Externally, Momma Dee of “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” is as hard-edged as shards of broken glass. Her in-your-face, bombastic personality surprised some viewers and made others recoil. But it emanates from a tumultuous upbringing of parental abuse and being forced into the unforgiving, predatory streets at an age when most girls are dealing with pimples and proms.
And then, following a devastating head-on car accident, Momma Dee got into the pimp game while bedridden, and then recovering in a wheelchair to provide the basic necessities for her children.
Say what you will, the mother of Atlanta-based rapper Lil Scrappy is not to be dismissed, and is easily one of the most recognizable faces from the blockbuster VH1 reality show.
Momma Dee recently appeared on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show” to share how and why she broke into the pimp game and how she managed to run a brothel from her recovery bed. She also answered the question of which is worse and more cutthroat, the pimp game or the music industry. Her answer may surprise you.
“What happened was … What people don’t understand is that I have a degree in nursing and then a 16-year-old hit me head on. And he was drunk. And it took me three years to learn how to walk again. Within those three years, no one in my family came to boil a pot of water or do anything for me and my kids. I couldn’t work because every five years I would have to get a new hip. And when you have those types of surgeries, it takes your four or five months to even walk again. And it was hard. And I had to get on food stamps and welfare, you know. So there was no one to get school clothes and put toys under the tree. Who was going to do that? And I’m not a beggar. So I got it myself. And it wasn’t by force — it was by choice.”
Momma Dee, who kept things popping on “Love and Hip Hop,” said she in no way glorifies that type of lifestyle, and said she just did what a mother had to do to survive. She doesn’t appreciate people judging her who have not walked in her shoes nor lived what she had to go through.
