Bronx-born rapper Remy Ma makes her TV series debut Monday night on the Season Six premiere of VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop: NY.”
And Ma (her real name is Reminisce Smith) has come a long way since competing in rap battles in her old neighborhood.
“I was approached by [‘Love & Hip Hop’ executive producer] Mona Scott Young. They wanted to bring back the essence of what she initially wanted the show to be,” says Ma, who used to call herself Remy Martin.
Prime time TV is a far cry from the Rikers Island prison cell where Ma served over six years (2008-2014) for felony assault, illegal weapon possession and coercion related to the non-fatal shooting of her former friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph.
Ma is still on probation and has to follow the rules — so she was on the fence about joining the cast of this tumultuous reality show.
“I was absolutely apprehensive at first … because there is a stigma about being on ‘Love & Hip Hop,’ like, ‘Oh you have to be a washed-up rapper that is not doing anything,’” she says. “But I perform daily, so I never felt that way when it came to my career.
“And I didn’t want to be involved in any type of [on-screen] altercations because I wouldn’t know how to act if someone was to throw a drink on me or spit on me.
“But I don’t feel like this reality show is my second chance,” she says. “When a lot of people come home from jail they cannot find a job and they cannot get back on track, [at least] nowhere close to where their life was prior to their incarceration. The system is designed to break everything down. So for me to be able to pick up the phone and call Nicki Minaj or DJ Khaled and say ‘Hey I need you on this record,’ that in itself is a blessing.
“I feel like people really want to see me win.”
One of those people includes Papoose, her husband of eight years who married Ma while she was imprisoned.
“A lot of people don’t know that we really got married over the phone. We were scheduled to do it in person but Papoose got kicked out [of the prison],” she says. “He had a key ring with a lot of keys and they claimed that one of the keys was a skeleton key that could open handcuffs or any other type of lock.
“So they threw out the key and said it was a breach of security and then they locked him up in a cell for hours. I didn’t find out about this until later so I’m sitting in my cell like, ‘What is going on? Did he change his mind and doesn’t want to marry me because I’m in prison?’
“But he called me that night and explained what happened and we decided to get married and kissed over the phone.
“We’re planning a big wedding and [R&B singer] Keyshia Cole will be my maid of honor.”