Exclusive: Cast Talks WE tv’s ‘Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta’

The Dirty South is getting hotter this summer with WE tv’s newest season of Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta. This season follows the hip hop legacies of the South as they navigate the Southern heat and their burgeoning independence.

The newest television show portrays the lives of Reginae Carter (daughter of famous rapper Lil Wayne and Toya Wright), Zonnique Pullins (daughter to rapper TIP and Tiny), Shaniah Mauldin (daughter of song writer Jermaine Dupri), Ayana Fite (daughter of Beastie Boys legend, DJ Hurricane), and Brandon Barnes (son of famed Hip Hop manager Deb Atney).

Also in the newest addition to this summer’s reality lineup,  GUHH ATL follows the child star, Shad Moss (Bow Wow), as he begins to leave his final mark on Atlanta’s Hip Hop scene. These Georgia Peaches follow the roads paved by their parents, while creating a whole new legacy all their own.

We sat down with the newest cast of Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta and discussed what’s to come on WEtv’s newest season.

What’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened to you?

Zonnique: Well I would say, there was a couple times that my dad has called me with one of my crushes and he says, ‘Someone wants to talk to you’. And it would be like Nick Jonas. It’s all awkward because I can’t really say much. But you have to try and have a normal conversation.

Now Bow Wow, you have grown up in the spotlight. Do you think it was different being discovered as a child?

Bow Wow: No, it’s the same in a way because I started at five. And Snoop found me, so Snoop took me under his wing. I never really had my Pops in my life. And you go through that through season 1 of the show. I had Jermaine and Snoop my whole entire, so I kind of consider them to be the father figures in my life. It just so happen that they are iconic and they are who they are, but for me once I knew what I wanted to do at five. What better person to have than guys that have been doing it, coaching me, guiding me, and getting me through it. With that relationship comes a personal relationship. I always looked at Jermaine as my father. I have been around Shaniah and celebrated her 19^th birthday. It’s real life. We are all just representing that. It’s just guidance. They are there to guide us and teach us.

 In the newest season, it seems as though Brandon was following in his mother’s footsteps to find and create the next big Hip Hop star. Yet, was there are point that tensions would flare between you two?

 Brandon: No, my mother is a mother first before all of that. [My mother and I] actually work hand in hand in a lot of our business. You can never compete with your teacher. 

For you all, your parents are literally live-in mentors, and we see that in the new season. Do you find, it’s hard to get out of their shadow and discover yourself?

 Shaniah: I don’t think it’s hard personally. But I think its hard because everybody else sees you as just Jermaine Dupri’s daughter. It’s hard when everybody else is just looking at you as that. You don’t have your own voice or your own identity per se. This show is really a platform for us. We are all basically making our own identities. I am on here as Shaniah Mauldin, and I want to show you what I got going on.

Now, Ayana, we see that you are in the midst of starting your own clothing line throughout the season. Do you think you had a hard time discovering you niche?

 Ayana: It’s maintaining it and being dedicated to it. Since all of us live a lifestyle where you didn’t have to work. We all want to have our own hustle. The hard part is being dedicated to what your hustle is, and not resorting back to my parents and what my parents did. I have seen a lot of people in the game, that have different things that they start but they never really finish. They are just kind of all over the place.

Has there ever been a time when you are seriously like star struck?

 Ayana: I’ve never been star struck before. I meet random celebrities all the time through my dad. I came home one day, and for some reason I went to my parents’ house. I got to my parents’ house and Ice Cube was there. I was so star struck!

Reginae: I would have to say mine is Rihanna. I don’t fan girl over just anybody. If Rihanna was sitting right here, there would be tears in my eyes. I love her personality and her music. And she loves me too. And we love and we hug.