In Rap shit! you, Insecure creator issa raeit’s new HBO Max Show, they all look at each other. Shawna (Aida Osman), a hotel receptionist clinging to old dreams of breaking into the rap scene, watches videos of her former collaborators on her laptop at her work. She decides to form a group with her former friend Mia (kamillón), who spends her time watching businessmen hide their boners while she dances for them on camera. Shawna’s boyfriend, Cliff (Devon Terrell), ends up watching one of Mia’s scantily clad nude videos after her roommates recognize her as a Ghetto Dominatrix from OnlyFans.
Watching a show where characters watch videos, FaceTime, or record pictures is less meta and more fun than it initially seems. Voyeurism is crucial to the narrative; Rap shit! you is about two ambitious women dissatisfied with where they are in their careers and relationships, who come together in the hope that someone will discover them and turn them into the superstars they know they can be. And that means they have to make people look at them.
Sex, sexuality, identity, fuckability, trust, exploitation: these are concepts that are all over television and pop culture. But right outside the door, Rap shit! you dares to unpack them. In one of its first episodes, the show does something weird: it gives the floor to two women for a frank and nuanced conversation about who decides who is fuckable, what it means to feel fuckable, and, more importantly, whose gaze is that fuckability. . of. (New record for the number of times that word has appeared in a sentence in The Daily Beast.)
When it comes to humanizing characters who are women of color, and breaking into the music industry,Rap shit! you is as revolutionary as it is cathartic so far. In just a handful of scenes, the series is changing the way female sexuality is portrayed and talked about on television.
Episode 2, “Something for the Girls”, introduces the Mia Ghetto Dominatrix persona with a clip of her shaking her butt at the camera, wearing nothing but a vinyl harness and thong. Cliff tells Shawna on FaceTime that she’s in business with someone who “does porn,” which goes against the kind of music she wants to make, he reminds her. “You can either keep working hard to make the music you believe in or give in to this shit in the industry.”
By which he means: looking sexy for other people’s sake, not your own. For a woman in hip-hop, that can be part of the game. Although, in reality, it is part of the game of living of any woman: We are objects to be consumed, with the mere fact of existing. Through OnlyFans, Mia is only monetizing the views her body gets for free. Even Cliff’s roommates gawk at Shawna’s “double D’s” when they watch her live stream.
The double-edged sword of attention often revolves around the male gaze, which Shawna herself mentions when arguing with Mia later about what their shared vision should be. “My art is not for the male gaze,” says Shawna. Mia, however, wants them to have fun and look sexy while doing it. What’s wrong with people looking at you?
Here’s what’s wrong with it, according to Shawna: “Doing my body, making a song about it, and boom. People start to care about my music.” mia sees Nicki Minaj as a “talented flying bitch” And Shawna doesn’t disagree! But a female rapper, she explains, is as successful as she is fuckable.
Two attractive women arguing about the politics of attractive women in music is as fascinating as it is frustrating. Shawna doesn’t have to dress like a Ghetto Dominatrix for people to find her attractive; example, Cliff’s horny roommates. But she does explain why her wardrobe throughout the show is hair pulled back, oversized sweatshirts, and button-down Oxford shirts. She wears masks when she posts her own acting videos, because she knows that her body shape is innately distracting in a carnal society.
There are a lot of things here that I can’t relate to, like a lanky bum with no musical talent to speak of and averaging one human interaction a day. But Shawna’s need to control her own image of her and perception of her resonates with her: Women’s bodies, especially black women, are always at stake, no matter what we do or who we’re with.
But Mia also has a point: “So you’re telling me there’s no possible way for women to have a good time and win?” Of course, that’s not true, but Shawna has bought into consumerism’s black-and-white ideas of sexuality. She is controlling her, Mia says, and keeping her from realizing her true potential. She has her wearing a hoodie in this Miami, Florida heat!
Trying to wrest control away from those in power can sometimes mean submitting to it. Acknowledging that tension can be liberating; it can allow you to look your anxiety in the eye and say, “Fuck it.” That’s why the way the episode ends is so special: Cliff gets a late night FaceTime call from Shawna. The last time this happened, he tried to get them to have some virtual sex; she wasn’t in the mood, what, mood. But this time, when Cliff answers the call, Shawna isn’t even on screen. Does she not even feel like showing her face?
And then: Shawna appears, on the most television “Feeling Myself” by Nicki Minaj featuring Beyonce time of year. She is wearing one of her masks, but she is completely naked. She asks Cliff if he wants to see her dance. You can guess what she says. And she dances, without a hoodie, without a ponytail, without anything. She’s hot not because she’s a sexy woman shaking her bare booty; she’s hot because it’s clear Shawna is doing this mostly for herself.
When he turns on his back and starts touching himself, it’s not in the hope that Cliff will get off. It’s all because of Shawna herself. Freed from her fears of what the industry might do to her artistic aspirations, she can let her guard down and allow herself to experience the pleasure the body provides, first and foremost to its owner.
Yes, Cliff likes to watch her, and Rap shit! you it shows it in split screen to make sure we know it. But we’re not meant to look at anyone but Shawna, and that includes Shawna herself. She is allowing herself to be consumed on her own terms, for her own enjoyment, and for her own empowerment. With that, it’s time to get to work conquering the rap game.