'Love & Hip Hop' Star Fired After Racial Slur
The 'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta' star will not appear in the next season "effective immediately."
Erica Mena was let go from the MTV series Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta on Saturday after using a racial slur against a Black co-star. "The 'Love & Hip Hop' franchise has never shied away from hard conversations in our community," an official account of the VH1 series wrote Saturday in a post on Instagram. "Working hand-in-hand with our partners, viewers will see the impact of Erica Mena's remarks play out in the final three episodes of the season. "Effective immediately, she will not appear in the next season of 'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.'" In a controversial incident on the set of the MTV show, Mena referred to Spice as a monkey, a racial slur that has been used offensively against Black people for decades.
An episode from the show's 11th season depicts Mena, who is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent and whose ex-husband Safaree Samuels is Black, having an extremely heated conversation with Spice. Mena flipped a table onto the blue-haired Spice before producers separated them and called Spice a "blue monkey." Following the incident, Spice posted a Facebook Live video accusing Mena of talking behind her back, calling Mena "fake." Mena had previously been criticized for allegedly calling Jhonni Blaze, who appeared on Love & Hip Hop: New York, a "monkey," and was also accused of calling a group of promoters "Black monkeys" earlier in 2015.
Mena began her career initially as a model, appearing at 16 on MTV's Jennifer Lopez look-alike contest, before being featured as a model in hip-hop music videos, including ones for Young Gunz, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, and Akon. With stints on the Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami spin-off of Keeping up with the Kardashians and Love & Hip Hop: New York, Mena got her break on reality television. She and her ex-husband, Safaree Samuels, married in 2019 and have two children together. Following the announcement that she was expecting a second child with Samuels, she divorced him weeks later, in May 2021.
The first episode of Love & Hip Hop: New York premiered in 2011, focusing on the careers and personal lives of hip-hop singers, managers, and record producers. It has been almost a decade since the franchise launched, and it has since run spin-offs in Atlanta, Hollywood, and Miami that featured artists such as Soulja Boy, Waka Flocka Flame, Remy Ma, Ray J, and Keyshia Cole and has launched artists like Cardi B and K. Michelle. In 2020, "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta" was rebooted as a four-part special before being brought back for its tenth season in 2021, and it was moved to MTV for its 11th season, which premiered in June.
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