Rap Shit! – Season 1 Episode 3 “Something for the Hood” Recap & Review

‘Something for the Hood’

In episode 3 of Rap Sh!t we delve deeper into the life and immediate professional crisis faced by Chastity, our very own Duke. In the opening montage, we see Guap Dad the rapper having a great time with Duke’s girls. She shows the entourage a fun Miami night. But when it comes to getting paid, Guaps’s manager ignores her and leaves.

Duke is powerless because of how a negative remark would damage her reputation. Plus, she does not have any bargaining power with these men. She comes back to her house, where we learn she lives with her uncle. The latter runs a flesh operation in the upstairs room. He asks Duke to pay the rent for the month, giving her the challenge to accrue it from places.

Lamont is also struggling with getting an invoice paid for the work he did. His friend tells him “this is the game, bro; keep hustling”, indicating that Lamont might never actually get paid for the work done. He also gets his car towed and asks Mia for help. Next, we get the answer for who “Mr. Anonymous” is from Shawna’s conniving credit card scheme. It is Maurice himself. They are careful enough not to discuss that in public.

Maurice, along with his Creole cousin is shortly about to show how their scam works. Before that, we see Duke going to the bar where she brings all the VIPs. The owner gives her the cut from Guap but the number is low because the bottles that the VIPs order is where her cut comes from. We then see her go backstage of the strip club, showing she is a regular in the place and knows everyone.

The girls show her the rap song that Mia shot. Mia used to work there before switching out to doing a thing of her own. In desperate need of money, Lamont goes to a pawnshop to pawn some of his jewellery.

His mother says the pastor from the church still has a job for him and Lamont takes his number down. Maurice and his cousin are in the supermarket and shop excessively. The total comes out to about $5k. When it is their turn to pay and after all the stuff has been scanned, Maurice distracts the cashier by asking her to reopen the bags to check if he has shopped for a particular thing.

In the meanwhile, the cousin will secretly insert the newly made credit card with the details that Shawna got off the original and pay the bill. This way, they avoid giving an ID for the card and spend any amount of money they want. Mia meets up with Lamont, who confesses that the producer’s money will probably not come through. Mia says she respected his songs and his skills at mixing music and asks him to produce the Seduce track for Shawna and her. Duke receives the news that some men in a black Nissan stole her money from her room at the motel. Her girls say it was pre-planned.

Chastity establishes communication with Mia for a special purpose. She picks up one of her experienced girls who says Duke should start over and follow her ambitions. Lamont works his magic over and the new track is even better. Mia wasn’t wrong! She takes a video call from Duke who says she could help Mia and Shawna get the song out in front of the right people. But, she will be doing it as their manager and will take a cut.

The Episode Review

Rap Shit’s episode 3 introduces a gamut of themes that the first season’s storyline will incorporate. Almost all shows these days branch out into different subplots that comments or represents a kind of lifestyle from a culture. It has become the norm to do so.

Episode 3 does that with Duke and Maurice’s instances. There was also a focus on Lamont and the grinding nature of the music industry. Not getting your dues cleared because you are new is a growing cause of concern. Many struggling artists hardly making a living are getting victimized by those with muscle and clout.

But on a brighter note, his association with Shawna and Mia might just be the silver lining in his experiences. The momentum continues to flourish and give us good thirty minutes of pure entertainment with jolts of reality striking at unexpected intervals. But truly, the soul of the show is the rap and zany music that stands out in the crowd.