JoJo and Tanice Simmons Talk "Growing Up Hip Hop," Marriage And Miscarriage

Ahead of Thursday night’s episode of “Growing Up Hip Hop” we spoke with one of the show’s happily married couples, JoJo and Tanice Simmons about their lasting relationship, talking about their miscarriage on TV, Only Fans and more!

Source: Courtesy WeTV / WeTV

Check out our Q&A with JoJo and Tanice below:

This show gets messy at times, but your relationship doesn’t seem to ever suffer because of it. Do you have ground rules about what you won’t share about your marriage to keep things smooth in your home?

JoJo: Obviously, we’re not going to bring the worst of the worst on camera, but we’re really just ourselves on camera, we don’t fake the funk or hide anything. At the end of the day, me and Tanice have been together so long that it’s kind of easy to be ourselves on and off camera because that’s just who we are.

How has it been preparing for Baby #2? How did you decide when to tell your daughter you were expecting again?

Tanice: I’m not going to lie. You would think that I would be prepared the second time around but I’m not. I’m still asking questions like when should I start unboxing and when should I do this? Second time around, so far I think I am dragging my feet a little bit. As far as preparing our daughter, it took us some time to tell our daughter, hopefully you’ll get to see some of it on the show, when we decided to tell her it took us some time because she actually knew about the pregnancy that wasn’t successful and that was pretty tough. If you watch the show every Thursday at 9, hopefully you can see us struggle with telling everyone that we are expecting.

JoJo you have been living your life in front of cameras for a long time and you have your dad’s marriage as an example, did that help you prepare for this show?

JoJo: For sure that definitely played a part in helping me understand how to maneuver in the reality tv world. With my wife, it’s not the same thing because we’re with a bunch of other people, but it’s kind of the same thing as far as how we attack the scenes. I tried to tell Tanice to come on there and be yourself, because when we’re at home we’re the funniest together and I think that’s what we bring. I guess that does reflect some of what I learned from doing “Run’s House,” and me kind of instilling some of my experiences into her.

Tanice: When I first started I was very reserved. It wasn’t natural to me and I was nervous about saying the wrong thing. You can get caught up, as you can see some cast members get completely caught up on camera. This season definitely you’ll find out way more of how JoJo and I balance our everyday lives, business and so many things.

Have you guys been able to offer Angela any support or advice when it comes to dating? Have you tried setting her up?

JoJo: I always try to give my best advice as a brother but I try not to meddle too much. As far as setting her up, I ain’t setting her up with nobody.

Tanice: If anything I’m doing my best to keep him in check so they can live their lives peacefully.

JoJo, this season you’re bringing your management company front and center on the show, what’s that been like?

JoJo: It’s been great. For the last few seasons I’ve been talking up Who’s House but this season I lock in and get some new talent and put some real capital behind it and try to make it really jump off the ground so it’s been fun and it’s been great and I can’t wait for you guys to watch the showcase I’m bringing to the show. You’ll see my artists, all my artists, including my new artist Jack, she just dropped a new video. It’s been great. I have all types of genres, not just hip hop, which makes it fun.

JoJo, you and Twist had a confrontation with Sam at Pepa’s house early this season and we saw Pep sit down with Twist, has she spoken with you as well?

JoJo: Pep hasn’t said anything to me about it. I would say just watch the show and you’ll see how it unfolds but she hasn’t said anything to me.

It seems like Sam is determined to never resolve these issues — is there any hope of reconciliation for you?

JoJo: I don’t know. We gonna see what Only Sams does. You gotta check that out. I’m not going to say what happens, but something happens.

Is it safe to say you guys are never doing OnlyFans?

JoJo: I’m never doing an Only Fans video and I can speak for her and say she’s never doing Only Fans. I’m not knocking anyone who has to do it to provide, but there’s other ways than showing your body and selling your body. You might as well be a male stripper.

Tanice: I think people show their feet on there.

JoJo: Right, Only Fans can be anything. It didn’t start out like that. People made it nasty. It started out for people who wanted to put out content for fans to pay for stuff and didn’t want to do it for free. I could be putting my artists on Only Fans instead of YouTube, like hey, ‘Go to OnlyFans to watch the video.’ But the world took it and made millions of dollars by sexualizing it. But hey it’s cool. I’m not coming at him for making an Only Fans if that’s the way he has to make his money. But we not making an OnlyFans on this side.

You guys are doing a YouTube channel though right, Meet The Simmons?

JoJo: We’re doing that moreso for our daughter because she watches these YouTube kids and she enjoys it and she always asks us “Can I do some?” We were hesitant at frst but finally we decided, ‘let’s support her so she doesn’t feel like we don’t support her and what she wants to do and never make her live with regrets.’ So we’re doing it for her and putting it out and shooting fun content and it’s been fun. Make sure you subscribe and give it a thumbs up. It’s a really kid friendly YouTube. I’m going to eat worms and I’m going to try to get my daughter to eat them with me.

This season you guys have new castmates, Stevie Jr. and Savannah Jordan and Cree. What have your interactions been like so far?

Tanice: I love them. I think Cree and Savannah are definitely made for TV. Definitely energetic, big hearts and they definitely both say what’s on their minds. Just being around them is definitely a fun time.

JoJo: I love Cree and Savannah, we have a fun time with them every time we’re around them. Cree got us some stuff off our registry. We love them. They’re cool girls.

Tanice, you also have your brand you’ve been working on right?

Tanice: I have a health and wellness brand called TrueTea. Right now the product I have is a detox tea, to help aid with your health and fitness and weight loss journey. It’s been about a year and a half that I’ve had it out. I’m one person who struggled with weight loss and finding out that you should cleanse regularly was an important part for me. It’s been going well and it’s a product that I used faithfully. I don’t use it while I’m pregnant so at the moment I’m on pause but the moment I drop this baby I’m right back on it.

Source: Auckvision / Courtesy WeTV

How long have you guys been together?

JoJo: 11 years together. One year married, October 27 made it a year so now we’re coming up on year two.

Tanice: I was 18 when we first started dating and I’m 29 going on 30 now.

Wow all of your 20’s.

Tanice: Yeah he was a headache.

How’d you make it last 11 years together?

JoJo: A lot of learning and communicating and asking ourselves ‘Do you really want this? If both parties really want it it’s not hard, but if one doesn’t really want it and you’re not on the same page it’s not going to work. I think that’s what really keeps people together.

What advice would you give couples doing reality TV?

JoJo: Don’t do it! Just kidding. Don’t change on each other. Don’t bash each other, uplift each other. And if you’re going to go on reality tv, don’t be in it to be on reality TV, actually be in love. Don’t go on TV to fake you’re in love.

Tanice: Do it for the enjoyment and not the money. The money is great but sometimes people do things for money and then they regret it later. Do it because you enjoy it and look at the paycheck as the extra.

Gotta love this beautiful Black couple! Tune in to WeTV at 9pm EST tonight to watch JoJo and Tanice on a brand new episode of “Growing Up Hip Hop”!