Imani Showalter

Listen to the extended conversation HERE.

End Credit Music: Always Sisters, Always Friends by CeCe Winans

I guess you could say Mo’Kelly has known Imani Showalter to a certain degree since 2005. It was after a piece on EURWEB.com regarding NBA forward Stephen Jackson, Mo’Kelly was DELUGED with mail.

Some notes were nice, some sho’ nuff weren’t.

In fact, some were from Stephen Jackson’s own mother and to this day her note resides in Mo’Kelly’s Hall of Fame. It is still true. If you can get somebody’s MAMA to email you, you KNOW you touched a nerve.  Mo’Kelly waited a whole year to share it with the world in a followup piece, needing Jackson to again do something worthy of ridicule. But it was well worth the wait.

Stephen Jackson STILL isn’t Very Bright (2006)

Someone else connected to Jackson also reached out after the first editorial…Imani Showalter.

Yes, that would be the very same Imani Showalter featured on the immensely popular VH-1 program, Basketball Wives: LA.

Mind you, this was 2005, long before anyone thought the idea of Reality TV and the NBA would ever intersect. Imani and I continued to quietly dialogue and exchange stories about the entertainment industry, the NBA and the unsettling nature of both.

To this day, there are stories Imani shared over the years that are truly unbelievable and not appropriate for print, or Reality TV.

And that’s the thing…we’ve all long known that the reality quotient of “Reality TV” is questionable at best. How much is “real,” how much prodding goes on from producers and what tricks take place in the edit bay which inform or maybe misinform our perception of Reality TV, Basketball Wives or otherwise?

Over the past couple of months, Imani and I have been trying to schedule a time to sit down and have a real, meaningful and honest conversation about influence, impact and even arguably the inappropriate nature of Reality TV generally and Basketball Wives: LA more specifically.

Showalter is a mother. It will be interesting to see what regrets (if any) she may have over the many years and the path which has led to this moment.

I say all that to say…this is a real conversation, not a program paid promotion. Imani reads Mo’Kelly as often as any of you, she KNOWS what Mo’Kelly is about, how Mo’Kelly feels about Reality TV and she is all about entering into a meaningful dialogue.

Today Mo’Kelly presents an extended audio conversation between Mo’Kelly and Basketball Wives: L.A. cast member, Imani Showalter.

Brian White

Another EXCLUSIVE from The Mo’Kelly Report.

OTHER INTERVIEWS:

Lamar and Sherri

Television and Film Actor Brian J. White – HERE. 

TV Producer, Writer and Sherri Shepherd’s New Husband Lamar Sally – HERE.

The Mo’Kelly Report is a syndicated politics and entertainment journal.  Visit http://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo’Kelly.  Contact him at mrmokelly@gmail.com.

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