RapCaviar Presents: Review

2.24.23

RapCaviar Presents

RapCaviar has released its first season new Hulu series, RapCaviar Presents. The series includes six different episodes including interviews with popular recording artists and the stigmas that people put on their names while being leaders in the industry.

The series focuses on issues that these artists deal with, and furthermore, people in general battling stereotypical norms. The lead talent throughout the series include Tyler, The Creator, City Girls, Roddy Ricch, Polo G and Coi Leray. There are plenty of other big names that take part in these interviews as well, to shed some light on the issues that the lead artist faces, such as Pharrell, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, G Herbo, Doja Cat, The Game and more.

When it comes to any sort of docu-series, the first thing I look for is what new information I learn about an artist. I had already known about when Tyler decided he wanted to stop being funny for a year to focus on his music, but I think this is likely a new story for many viewers, and a really strong one, at that. I learned that the City Girls did not have their group name until they signed with QC, and it was Coach K’s idea. While I knew about Roddy’s history with Nipsey, it was really cool to see what they did and learn how it came to life. I loved seeing Polo G’s relationship with his father, since we knew he was tight with mom. Seeing Coi power through the haters are always more than inspirational. So with that, it was a good series, indeed.

From a far away perspective, however, I think RapCaviar could have done this a bit better. I do understand that the purpose of the series was to touch on issues in our society that people deal with, however, I feel that this could have been done differently, while still getting the artists point across. With this being the key topic to each episode, it was almost as if the artists were put in a box, and had to correlate everything they said in their interviews, to the one biggest stigma and negative thing that people perceive about them.

Roddy Ricch’s episode focused on how social media can make or break you as an artist. Roddy’s single The Box and debut album Please Excuse Me For Being AntiSocial was nominated for several Grammys, something many wait for years to happen. He was being praised as someone who could have been, the leader of his generation. However, two years went by before he released his next album, which did not do remotely near as well. Social media had originally taken him to the top, and it was now bringing him down heavily, forcing him to remove himself from the platform for some time. Roddy Ricch seemed quit angry throughout the interview, still. Not necessarily at the interview, but at the topic, of his haters on social. He stood strong behind his art, but was not at all happy with consumers expecting anything in particular from him.

Polo G’s episode focused on mental health. Of course, an extremely important topic that is brought up more and more in hip-hop. Polo G seemed uncomfortable for the vast majority of this interview. He was asked to describe a “close call” moment that he had happened in his life, to which he quivered and shook his head “no.” He struggled to say aloud the word “depression” and was sad talking about his late best friend Juice WRLD. Hearing him talk about his relationship with G Herbo, and having Herb be there speaking on the topic as well was great, on top of seeing he has the support from both parents. It did, however appear that everything Polo G speaks on is real, and it does not go away over night.

At one point throughout the series, a label manager mentioned that “every label should have some sort of label therapist.” As we hear so much about mental health issues and abusing substances, I do believe that having someone on the label that can be there to help is a necessary resource to ensure that while the artist is taking care of their millions of fans globally everyday of the week, that someone is taking care of them, as well.

I also found some interesting moments in the City Girls episode, where the topic at hand was about if women openly rapping about sexuality is freedom of speech and expression or if it is played out and inappropriate. This episode spent a large portion of time talking about Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s single, WAP. They seemed to use Megan’s moments to interview Megan, rather than The City Girls and what they have done for hip-hop. Besides this, journalists being interviewed highlighted when Snoop Dogg said women should not sing about sex because it should be sacred to them. They also mentioned that women in hip-hop in previous decades rapped about wanting to do everything for a man, while today, women rap about what a man can do for them. I do think it would have been interesting to have Snoop Dogg or someone like Ashanti enter the chat here to see what they have to say today, after how much the women have been getting involved and taking over the hip-hop industry with this type of music today.

Again, while this was a great series to hear from some top-charting artists, I would have liked to see a bit more. Every artist has a lot more to say than just what the world thinks about them. So, I would have loved to learn more about the artist and how they came up, how they got their breakthrough hit, what their work process and success story looks like, while coming upon some struggles or roadblocks on the way. I think they were a little too tight and focused on the one issue that correlates to their industry persona, making the artists and additional interviewers too boxed in to one frame of mind and storytelling.