Ego trip, the collective brains behind VH1’s "TV’s Illest
Minority Moments" (last February), has partnered with VH1 once more to
present "Race-O-Rama," another humorous observation of race in America,
to air in February.
The "Race-O-Rama" series examines the nation’s race issues – which
ego trip deems "the new pornography," – with three one-hour shows,
"Blackaphobia," "Dude, Where’s My Ghetto Pass" and "In
Race We Lust." Ego trip, consisting of journalists Sacha Jenkins, Elliott
Wilson,
Chairman Mao, Gabriel Alvarez and Brent Rollins, self-published ego trip music
magazine from 1994 to 1998.
The publication was renowned for its comical coverage of hip-hop
and other music genres. "After doing a magazine and two successful books,
it’s fine time for us to get another shot at the small screen," said Elliott
Wilson, editor-in-chief of hip-hop publication XXL.
VH1 supervising producer Joey Anuff, eager to transform content from ego trip’s
"Big Book of Racism" into visual form, contacted the coalition for
their second endeavor.
"Most of the time VH1 just looks back at the stuff we love, or makes us
laugh or whatever," said Anuff in a statement. "But when you look
at ego trip’s books, you see they’re looking at the same stuff with a much more
charged lens. In a way they’re the perfect VH1 project."
This year’s guest list on the series includes rappers RZA, Talib Kweli, Too
Short, MC Lyte, and Baby, and actors/actresses Bai Ling, Bill Duke, Garrett
Morris, Kadeem Hardison and Esai Morales. Comedians Paul Mooney, Tim Meadows,
Joey Medina, Earthquake are also expected to appear.
Ego trip has released two books, "ego trip’s Book of Rap Lists"
and "ego trip’s Big Book of Racism!" in addition to an old-school
compilation album titled ego trip’s The Big Playback. Sirius Radio will host
ego trip’s live two-hour radio program on Eminem’s Shade45 beginning in March
2005.