‘SQUARES’ AND A CUBE
Classic game show gets a ‘Hip Hop’ twist
I T’S never easy being scrutinized by your boss — especially when he’s rapper/ actor Ice Cube.
“Cube is always intimidating anyway,” says stand-up comedian DeRay Davis, host of “Hip Hop Squares,” a new VH1 game show that Ice Cube co-produces and appears in occasionally.
“Just walking past him is intimidating. And then him being there and me asking a question and making sure I get it right ... but he’s such a cool dude. He took himself out of boss mode [on the show].
“He knows what he wants,” Davis adds. “He said to me, ‘I want this to be your show, do your thing, [but] this is what I’m looking for.’ ”
“Hip Hop Squares” (premiering Monday at 9 p.m.) is based on the old “Hollywood Squares” (tic-tactoe) format but has a much looser, nightclub-y feel than its predecessor. There’s lots of alcohol on the premises and the show opens with hip hop dancers (with tunes spun by DJ Biz Markie). Two celebrities (Tyson Beckford and Don Benja- min in the first episode) try winning money for two contestants by choosing one of the celebrity squares and agreeing or disagreeing with their answers to pop culture questions. The celebrity panelists include Bobby Brown, Amber Rose, Fat Joe, Remy Ma and Faizon Love.
There’s a lot of banter between Davis — who previously hosted Game Show Network’s “Mind
of a Man” — and the stars, bred by their mutual familiarity (Davis appeared with Ice Cube in the movies “Barbershop” and “21 Jump Street,” for instance).
“I’ve known a lot of these guys 10 or 15 years and that puts me in a comfort zone,” he says. “I think that’s another reason Cube gave me this job. I know what lines to crosss and not to cross. SomeSome ofof the stuff [the writers] asked me to ask [the stars], I skipped over.
“I’ve had no walkoffs on the set and no tantrums. Anything can happen on this show and you have no idea how people are [going to behave], especially when there are free drinks and it’s a party.”
Davis says he feels more like himself on “Hip Hop Squares” than his last project, even though he’s hosting another game show. “This is the real DeRay,” he says. “‘Mind of a Man’ was great, but I was dealing with people a little
bit oolder than me. I get to kick it here in this natural cchaos. I’m in my element. “This will educate people,” he adds. “There’s a lot of stuff even I didn’t know. I’d say that, if we were in school, this would be the ‘fun class,’ like, ‘I can’t wait to go to hip hop class!’
“Besides, hip hop has taken over,” Davis says, alluding to an episode of “Jeopardy!” last month in which host Alex Trebek rapped lyrics by the likes of Lil Wayne, Drake, Desiigner, Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar (in a category called “Let’s rap, kids!”).
“When Alex Trebek raps [Desiigner’s] ‘Panda, panda, panda,’ you know hip hop is making it.”