Today (Feb. 7), VH1 will air Love & Hip Hop: Lineage to Legacy, a special two-part event celebrating Black history and African ancestry.
For the first time, cast members from hit shows Love & Hip Hop and Black Ink Crew will join presenter Dometi Pongo (MTV News) in a thought-provoking special that will address the brutal impacts of slavery while simultaneously celebrating Africa’s rich history, music, craftsmanship, style, dance, and food.
Love & Hip Hop‘s Remy Ma, Papoose, Yandy Smith-Harris, Rich Dollaz, Tokyo Vanity, Paris Phillips, Karlie Redd, and Momma Dee team up with DNA Identity Expert Dr. Gina Paige, co-founder of AfricanAncestry.com, to take the only DNA test that reveals their African ethnic group and country of origin in Lineage to Legacy. Ceaser Emanuel, Katrina ‘Kat Tat’ Jackson, and Krystal Kill_lustrator, members of the Black Ink Crew, will create tattoos inspired by the Love & Hip Hop cast’s ancestral past to further memorialize and honor this life-changing experience.
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Ahead of the show’s start, the host, Dometi Pongo, spoke about hosting the experience, seeing the stars of Love & Hip Hop learn about their African ancestry, and more.
The SOURCE: How did you feel when you first heard about the “Lineage to Legacy” edition of Love & Hip Hop?
Dometi Pongo: My first reaction was a sense of pride because, in 2016, I first started doing these cultural excursions back to Ghana. When I was working at WVON, I would promote these trips where 20 to 25 people would come back to Ghana. And, you know, we kept them going all the way through 2020, over the course of four years. But I remember how difficult it was back in 2016 to get people our age on board. There were these stereotypes about Africa cause we weren’t seen as a tourist attraction. People asked whether the hotel accommodations would be ok? What is the food gonna be like? Is it civilized? It was ignorant and slightly disrespectful things people thought about Africa, but I know it wasn’t coming from a bad place. It was just the miscommunication about the continent. So when I got this treatment, I was like, man, it gave me a sense of pride cause we’re coming off of 2019 with this, this whole movement going back home and with a show like Love & Hip Hop, it’s totally relatable. You got these relatable cast members getting their DNA and reconnecting. It just gave me a great sense of pride.
This show is unique because it blends so many franchises. The LHH cast, you at MTV News, a couple of stars from Black Ink Crew. What was it like for you to be blended in all of these worlds? Also as a reporter and a host, how did the different personalities affect how you approached the series?
Oh man, that’s a great question. I think it was genius creative on the part of Mona Scott Young because, under this Viacom umbrella, we’re lucky to have all of these different brands housed in one place. Still, we don’t always talk to one another, and the audience is sometimes different. So being able to coexist like that was just genius in and of itself. And in terms of interacting with different cast members, it was refreshing. Cause you know, I got different touchpoints with each of them. I’m a Hip-Hop head. I’ve followed Papoose since he had every borough on his finger. So in between takes, I’m sitting there talking to him about the tattoos on his fingers and talking about his tattoo care. Then there was the professional part of me where I got to use my natural ability as a black reporter, along with my natural interest and aesthetic on camera. I also used the information I’ve learned in African culture and black history research. I don’t know if there was ever a point in my career where all of those worlds merged so perfectly as it was in this one, for sure.
For you personally, how has your lineage been taught to you and what tools did you use to dig even further and find things out for yourself?
I grew up with many African customs in my home, and even just my name, Dometi, means the backbone of the family and Pongo, meaning workhorse. I had this sense of identity that really helped me get a sense of confidence and develop my personality very early on. But I also had this thing where I don’t speak my native tongue fluently, so I always felt that I’m not African enough at my core. Then I go to school, and I’m getting teased for my name or my complexion. So then you feel like you’re not black American enough. I had to have these conversations with my dad about that. Why does it seem like a disconnect between my culture and theirs, and how to unpack it? It was just a lot of reading and a lot of conversation with folks learning that people were stolen through the African slave trade, but identities and who we are stolen. And so that leads to colorism and the possible alienation caused by their names or accents. So that helped me to, you know, guide folks through different. Also, a lot of reading, I read The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams and Lies My Teacher Told Me. The first book at 19 years old that I read about black consciousness that really got me together was the Autobiography of Malcolm X., So those books and conversations really helped me when it comes to knowledge.
What moment in hosting this show proved to be very special for you?
So there’s a funny moment and then a kind of a deeper moment. I’ll go the deeper moment first. Papoose was already a conscious brother. So he was already interested in these things. When figuring out where he was from, we explored what tribe specifically and found out who else is famous and notable is from this tribe. And you start to see these characteristics. They were all creative, musicians, and actors. We think things by osmosis are actually a part of your DNA. So Pap and I are on and off camera with some pretty cool conversations about that.
The funniest one was Rich Dollaz. He comes from a tribe that’s known for poly relationships. But it was funny for him because of the bit of Love & Hip Hop flare. Being involved with multiple women. Men in America look at polygamy as just having multiple partners, but in cultures around the world, it was actually for socioeconomic reasons. Having a blended household meant having more resources to share within the household. You couldn’t even have multiple wives if you didn’t have the resources to care for them.
So in this series, once cast members are connected to the African lineage, um, they receive a tattoo, bonding them to that history. Is there an item symbol, a family tradition that you carry with you every day that links you to your lineage, aside from your name and general history?
You know what there is. If you ever notice on MTV News: Need to Know, the digital show that I host, there is an African mask in the background. The “gye nyame” statue that I keep on the table means God is omnipotent. I keep this small statue, and it’s in the shape of the stool representing royalty. I try to bring those things with me every time I do the shoots, but I try to keep it to the side cause I don’t want to be too black while I’m doing my thing because, at the end of the day, mainstream. But those are the things that I keep in my presentation on there, and it just makes me feel comfortable for sure.
What do you hope viewers will gain from this series and what is something you hope many more people in our culture will be inspired to do?
I hope our culture is inspired by the idea of unifying the black diaspora. I remember Andre 3000 wore that outfit that said, “Across culture, darker people suffer most. Why?” And when you look at our global power, not only in numbers, you know how many of African descent just sheer volume outnumber. We come from a land of resources. Africa is the Mecca of resources. Whether it’s talking about gold or the chip used to power our iPhones, all of it comes from African soil yet, and we had our cultures raped and pillaged and plundered for so many generations that we don’t even see the benefit from it.
If Black Americans realized the power in unifying our African brothers, we could use our influence from Western civilization and give back to the culture. And there would be this ecosystem of us sharing resources back and forth. So we wouldn’t be treated globally the way we’re treated now. And what I hope people at home take from it is that Africa is yours too. Like Black culture, we have our own culture and traditions in America that help us sculpt our identity. We’re just all one big family. We shouldn’t separate ourselves the way we see ourselves doing now. And if we had this unity, we probably wouldn’t have the levels of crime that we see in our neighborhood or wouldn’t lack the political resources to combat the structures that continue to oppress us worldwide.