down to a T. That’s something the rest of the cast could learn from her. At the end of the day, your work and career should always be the focus.