When the hit MTV show Wild N’ Out premiered more than a decade ago, few — including series mastermind Nick Cannon — could predict that the show would become as successful, and as influential, as it would become. Dubbed “Hip Hop’s answer to Whose Line Is It Anyway?” the show was originally ground zero for many urban comedians to flex their muscle and break through into the mainstream, much in the way shows like Def Comedy Jam tried to do with lesser success.
The show, currently in its twelfth season on MTV, has branched out to not only include more mainstream music stars on their show (remember the Azaelea Banks fiasco? And, more recently, the Tekashi 6ix9ine/Ludacris fiasco?), but to include a comedy tour with sold-out shows across the United States and Canada, too.
The latter success has bowled over Wild N’ Out on Tour star Rip Michaels, née Rodney Spencer, who spoke to HipHopDX at the MTV Video Music Awards last week about the show’s overwhelming success, and Nick Cannon’s role in the partnership.
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“We’ve been selling out in cities that the show doesn’t even air in,” he said. “It’s been amazing.”
When the show marked its landmark twelfth season, it became the longest-running urban comedy show in history — taking the crown from such classic, influential shows as In Living Color, Chapelle’s Show, and Def Comedy Jam.
Thanks in no small part to the show’s inclusion of popular mainstream and Hip Hop musical guests, Wild N’ Out — and Wild N’ Out on Tour — has not only changed MTV’s zeitgeist but has made an impact on popular culture as well.
So much so, in fact, that Micheals has earned a new fan — and a new comedy partner — in an unlikely celebrity: Cardi B.
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“Me and Cardi B, we just teamed up,” he explained. “We’re doing a sketch comedy show that has music, that has comedy, that has Hip Hop, that has everything in it.”
Citing old-school influences as Dick Van Dyke and Flip Wilson, Micheals explained that Cardi B’s show would hearken back to the golden age of television in its presentation and its topical humor. And, of course, Micheals and Cardi B would be teaming up with Mona Scott — the Love and Hip Hop creatrix — to bring the show to the small screen.
But don’t call it stunt casting: Micheals insists that the “Bodak Yellow” maestro is actually very, very funny. “When you see Cardi B do these sketches, you’re going to lose your mind,” he said. “Cardi B has this one character, where she gives what she calls ‘Hoe Etiquette,’ and it’s all about the proper way of being a hoe. And only Cardi B can explain something like that.”
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One of those skits was leaked out today in the form of Cardi B. portraying Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and resulted in an apology from the platinum-selling superstar. If there’s more where that came from the headlines are all but imminent.
The Wild N’ Out on Tour road show continues until the end of September. Tickets can be purchased here. Wild N’ Out airs every Friday at 10:00 p.m. EST on MTV.
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