'Love & Hip Hop: Family Reunion' Season 3 Cast on Clearing the Air, What Sets Them Apart From Previous Seasons (Exclusive)
VH1's Family Reunion: Love & Hip Hop Edition is back for a third season. The show reunites the original family of Love & Hip Hop, along with fan favorites from all four franchises, and takes the series international for the very first time with the cast trying to mend fences in Jamaica. This season cast members get a fresh perspective of what it means to be "family." Over a two-week-long gathering, friendships foe-ships are tested, secrets are exposed, flings are ignited, and forgiveness is the goal. The star-studded cast features favorites Alexis Skyy, Amara La Negra, Chrissy Lampkin, Emjay Johnson, Estelita, Gunplay, Jenn Coreano, Jim Jones, Karen "KK" King, Karlie Redd, Khaotic, Lyrica Anderson, Mama Jones, Mariahlynn, Miami Tip, Nikki Baby, Phresher, Safaree, Scrapp Deleon, Shay Johnson, Shekinah Jo, Spice, Sukihana, Teairra Mari, Tokyo Vanity and Trick Daddy.
Ahead of the season premiere, PopCulture.com spoke with Johnson, Nikki, Khaotic, and Gunplay about what to expect throughout the explosive season. The show airs every Monday on VH1 at 8 p.m. ET.
PC: Well, I'll start with you Khaotic. What were you hoping to come on the show to resolve?
Khaotic: I don't got no issues. See, that's not the question for me. You might want to swing that Shay's way because…What I wanted to come and resolve was I was trying to hook up, hook up, hook up, hook up, hook up. That's all I came to Jamaica to do was hook up and have a good time kicking with my homies and hook up with Nikki Baby.
PC: Well, Nikki Baby, did that happen? Will we see that play out?
Nikki: No, you guys are not going to see that play out. Me and Khaotic are good friends.
PC: So Gunplay, whose drama were you most surprised to experience during the retreat?
Gunplay: I wasn't really surprised by no damn drama. But I was surprised them two girls fighting from the jump…Carly and Mariah, because they was like right there. You know them dogs, that when they let them loose, they be walking through the fence and then when you move the fence and then they go…you know what I'm saying? That's what it felt like for a second. I had to spice it up. I think I was the drama at that point. S—.
PC: Now Shay, your relationship with Amara Le Negra has been a rollercoaster, obviously because of the connection with your brother. Where do you guys stand?
SJ: Let me clear that up. Let me clear that because Amara made a statement on Love & Hip Hop saying that we were friends because she was in a relationship with my brother. That is not true. You can go back and see Amara and I grew a friendship before they even started to talk. She actually came to me and asked me, "Can I date your brother? Would that be okay with you? Because I don't want it to affect our friendship." So let's clear that up. I wanted to make sure that that was out there because it was a bunch of BS.
PC: So where do you guys stand now, and have you at least bonded over being new mothers?
DJ: We don't have any issues with each other. We've had several conversations you'll see on the show that we settled our differences. I'm not saying we're best friends, but I have genuine love for her. She has genuine love for me, and we're just in a state of mind where we're just trying to raise our daughters because this is not an easy situation. We're both new at this. We don't know what we're doing, so we're just taking it day by day and all of that has nothing to do with raising our daughters than it's really unnecessary. It doesn't matter at this point. My focus is just not there. I don't care for the drama. I'm not interested in it. Hopefully, our daughters can have play dates in the future, and we can just move from that. Keep it positive.
PC: Now Nikki, Love & Hip Hop fans haven't necessarily seen you on the franchise for a while, so what made you want to return, and were you hoping to clear up any misconceptions about you from the various franchises you had appeared on already?
NB: I was not hoping to clear up any misconceptions because I really didn't have many. I've always been neutral, never really was a drama person. I wanted to come back on here because I wanted people to, number one, see my growth. Also, I really wanted to reconnect with some people because I haven't seen a lot of people since a few years of filming. It was just kind of like, oh yay, we're going to Jamaica. It's going to be fun. So I was excited to do it, honestly.
PC: Were there any major revelations that you guys are excited for viewers to see in season three of the family reunion franchise?
Shay: Yes, I actually had a women's empowerment event, and at that women's empowerment event, my focus and my goal – because there was so much drama going on – my focus and my goal was to get the women, especially to understand that there are bigger issues in life to talk about and deal with, and we should be using our platforms to speak up and speak out on situations versus bickering over nonsense. One of the issues we talked about was abortion. It was good to get everybody's opinion if they were pro-choice or pro-life. You'll see that in the season coming up. Everybody had events, and you'll see a lot of people opening up about who they are, their situations, their history. That part for me was…it gave me a better understanding on who everybody is, what I was dealing with. I wanted to know people more just by listening to their stories. You'll see a lot of that on the show.
PC: Did you guys watch the first two seasons of the show? And if so, what do you feel makes your season better or stands apart from the two seasons that we've already seen?
Khaotic: I ain't never seen the first two seasons of it.
Gunplay: I thought we were the second season.
Shay: I didn't see it either. Nikki, did you watch it?
Nikki: I saw it, and I feel like our season was a lot more crazy. I don't feel like we had a family reunion until the very end, not to spoil anything. But I think that their other seasons were really about making amends, and I feel like ours had a lot of other things going on, to say the least.
Khaotic: I think what's different about the other two seasons and this season is them other two seasons ain't have a Khaotic on. That's just that on that. This season got a Khaotic on it, and it makes things a little bit more chaotic.