You may recognize Mehgan James from television, best known for her standout roles on both “Basketball Wives” and “Bad Girls Club,” but her talents go far beyond the small screen.
Her personality is contagious, her energy is unmatched, and she holds nothing back when it comes to getting to the bag.
In describing herself, she states, “I’m a boss b*tch. Honestly, I’m a really, really down-to-earth person. I love to be around people, I’m a people person.”
Hailing from Houston, Texas, even graduating from the University of Houston with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Mehgan is an actress, model, entrepreneur, social media personality… and now recording artist. And for her first ever, debut single called ‘Playbook’ she got a feature from one of the biggest artists of our generation, Soulja Boy, Mehgan James once again shows the world what she’s capable of.
Mehgan also has her own podcast called “The Hollywood Group Chat,” where she spills all the tea and drama that takes place behind the scenes in Hollywood. Her recent episode with Blueface’s baby mother Jaidyn Alexxis hit over 100K in less than a day.
AllHipHop spoke with Mehgan James in downtown Los Angeles to discuss her time on “Bad Girls Club,” getting a degree for her mom, executive producing her own show, releasing her own music, performing and more!
AllHipHop: How was it growing up in Houston? There’s a huge nightlife scene out there.
Mehgan James: Houston is a lit ass city. It was like the guy that I never got to see in high school, then blew up. That’s how it is, Houston is a lit ass city. But as far as entertainment, there’s no real entertainment scene, music scene, fashion scene in Houston. They need to fix that. [laughs]
AllHipHop: What was the biggest takeaway from “Bad Girls Club?”
Mehgan James: I don’t really have a takeaway from “Bad Girls Club,” but those b###### had a takeaway not to f### with me. Don’t, because I’m not the one, the two, or the three. They had a takeaway, I didn’t really get a takeaway. Bad Girl Club was like jail. You had a wake up time, a lights out time. We had one bathroom, seven b######.
AllHipHop: One bathroom on purpose?
Mehgan James: Yes. No internet, no cable, no electronics and a fridge full of alcohol. We filmed for three months, so it was literal hell.
AllHipHop: Do you feel like it did what it needed to to boost your name?
Mehgan James: I think it did what it needed to do for me, but I did a lot of that myself. I just made sure to continue to stay relevant throughout the years. Get myself on new TV shows, new opportunities. To where I’ve fallen on today, you know?
AllHipHop: What’d you want to be growing up?
Mehgan James: I wanted to be the president. [laughs] On God. Growing up, I always wanted to be on TV. I manifested that. But if I had to pick a real job, I wanted to be the president when I was a kid.
AllHipHop: Are you into politics now?
Mehgan James: Not really, I just wanted to run the world. [laughs] For real.
AllHipHop: You went to college and got your degree in Communications. What did you want to do with that?
Mehgan James: I went to college for my mom. I never really wanted to go to college. I was like, “please here b*tch, take this degree and leave me alone.” Because I’ve always been an artsy black sheep, creative out of my family. Everyone else has real jobs. All my friends from back home have real jobs. I was never that person and I knew I didn’t want to work for anybody. I got my degree for my mom like “here b*tch, now leave me alone.” [laughs]
AllHipHop: How proud is she now?
Mehgan James: She’s really proud, but it’s so crazy because she doesn’t understand my career. They grew up in the old school days where we didn’t have social media. She’ll call me like, “so what’s this little TV show that you’re producing?” B*tch it’s not a little TV show, I almost died 15 times. But okay bye. This sh*t p##### me off so much because my brother, he plays in the NFL. My closest brother, she’s always like, “oh, go Brian. La la la.” But you can physically see my brother’s job: he goes to work every day. He goes to practice, all that stuff. With my job, she has no idea what I do. She thinks it’s a game.
AllHipHop: Producing a television show… that’s a big deal!
Mehgan James: Yeah, it really is.
AllHipHop: Can you touch on that?
Mehgan James: I’ve been on reality TV since I was 18, and I wanted to get behind the camera to see the experience behind the camera. It’s way harder! It’s way harder than being in front of the camera. You have to deal with scheduling, the b######, their attitudes. Their makeup, the hair, the budget. The damages! The damages from b*tches fighting in the house. It’s a headache honestly, but I wouldn’t take the experience back. It was a great experience and I’m glad that I was able to do that.
AllHipHop: How did you end up producing “Real Sidechicks of LA?”
Mehgan James: This network called For Us By Us, it’s owned by that clothing brand FUBU. They reached out to me like, “hey, we’re looking for a female executive producer for this project. Would you be interested?” I said yeah of course. They handed me the job and I feel like I did a really good job at it.
AllHipHop: What goes down on “The Real Side Chicks of LA?”
Mehgan James: Girl, what didn’t go down? There was fights, threesomes, damages. There was some yoga, people’s Instagrams got deleted. It was crazy. The drama is still going on. Y’all, we stopped filming. We wrapped 10 days ago, why is there still drama?
AllHipHop: Because being the side chick isn’t fun…
Mehgan James: I disagree. I would so much rather be the side chick than the main chick.
AllHipHop: Why?
Mehgan James: You ain’t gotta deal with the headache. We do what we do when we do it, and I ain’t gotta deal with you for the rest of the week. Go back to your girlfriend, bye.
AllHipHop: But what if you want to be his main chick?
Mehgan James: See, you don’t get involved with the n*ggas that you want to be their main chick. You have to get an understanding from the beginning. If we gon’ do this, what are the benefits? That’s that.
AllHipHop: Congrats on your new podcast, “The Hollywood Group Chat.” Do you have guests lined up that you’re excited for?
Mehgan James: We have King Von’s sister next week, Kayla. I love her, that’s my girl. We’re gonna do a group chat of industry women and we’re gonna talk about dating in the industry. I don’t want them all to be messy interviews, I want some of them to be insightful and I also want to get some guys on the show.
AllHipHop: Are you dating? Are you single?
Mehgan James: I’m single as f###, as a m############ Pringle b*tch. Because these guys in LA, I can’t do it. It’s trash. It’s really bad, I can’t do it. Especially like guys from LA, that’s out. All these guys are out. You want a girlfriend? [laughs] Because I’m gonna try that next.
AllHipHop: I saw you were at 21 Savage’s FreakNik, how was that?
Mehgan James: Yes, it was so fun. FreakNik was fun. I really wish LA would have stuff like that. I feel like LA has no culture. There’s not really any culture. Every other major city around America like New York, they have the Jamaican spots. The Haitian spots. They have people there like “oh, I’m Jamaican. I’m from Africa. La la la.” In LA, everyone’s so American. So boring, but FreakNik was lit.
AllHipHop: What was the best memory?
Mehgan James: Probably whenever Drake and 21 performed, it was cool. It was a vibe, because it was like a black Coachella. Everybody was just in their costumes, vibing, smoking, chillin’. It was a good vibe.
AllHipHop: Is there something fans may not know about you?
Mehgan James: Girl, all my businesses is online. Everybody knows everything about me. Okay my favorite color is black, bet y’all know that. Everybody knows my whole life, so no. [laughs]
AllHipHop: Can we talk about your music?!
Mehgan James: I literally just started doing music… last year? I think it was last year. Soulja Boy was my very first song. That’s so cool right? To have a legend as your very first feature.
AllHipHop: How’d that happen?
Mehgan James: I’ve been friends with him since I was 18 and he really just did me a solid. We paid for it. We paid for the verse, but he didn’t have to hop on my song. He’s one of the most solid n*ggas I’ve ever met in my life. I’ve dropped a couple songs post that song. I just signed a publishing deal with APG, which is cool. For my first year music to get a publishing deal, is really really big.
AllHipHop: Are you talking your s###? Are you singing?
Mehgan James: I’m talking my s###, a little rap. I’m like a rap singy. I have a mentor, her name is Adella. She’s married to the Streetrunner. Streetrunner’s one of biggest producers out of 2000’s. He worked on Lil Wayne, he worked on DJ Khaled. They’re really deep into the music industry and his wife is my mentor, but she got me into sync music. Which is basically the music you hear behind TV shows, video games. That’s where the real money is. It’s bread there, so that’s my focus right now.
AllHipHop: What can we expect music wise? Are you going to drop something?
Mehgan James: I’m really working on my sync sh*t, you feel me. I kinda want a Lil Baby feature, if I have that extra $150K. I’m trying to go to Rolling Loud. I need that performance experience. The LA one. So if you know anybody sis, plug me in. But yeah, I’m really just trying to work on my sync sh*t because there’s a big bag behind that. I’m here for the money and not the fame. I don’t give a f*ck about being famous. Pay me b*tch. [claps]