Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 5 - Here's What We Can Tell Fans So Far
While WeTV has had plenty of reality shows to choose from, including "Marriage Boot Camp," "Bridezillas," and "Mama June: Road to Redemption," perhaps its most popular series is "Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta." Fans even voted the show as No. 1 on Ranker's list of the Best WeTV shows currently on the air. So it makes sense that fans are clamoring for information about the latest season and whether the series is coming back.
"Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta" is the second series in WeTV's popular "Growing Up Hip Hop" franchise, spinning off the latter and obviously centered in Atlanta, Georgia. Since the mid-1990s, per the New York Times, Atlanta has become a hotbed for hip-hop talent that helped the genre grow and develop. By 2009, Atlanta became the creative center of the hip-hop genre, and the music's takeover of the city has continued since then. So naturally, Atlanta became the obvious choice for a spinoff of the network's beloved series.
"Growing Up Hip Hop" and its spinoffs follow the lives of young hip-hop artists — mostly the offspring of major stars in the genre — as they navigate their own identities outside the shadows of their famous parents, while still hoping to gain from its privileges. The popular show has currently aired for four seasons, and fans are already anxious to know about the fifth. We've got the scoop.
Has Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta been renewed, and when will it air?
"Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta" first bowed on the WeTV network in May 2017, just a year after the original "Growing Up Hip Hop" premiered. In October 2020, WeTV renewed its successful spinoff, according to TV Series Finale, for a 10-episode Season 4, after its third season completed its run in August 2019. After the pandemic delay, the network happily announced in a press release (via TV Series Finale) that Season 4 of "Atlanta" was already in production "with rigorous safeguards in place to ensure the health and safety of the whole cast and crew amidst the challenges of COVID-19." Season 4 premiered on January 7, and ran its 10 episodes in succession, finishing on March 11.
Now in October, a scant seven months after the season finale, news is uncertain about Season 5. With conflicting reports about whether the series has definitely been renewed or not, with articles from RenewCancelTV and Tonight's TV contradicting each other, there's no definite word yet on the renewal status of the series for a fifth season, and none of the reports have information about a release date. With the pandemic continuing and life still uncertain, it's perhaps not surprising that a decision has yet to be made.
Who is in the Season 5 cast of Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta?
The cast of "Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta" is led by Bow Wow — who, while he doesn't have celebrity parents, was famously mentored by Snoop Dogg at 13, according to The Cinemaholic. Bow Wow joined the series in its first season, along with hip-hop mogul Jermaine Dupri's daughter Shaniah Mauldin, high-profile music exec Debra Antney's godson Brandon Barnes, and former Beastie Boys collaborator DJ Hurricane's daughter Ayana Fite. Rounding out the Season 1 cast was Reginae Carter, daughter of Lil Wayne, and Zonnique Pullins, daughter of T.I. and Tiny. (Reginae and Zonnique also worked together previously in the late-2000s girl group OMG Girlz, per Billboard.)
While Zonnique and Reginae left during Season 2, some additions to the cast were made in Season 3, according to The Cinemaholic — including T-Boz of TLC, married couple Waka Flocka Flame and Tammy Riviera, Eazy-E's daughter Reemarkable, and Drea Kelly and Joann "Buku" Kelly, ex-wife and daughter, respectively, of the infamous R. Kelly. Though the cast of Season 5 has not been announced, since a renewal is not definite, it remains to be seen who the cast will be. But it seems likely that Bow Wow, Shaniah, Ayana, and others will return.
A real life Empire, with drama (and spinoffs) to spare
Created by Datari Turner, both "Growing Up Hip Hop" and "Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta" were seemingly developed in response to the popularity of Fox's "Empire," the hit 2015 primetime soap starring Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard. The show's characters were inspired by real-life hip-hop moguls like Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, and Romeo Miller — the latter of whom was a cast member on "Growing Up Hip Hop" — so what could be better than following young hip-hop stars in real life?
And much like Andre, Jamal, and Hakeem Lyon on "Empire," the "Atlanta" cast members strive to carve out their own paths in the music industry separate from their parents' fame (or infamy). Take Buku Kelly for example, daughter of recently convicted singer R. Kelly; in Season 3, Buku tried to kick off her own music career away from her father's criminal record.
While fans eagerly await news about Season 5 of "Atlanta," there are multiple spinoffs of the show to tide viewers over for the time being. Season 4 showed Da Brat (like Bow Wow, another famous rapper in her own right) embracing her sexuality and revealing her romance with Jesseca "Judy" Dupart, resulting in their own spinoff, "Brat Loves Judy." Additionally, the other "Atlanta" spinoff —"Waka & Tammy: What the Flocka" — has been renewed for Season 2, per TV Series Finale.