Mona Scott-Young Has Created a TV Empire by Keeping Things Real, and She's Not About to Start Faking It Now

The creator of "Love and Hip-Hop" invites us to her office to see how the reality TV magic is made.

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Television producer Mona Scott-Young has been dubbed the Queen of Ratchet TV, and her show, Love & Hip Hop, has been accused of exploiting black culture, particularly black women. “It’s a damn shame that any black woman in a position of power would feel comfortable exploiting her sisters in her quest for the almighty dollar,” writes Sil Lai Abrams on The Grio. Of course, Mona Scott-Young is a businesswoman first and foremost, and if success is measured by how well you handle your critics, she has been running circles around her competition for years.

Love & Hip Hop, VH1's reality soap opera about men in the music business and the women who surround them, was conceived in 2006. It aired for the first time in 2011, has since spawned six different spinoffs—Love & Hip Hop: AtlantaChrissy & Mr. JonesThe Gossip GameThis Is Hot 97Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood, and K. Michelle: My Life—and become one of the most polarizing shows on television.

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