VH1’s newest reality show, Love & Hip Hop centres on the real lives of six American women, who are wives, girlfriends or friends of big time Hip Hop Rappers, or in the hip hop game themselves. Showing the sacrifices & extra effort they go through just to maintain a relationship under the Hip Hop lifestyle pressures. With the girlfriends of artist’s such as Jim Jones, Juelz Santana & Fabolous dominating the show, with their feisty attitudes, cat fights & outspoken way of life; Love & Hip Hop entails to show us a true picture of what it is to be thrust into the limelight under the title of girlfriend & wife of a rapper & how they cope to keep their families together. But have we seen a true picture of what love & Hip Hop really entails? Parris Oh explores…

Here’s the thing I can’t get over, the business like operations of the relationships when it comes to the Hip Hop lifestyle – Kobe Bryant must be wishing he did a ‘Ye & shouted ‘WE WANT PRENUP, WE WANT PRENUP!’ as he lost 75 Million in his recent divorce from Vanessa Bryant. Is this real life?

According to the state laws of LA a marriage of 10 years is classed as lengthy & therefore she is entitled to ‘maintain the lifestyle she has acquired’. I’m not sure about you – but I know I wasn’t raised on 75 million & I turned out okay! The Hip Hop/Industry relationships are functioned in such a business like way that a prenup is basically necessary now, right? I know there will be those that disagree, throwing at me the same reasons that I’ve heard over the past few days; ‘a prenup takes out the romance of the marriage’, ‘a prenup means you’re going to get divorced from the person’ - but is a person who is willing to take your half of your hard earned money & live off of it for the rest of their life really not worth a small little contract preventing this? I mean, look after your kids & pay your dues, but do you want to give away your money to your ex?!

In my personal opinion, if I ever make it big I will be signing a prenup! (& yes I am a girl!) If you have balled, sung, rapped, or anything that’s keeping it strictly in that Hip Hop lifestyle; where you are in the public eye & mad rich,  then protect your ish G! You worked for it! If the person you are about to marry can’t accept that you want to protect your hard earned cash from a relationship fatality then…on to the next one! ‘Cause from all I know, Bryant has only got one thing to say about this ‘B*TCH YOU WASN’T WITH ME SHOOTING IN THE GYM!’

Where comes the point when business & pleasure can’t be mixed… I think Yandy (Love & Hip Hop/Jim Jones ex manager) fell into this trap, as in the last few aired episodes she faced the consequences of mixing those two! I think she just got comfortable in a situation, often referring to Jim as her brother… but hey, she is still making ‘cheques, cheques, cheques!’ Jim Jones & the rest of Dipset are Hip Hop royalty, undoubtedly one of the best groups to happen to rap, but seeing their soft side is making me realise that their women hold them down much more than they get credit for – Undeniably Chrissy (Jim Jones Fiancé) is a crazy one, ready to spark off at any minute, but he has brought her in on some business related things, so would she turn around and declare some of his money in a breakdown, entitled or not? All I know is, business & pleasure is a tricky subject in Hip Hop & leaving the top dogs in the industry having to play one person in the limelight & one person in their personal life...It seems that all is not fair in Love & Hip Hop!

WORDS: Parris Oh

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