Somaya's Reece Interview With Global Grind

Global Grind Exclusive interview with Somaya Reece: Love and Hip Hop

GlobalGrind: Tell us about this season and how your storyline differs from last season. 

Somaya Reece: I think last season was really about Somaya, in more ways than one. The reason why you see me more was to focus on my music. A lot of things go overshadowed in season one because of all the fighting, so this time around I'm just really focused on getting a investor, getting my team right. Maurice was never a good team to work with, which you will see. So I fired him; I’m not working with him anymore. I promote people not being violent towards women, abusing women physically or verbally. That’s something that he did to Chrissy that I didn’t like, so that was a really big factor in a lot of things. I tried this time to be more, instead of being hot and hot, I tried to be more hot and cold. I tried my best to reach out to the girls. I tried to turn a new leaf and really focus on being the bigger person, whether or not the other person wasn’t interested or was interested in listening. I still did the right thing as a grown woman, and reach out and try to have a breakthrough with the girls and I did.

I have my own tequila company, my own Tequila line, which is a multi-million dollar company. It’s called La Jefa Tequila, which means the boss. And I’m the first Salvadorian, Latina woman to ever own their own tequila, so this is a big deal. La Jefa Tequila has been written up in Forbes magazine. So Forbes named us America’s most promising company. You’re girl is doing really well.

You’re not public enemy number one in the girl's eyes. Kimbella has taken that roll. When the whole scene (fight) with Kimbella went down...

To be quite honest with you, I don’t know how it’s edited, so I don’t exactly know when they show that happening. I just felt this really weird feeling, like something was going to happen. The whole room got really big. I thought 'I don’t know what’s about to go down, but I don’t want to be a part of it.'  I pretty much just got up and just sat myself across from Kimbella just to see the situation unfold. 

Did you expect Chrissy to hit her?

This is what’s crazy, it happened so fast. It probably looked a little slower for you guys because there’s so many camera angles, but it happened so fast that we’re sitting there talking, all of a sudden you hear “plow." It was just unexpected. I didn’t really see exactly how it went down because I was sitting there talking to Emily. We couldn’t figure out what was going on and then all of a sudden you just hear Chrissy going at it. I think everybody was shocked. 

Is there something else going on between Kimbella and Chrissy that maybe we don’t know about? 

I think that was everybody’s assumption at first. Maybe they had a beef and didn’t know about it. That’s pretty fair to say to anybody because it just happened so fast. I feel like it wasn’t my place to really ask Chrissy that or anything while it was happening because it was just so deep. There was absolutely no time really to ask questions or anything. That’s it. That was the assumption based right off the bat. Something deeper must be happening. That eventually changes through time in the episodes, but that was the initial reaction.  

So how are you and Olivia doing? Because you and Olivia haven't had the best relationship. Have you ladies squashed the beef? Are you cordial?

I tried my best to talk to her, even everyone around me had told me that she talks about me behind my back. It’s just really no foot off me because at this point right now I got everything I need to out of my situation. I tried to be as cordial as I could with her. I definitely tried to reach out to her, but it’s so draining. I hear her on the radio all the time. I see videos all the time, but I just figure, even if she is talking about me behind my back, at least people will see that I made the effort to try to reach out to her, and to try to be chill with her. 

What made you want to do a tequila line?

Well, the reason why I call myself “The Boss” is because, I think a lot of women have it confused when they say 'Oh, I’m a boss chick,' but what are your goals? What exactly are you trying to be a boss of? Is it of yourself, your family—what are you empowering? My biggest thing is I always wanted to turn my name and everything into a multimedia brand and also a brand that covers different things, like beauty, liquor and all those things. I very much idolize 50 Cent and what Beyonce has done and Jennifer Lopez. They've taken their name and they’re actors, they have their own perfume and things of that. And I have all those things that I’m on my way to becoming. So these are part of the steps. I pretty much did this myself. I found the investor in Bottles Up Ink, who put it all together for me. It’s a premium tequila. It’s top shelf, so it’s tripled filtered. It’s a silver and it tastes really good, and I’m not just saying that because it’s mine. I had to really go through a lot of taste testing, which is really hard (laughs). I was buzzed the whole time, for months!