M iami carries the reputation of having immaculate beaches, fancy cars, and nonstop nightlife — even if it’s not representative of the entire area. Regardless, that perceived fantastical city has been heavily em- braced by the entertainment industry, which of- ten portrays a town filled with excess rather than one made up of real people. Look at music videos like Sisqó’s 1999 hit “Thong Song,” which was filmed on South Beach, and City Girls’ “Twerk” released in 2018 — both of which portray Miami as a city where bikinis are pretty much the mandatory dress code. Then there is the Bad Boys franchise, which picked Miami as its setting not once, but three times. Unfortunately, the city serves as mere window dressing to a buddy-cop action movie. The pattern continues with reality TV shows such as Love & Hip Hop Miami and Bas- ketball Wives, with their casts immersed in the land of palm trees and warm weather. And more recently, Apple TV’s Now & Then focuses on a group of mostly wealthy Latin-American immi- grants in Miami but fails to explore the commu- nity in any meaningful way. Understandably, the question “Why Miami?” came to mind when news dropped that the new HBO Max series Rap Sh!t would be set in the Magic City. Producer, writer, and actress Issa Rae and executive producer and showrunner Syreeta Singleton, both who saw their big break with HBO’s Insecure, have taken their talents from In- glewood, California, to the 305. So why Miami? “The Black people and the Black culture that’s there is so rich, and there’s so much to like, so much inspiration just being in that city,” Single- ton responds to the question. “When we decided to set the show there, we decided we’re not going to do what’s typical, we’re not going to spend a ton of time at the beach because it wasn’t about that for us. It was about the Black people in the city and these Black women.” The series, which premieres on Thursday, July 21, on HBO Max, focuses on the side of Miami that isn’t often brought to the screen: the areas of the city where actual residents and Miami natives have built their lives and spend the majority of their time in. Rap Sh!t’s two leads, Shawna (Aida Os- man) and Mia (KaMillion), inhabit neighborhoods like Little Haiti, Overtown, and Opa-locka, to name a few. It’s rare for the media to showcase neighbor- hoods like these, let alone do it with sincerity. Little Haiti and Overtown pour culture — spe- cifically Black and Haitian culture — into Miami, and Rap Sh!t does a considerable job in >>p8 Issa Rae’s RAP SH!T avoids the pitfalls of most Miami-set media. B Y VANES S A ELIE 7 2 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com| CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | miaminewtimes.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC |MIAMI NEW TIMES NEW TIMES MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2022 Alicia Vera-HBO Max
