Biggest Moments of 2015: Erica Mena Looks Back on Quitting Love & Hip Hop and Reading Her Cast Mates
For the next two weeks, VH1.com is bringing you Keeping It 100, a look back at the major moments from VH1’s biggest shows this past year, as told by the people who lived them.
In an exclusive conversation with VH1, Erica Mena opened up about quitting Love & Hip Hop, filming the reunion separately with Mona Scott-Young, and the criticism that she was brutal to Rich Dollaz, Cyn Santana, and Chrisy Monroe.
I think I set the tone [for the reunion,] because I separated myself from them and decided to say what I needed to say. The good thing is that [the viewers] have experienced me being at reunions before with everybody attacking me so I felt like, "Been there, done that. Let me just say what I have to say and not break a sweat."
I decided to film separately because I honestly felt like throughout the whole season I was the main target. It was actually a moment for me to let off steam and be able to close that chapter of my life. You can’t ever move on without the proper closure. I felt like especially because all of the false allegations and rumors that were made up about me throughout my whole last season that it was my time to really retaliate.
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Chrissy, Rich, Cyn, they all played this big role in saying f---ing lies about me so that when I said what I said, I came across to America as harsh. What they were portraying wasn’t real and they were able to fool the world. I was harsh because it was like "Now, let me tell you the real deal." Chrissy is a woman who came on the show with a made-up accusation just so she could cross paths with me. If you took away the lies about me from her, how many scenes would she have had? Her and her little drummer boy [Chink Santana] boyfriend's story line was completely boring and no one cared. People target other people for a reason. The head honcho is the head honcho and she gets her fair share of it but this head honcho is able to handle it.
I was a bit sad filming with Mona because it was my last season and I definitely wanted things to go differently. I didn’t want to have to defend all these crazy accusations on my way out. I worked hard all these years with my career to finally be on Love & Hip Hop and I never got a chance to show the audience a side of me that isn't always surrounded with drama. I am more than that. I’d been there for four years and it was a great journey from where I started. Now everyone knows, "You can't handle my mouth, motherf***er" so I made an impression.
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I wasn't sad to see the show go on without me. If anything it was boring and I think the audience agrees that it's extremely boring without me. This past year I've had time to get my life back in the sense where now my recent [relationship] status has everyone wondering, "Are they together? Are they not together?" I feel like this relationship isn’t on television, so I don’t owe the world an answer but it just proves that people are interested in my life.
What people fail to realize is that when I first got approached to do Love & Hip Hop it because I was supposed to be spinning off and becoming the headliner for [another Love & Hip Hop] city which wasn’t New York. I feel like me and the network have established a relationship so who is to say what could be next. I feel like I am built for this world and I’ve always been a very open person. The world isn’t done watching Erica Mena on TV and I know that.
As told to Damian Bellino