Issa Rae is dropping tea on the work that went into bringing her new HBO Max series to life, and it includes a few familiar faces like Chicago rapper Dreezy.
“Rap Sh!t” follows two Miami natives and former high school friends as they reconnect to form a rap group. According to the “Insecure” creator, all of the music featured in the show is original and was formed with the help of a few emcees.
“We were able to have a traditional writers room, which was really funny. Brilliant writers, some of them were from Miami,” Issa revealed during an appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers. “And then, just to be able to have authentic rap—like the music has to be good, they actually have to be good rappers, we got to employ some of my favorite rap artists.”
Those artists included Dreezy, PineappleCITI, and Ncognita to name a few.
“They wrote lyrics for the characters, and we had music camps to make music for the show, and it was like an intricate process,” she shared. “And then, of course, the two kind of met up, and it was great. I’m really proud of the music on the show.”
These aren’t the only musicians involved in the process of bringing “Rap Shit” to the streaming service, which was home to Issa’s “Insecure.” JT and Yung Miami, also known as the City Girls, serve as executive producers of the series set in their hometown. Devonte Hynes was tapped as the show’s music composer.
The first season of the series features eight episodes, with the first two premiering on Thursday (July 21). While Issa won’t appear on-camera for this series, she has tapped Aida Osoman and KaMillion as the leads of the show.
Check out the “Rap Sh!t” trailer below.