Mona Scott Young has had a successful career that has spanned across time and the entertainment industry in a way matched by very few. Whether it was her time at Violator guiding the legendary careers of Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey and more, or the way her Love & Hip-Hop empire took reality television to heights unmatched, she is an incomparable woman of the highest caliber with still so much more to offer.
What was your first endeavor in the entertainment industry?
Oh wow, you want to go all the way back (laughing)? I often credit my time at Radio City Music Hall. So, way, way, way back—too many years to remember exactly—I got a job as a guest relations director. Basically, what we did was escort the talent when they came into the building for different productions. We showed them around and escorted them to their dressing rooms, and moved them from the backstage area onto the stage. That was my first experience of being bitten by the bug because I got the chance to see how the productions came together and watch how the talent rehearse before getting on stage. I had the opportunity to see how all the different pieces resulted in The Christmas Spectacular that brought so much joy to audiences. That is what I would say, started the trajectory.
After building up the legendary roster of clients at Violator Records/Management alongside Chris Lighty, what was it about reality television that caught your interest?
We had done such an amazing job with our clients in the music space, building them up and helping them develop their brands, and transitioning hip-hop into the mainstream. What would happen is when they wanted to act or get into producing film and television, we would have to either partner or watch our clients get represented by different companies because they had the expertise and contacts.
Around 2005, we had the opportunity to work with AMG who were transitioning from being major power players in the agency space in Hollywood into management and wanted access to urban talent. We worked with AMG and became that bridge. What I found was a whole new world full of all-new experiences. My first show was the one I did for Missy with UPN called The Road to Stardom. It was an eliminatory music competition show. I really loved the process of coming up with an idea and watching it come into fruition in a much different way than I had done managing careers and doing albums all those years… I started Monami Entertainment 2008 and transitioned out of Violator but kept Missy as a client. It was really about trying my hand in different arenas, but specifically wanting to produce television.
Did you have any idea that you would create such a revolutionary movement, not just in reality television, but in entertainment overall?
Listen, I would be lying if I said I knew it then. All I really did is lean on the experience that I had in managing talent, specifically in hip-hop and seeing some of the very same stories that play out throughout the seasons on the show happen before my very eyes. I wanted to pull the curtains back on a world I knew would fascinate people. I had no idea that it would have the kind of resonance it has or the staying power. I don’t know why I doubted it because people said the same thing about hip-hop, that it wouldn’t be around. Hip-hop has proven in all its many forms that it is here to stay. I had no idea that it would connect the way that it did.
What can you tell us about the new project, Queens of R&B, featuring members of the iconic groups SWV and Xscape?
That is a really exciting project for me. It is what I call a full circle moment. It allows me to not only do something in television, which is something that I now love, but it also ties back to music groups. We did a show back in 2017 with just Xscape. They had not been together for a very long time. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to usher in their reunion back then. It resulted in a thirty-city sold-out arena tour and docuseries where we chronicled them coming back together after so many years and giving the fans what they loved.
Fast-forward, when the opportunity came by the way of Bravo to tap into that 90s nostalgia again, it seemed like a no-brainer coming off the tremendously successful Verzuz the ladies did when SWV and Xscape came together. I wanted to tap back into that and see what would happen if we brought the ladies together to put on a one-night spectacular event. True to form, the music and nostalgia were there. I think the people will enjoy the results. There are also a lot of inner workings of what it takes to create a show, everything from who’s going to headline to what are the groups going to wear. I think it will be fascinating for the fans. It is really about sisterhood, the coming together of these two iconic groups and taking us on a trip down memory lane.
With the talent you have access to, why cast these particular acts for this kind of star-driven show?
The idea was sparked directly after their Verzuz. People love these two groups. I think when you look back at the history of SWV and Xscape; they share a very special camaraderie and rivalry that has always existed between them. You have Atlanta versus New York. Who is the greatest girl group of the 90s? That has always been a conversation between the fans for over thirty years. I think that Verzuz reignited and sparked that aged old debate and we had the opportunity to hop right into that. I hope with us titling it “The Queens of R&B,” that we can take this formula and give the fans different group couplings in that same way.
What has been the most challenging part of producing a show with so many different personalities?
Producing a show that has so many different personalities (laughing), point blank period. These ladies are dynamic and strong-willed. They didn’t get to where they are today or survive the ups-and-downs in a very fickle industry without having very strong personalities. Just imagine them navigating the dynamics within their own groups, the bringing both groups together. I think that’s where my years of being a manager comes in handy in getting them to figure it out and stay in it. As you watch the show, you will see they are all extremely passionate. Some of the disagreements did get heated, but what was beautiful about it was that their love of the art always prevailed. No matter what they went through, that always stayed front and center.
You have spoken in so many interviews that the reality content that you have produced was never supposed to project a monolithic view of what Black people are or what they should be. Why is it so important to create space for the totality of our dynamic personalities?
I love the way you put that. You are absolutely dead on. It is important because I think that historically we have been made to contend with that we should be ashamed or embarrassed of who we are and parts of our lives. It doesn’t allow us to fully embrace the beauty and totality of all of our experiences. I feel like every single thing we go through individually and as part of a collective directly contributes to who we are—our sense of resiliency, our sense of fortitude and our ability to overcome. It comes from embracing all of the things we have gone through.
Be’n Original
