It’s official. This summer, Issa Rae returns to HBO Max with her new show, Rap Sh!t. The comedy series is slated to premiere on July 21 with two episodes, as confirmed in the official teaser (above). The eight-episode season will continue weekly with the season one finale airing ahead of Labor Day weekend on September 1.
Rap Sh!t centers around Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion)—two estranged high school best friends from Miami who decide to start a rap group during the age of social media while also following the ebbs and flows of friendship. They also face the challenges women experience when trying to break into the Hip-Hop industry. The series premiere was written by Rae with City Girls serving as co-executive producers for the show.
Amid releasing the first look into the series back in May, Osman—who also happens to be one of the writers on the show—teased, “It’s comedy, it’s storytelling, it’s music, it’s fine b*tches!”
She added, “It’s interesting with Shawna—I’m giving her a lot of my personal storylines. In the writers’ room, we access our own personal stories and give them to the characters just by nature of having conversations about our life and about what’s going on in culture around us. We can have real conversations about Black femininity and control as a young creative, and that’s beautiful to me as a young creative and a Black woman. I get to do a lot of self-exploration through the show, and heal and investigate my own life. It’s like constant therapy.”
While Rae chimed in to explain, “With Rap Sh!t, this is kind of like my sophomore album—I consider Awkward Black Girl as my mixtape and Insecure my first album. So with this one, there is pressure, but I’m really excited about it. I hope that people have an open mind—it’s such a fun show.”