How the ‘Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta’ Cast Moved Past Erica Mena’s Controversy (Exclusive)

Rasheeda Frost is back for the second half of the 11th season of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, and while there’s always drama on the longstanding reality series, she promises this season is a bit different. For the OG cast member, she takes on the responsibility of being a woman of wisdom. Having gone through so much on the show in her own marriage and friendships, she wants nothing more than to curate peace. That’s necessary more than ever after the controversy of the first half of the season.

Viewers will never forget the moment ATL transplant Erica Mena was fired. Days after a scene featuring the fiery-tongued Latina hurling a racial slur at her Jamaican cast member aired, she was swiftly fired from the show. Mena says the firing was unjust as production knew the scene was featured and even built the season and its fallout around the moment. Many won’t refute that the firing happened seemingly because of the backlash. Mena has since apologized to the Black community, whom she says are her core fanbase, but she refuses to apologize to her victim, Spice. 

With such a heavy issue in the first half of the season, Frost told PopCulture how refreshing the second half is. “Everybody came together like we normally would. We deal with a lot of different things throughout the season. In that case, it was a different kind of situation,” she admitted. “But I feel like things happen and it’s out of our control when certain things happen, and it’s it is what it is. I hate that it happened that way because we all are like a family, like one big old family who have been working together for all these years. And when something like that happens, and you get taken back like, ‘Damn, when did it go left? Why did it have to go this far? Why did it have to end so badly?’ But at the end of the day, like I said before, you have to deal with the consequences of your actions. And it is what it is.”

Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta airs every Tuesday at 9 PM EST on MTV. Past seasons can be streamed on Paramount+.