Issa Rae’s Raedio label releases “Seduce and Scheme” from ‘Rap Sh!t’ soundtrack

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Alicia Vera/HBO Max

If you watched the two-episode premiere of Rap Sh!t last week, you’re familiar with the song “Seduce & Scheme,” created by lead characters Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion). The catchy freestyle-turned-track can now be played outside watching the show as it’s been released as the lead single off Rap Sh!t‘s season 1 soundtrack.

On the HBO Max series, “Seduce & Scheme” was the result of a drunken night, which ended in a spontaneous freestyle. In reality, however, the song was conceived at Camp Raedio, a series of writing workshops in Miami specifically intended to create music for the show’s soundtrack.

“It was a team effort: We had a couple of writers, one of the writers being pineappleCITI, who originally started the song,” Raedio President Benoni Tagoe tells Billboard. “And then we brought in Dreezy, because we knew that we wanted Dreezy to represent the voice of Shawna throughout the season.”

A slew of other writers assisted with Mia’s verse — though KaMillion is a rapper in real life — and Grammy-winning producer Earl on the Beat was brought on to help bring the song to fruition.

“Seduce & Scheme” is available now on streaming platforms. Though the single samples Khia’s “K-Wang,” Tagoe says other songs from the soundtrack were inspired by the likes of Missy ElliottLil’ Kim and executive producers City Girls, who Dreezy channels when writing lyrics for Shawna. 

“Before I write, I put myself in the character’s shoes. I pictured them as if they were the City Girls!” she told Billboard. “All about a bag, confident, and slick at the mouth so I made sure the lyrics came with that energy.”

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