How Issa Rae’s City Girls Inspired Show Rap Sh!t Came Together – Billboard

Director Sade Clacken Joseph will never forget the day Issa Rae shot her a text that would prove her hard-earned resume.

“They called me while I was at my friend’s house. Of course I was going through some things”, remembers Jozefi. “I just left with my therapist and she texted me like, ‘Hey, this is Issa.’ Do you have a second one?’ This was a simple request, after hours of preparation and pitches at Hoorae [Rae’s multimedia production company] and HBO.”

Joseph spent weeks auditioning for the chance to direct in Rae’s newest series Rap Sh!t, a fictional comedy based on the show by Miami duo City Girls (who are signed on as executive producers). “So I called her, her and Syreeta [Singleton, Rap Sh!t showrunner] they were on the phone and told me. My friend still has the video of me jumping up and down – but trying to play it cool at the same time.”

A little over a year ago Joseph made the usual announcement on Instagram. She posted a screenshot of the title from the industry page Deadline: “Rap Sh!t: Sade Clacken Joseph To Direct” — under which she mused, “Well, dreams really do come true kids…” The Bronx-born creator directed the pilot and second episodes of Rap Sh!t, “Something for the City” and “Something for the Girls,” respectively. Her influence is also present throughout the season, where she acted as a consulting producer.

“It’s funny because during the pandemic is when my career started to get even busier,” Joseph shares. “I started working more in advertising and I worked on that Madewell ad with Issa… I knew her team at Hoorae for a little bit and we were hoping to work together for a while, but it never really worked out.”

That’s how it was before. Now, halfway through an eight-episode season, the pair would be fat. On Wednesday (August 3), Joseph signed a contract with the famous Hollywood agency CAA. “I never burn any bridges,” she revealed days before the announcement. “I did a lot of work for free. However, I make a lot of connections that way, and it always leads to the next thing.”

“I didn’t even know Issa was watching me when we were doing the Madewell ad – we didn’t talk that very – but she is so attentive and very smart. She saw something in me because I busted my ass on that shoot.”

In addition to Madewell, Joseph has worked with Google and Spotify on campaigns. She also has a penchant for music, which she admits was her first love (her band B00TY is one of the featured artists on Rap Sh!t soundtrack).

It was her passion for music and documentaries that led Joseph to work on music videos for Common during her days at USC’s acclaimed film school and for years afterward. When Joseph decided to become a filmmaker, however, it was an intuitive thing: The child of a Jamaican mother and an Antiguan father, Joseph was a first-generation American who never saw the Afro-Caribbean experience represented in Black film. “I never saw anything Caribbean-American, not even African, first-generation immigrants anyrepresented thing…” she explains.

The self-proclaimed “fantasy freak” Joseph watched and rewatched lords of the rings DVDs religiously, poring over behind-the-scenes features for hours at a time. Her upbringing in “a very strict immigrant family” did not encourage her to pursue a creative career. Ironically, it was her documentary debut at her predominantly white prep school that planted the seed: After signing up to be part of the fledgling journalism program’s first class, Joseph picked up her assigned camera and began working for to. the first documentary titled, I am.

She had compiled clips of family and friends, describing their heritage. She edited her footage and prepared to show the film at school – a day she says stands as the defining moment she knewthe film would be a major part of her life.

“I went to school in Greenwich, Connecticut [Convent of the Sacred Heart] — the wealthiest city in New England — and I’m from the Bronx, so I’ve always been an outsider in that sense,” she says. “I remember being in the coffee shop that day and not seeing the projection screen once, I was just watching my peers and my teachers as they all laughed and really engaged with the film. I remember that specific moment so clearly in my mind.”

A career epiphany came to her during her sophomore year of high school. “That’s when I realized the power of filmmaking and how it can create community and bring us together and help us connect with each other,” she recalls. “I knew I wanted to feel that feeling for the rest of my life.”

Her production company, Out of Many – a show with the Jamaican national motto “Out of Many, One People” – is just the beginning. Now that she has an opening, Joseph is going all out, determined to share her thoughts, ideas and resources with members of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora who feel underrepresented in TV and film. “I don’t know if you saw the champagne Kola and Red Stripe were drinking in the car [episode 1’s Instagram Live scene, between Mia [Kamillion] and Shawna [Aida Osman]]she says with a laugh.

Popular podcaster Kid Fury is of Jamaican descent, from Miami, and on the writing staff. Daniel Augustin plays Maurice, a Haitian character. Joseph shares Osman’s Habesha ancestry (“We didn’t include that in the show, but she wears her Eritrean cultural necklace and wristband in the show, she’s also first generation.”).

To be fair, Rap Sh!t it’s set in Miami, after all—so the lack of island influence would be distinctly inauthentic. Still, Joseph admits it feels good to see himself on screen, so to speak.

“I formed Out of Many so that it could be a place to help Caribbean filmmakers and help promote black representation outside of the African-American experience. [Black film] I was always just African-American and never felt African-American growing up. So it’s very important to me.”