It Is What It Is, the digital sports show starring multi-hyphenates Cam’Ron and Ma$e, is impossible to ignore now.
With two rappers as its main voices and producers, a smart new fantasy sports company bankrolling it, and headlining interviews with guests who might make a network executive’s skin crawl, IIWII is certainly different.
But the show is also massive. Cam’Ron and Mase’s creative takes, out of pocket debates, lewd one-liners and conspicuous guests have generated a big, loyal audience since launching earlier this year. The rappers-turned talking heads have more YouTube subscribers than legends of the industry like Dan Le Batard, Dan Patrick and Bill Simmons.
As much as two celebrities with the money to largely self-fund a sports talk venture can go DIY, IIWII is DIY. With a recent college grad hosting and a self-developed bright-pink South Florida studio, at one point IIWII may have just been a curio. But it recently graduated to shooting in Las Vegas thanks to a partnership with Underdog Fantasy, and landed important interviews with Stephen A. Smith and Damian Lillard.
Whether it’s the sports memorabilia combined with three-piece suits Cam and Ma$e wear, the loose format of the show or the baby-faced host moderating the two, IIWII just feels different.
That host, Treasure Wilson, is just as big a surprise as any piece of the show’s puzzle. She is sunny, quick, and comfortable but was a complete unknown before Cam hired her while she was still completing her senior year at the University of Miami. Wilson, or “Stat Baby”as the stars call her (she doesn’t think it’s based on Tony Reali — we asked) became a producer behind the scenes on the show early on before moving to moderator early in Season One.
Wilson, 22, spoke with Awful Announcing about a whirlwind 2023, her approach to anchoring the unique show, and what she sees herself doing next.
Your pinned tweet is where I want to start, which is a very kind Instagram post from Cam’Ron with his version of the story of hiring you. Can you just walk me through how that intro came about and how you started doing work on It Is What It Is?
People are kind of finding this out along the way, but when I first started working on It Is What It Is, I was actually a senior in college at the University of Miami.
I was doing sports internships, sports work like that and basically I was getting kind of into acting and I saw a role that basically they made it seem like it was a casting call for somebody with sports knowledge preferred. So I applied for it, not thinking that it was going to be a show, not thinking it would be a whole production.
I thought it was going to be a quick little Q&A-type thing, like a panel. I showed up, I met with the person who runs the production company whose name is Kevin Spence, and he said ‘we’re in production of getting a new sports show (going), I saw your Instagram, your resume, and wanted to have you hear for an audition.’
So basically we auditioned, we did a little debate on current sports topics, and still at that point I really didn’t think too much of it. And then a couple days later he called me back and I was introduced to Cam, and we went on from there.
It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, but it ended up being bigger.
So if you thought this was going to be acting, did you even know at that time that Cam or Mase were involved with it? Or did you just think, ‘I’m trying out for a role and let’s see what happens’?
I had literally no idea Cam and Mase were involved. I didn’t even think it was going to be, per se, a podcast. I wish I could find the casting of what it said because it was very vague.
I was like, I’m assuming I’ll get the role because I know a lot about sports. I went on a whim not expecting any of what happened to happen.
Where did the “Stat Baby” nickname come from?
If you look back at the first episodes, I wasn’t the original host. I was doing more of a content producer role. The host was a woman named Esmeralda.
Because I was a content producer, I was creating the topics, finding stats if Cam or Mase needed something on a whim. And it kind of just clicked.
One because I was coming up with stats and bringing it to them, and two being a baby because I think people forget how young I am. So Stat Baby just kind of clicked and I’ve been rocking with that ever since.
Did you have a relationship to Cam’Ron and Mase as far as liking their music or having a familiarity with them? They are a little bit on the older side, but were you a fan before this?
I definitely knew who they were, and I think it connected when I met them. Because it was so weird, already I knew them. I knew they had done movies and stuff. They joke on me all the time that I’ve never gotten around to seeing the movies they’ve been in, but then Mase and Cam’s music was both already in my playlists.
So it was one of those things where when I connected, it was like oh shoot, I know who they are. And then they obviously have a huge influence because they have an influence on a lot of the people I listen to now in this generation.
How do you approach working with Cam’Ron and Mase? Obviously they get a lot of attention for their theatrics and being goofy, having their own approach, just being different than a lot of shows we watch. But they are obviously trying something new moving into a different space, and there’s an age difference. What do you view as your role to improve the show, help them, lift everything up?
I obviously bring a very different perspective because in production, I’m definitely the only girl. The only other woman there would be the makeup artist.
So I feel like I bring a woman’s perspective and I bring the younger generation’s perspective to the point where we teach each other. In my eyes, they have a lot of wisdom. They’ve been through it all and they just have so much history with each other, in the sports and music industry in general to the point where the word I would use is iconic. They are icons that have made their mark.
That’s why I embrace that I’m newer and different because I think it adds to the show and makes it funny. They’re teaching me things, I’m learning things about the past and just seeing the automatic connection they have whether it’s with athletes, people in the music industry, people who have big names.
And then me being able to, I guess I would describe myself as the little sis, who’s learning things but also saying hey, did you see this popular TikTok, this is being talked about right now, bringing the newer perspective.
So I think I’m just, I don’t even want to see playing a role. Because it’s just a chemistry that fits, and we bonded really well to where we just communicate everything. And sometimes we communicate and figure things out as we’re filming. And I think that’s the fun of it, because viewers are watching it and connecting to us because they’re figuring out stuff just like we are.
Yeah, seeing how the show is received and seeing how people love to have fun in the comments, it seems like that enthusiasm and that very genuine conversation, you guys have found that. Do you remember a moment where you provided something they weren’t thinking of or vice versa?
Off the top of my head, we were interviewing Antonio Brown and every time we have a guest, I’m going through the tweets, the TikToks, the Instagram, different things that the newer generation would be seeing.
And one of the things that I caught that I did ask him was like, yo, why is AB only following (Insecure and Barbie star) Issa Rae on Instagram?
And Cam was like, that’s a really good question. I was not looking into that, I would not have thought of that, ask him what you want.
So sometimes we’ll start there and it dives into a deeper discussion.
I noticed going through your social media that you emphasize quite a bit that you are a journalist first and foremost. That word you could say is hard to define right now, so can you tell me why that’s important to you?
I define myself as a journalist because my first and foremost thing that I think is important is I want people to be able to tell their true stories and be their authentic selves no matter what the situation is.
I know you can also define a journalist as someone who’s just getting to the bottom of asking questions and getting information, but in addition to getting information, I want people to be comfortable telling their side of things.
I think a lot of the time nowadays, people feel like they either have to be a certain niche or have a certain belief. Because there are some things I might not even relate to somebody about, but as long as I feel like they’re getting the opportunity to share a perspective they’ve never been able to share before, I feel like I’m doing my job as a journalist.
Because I want to provide their truth, which is technically their facts. I always emphasize that because even on the show, I try my best to be not so opinionated, because at the end of the day, I’m here to ask the questions, get everybody’s perspective. Yes it’s a fun discussion, but I think I keep it as neutral as possible given the setting that I’m in.
I think that makes sense. That probably helps keep the conversation on track too sometimes.
An even better example to give more clarity is no matter if I say I’m a Steelers fan, and I make it known I like the Steelers. Regardless of how I feel about the Steelers, I cannot be naive to how I feel about the team just because that’s what I grew up knowing.
Sometimes I have to throw away the prior stuff that I knew and handle the situation at hand. And I feel like that in a lot of different situations, even in political news, people might have a certain viewpoint and only want to put that viewpoint out.
I think it’s important to get both sides. I’m not going to only get one side of the information just because I like this person. Let’s see what both sides of people are saying about it as well.
Do you have a favorite guest so far? What was the conversation that you really vibed with the best or that stuck with you the most?
The one that stuck with me the most was definitely Stephen A. Especially being straight out of college and that really being one of my first big interviews, that was huge. I never expected to be sitting next to him, let alone asking him the questions that I wanted to ask him and him authentically giving me answers and even giving advice.
I definitely like talking to people who have been iconic in the industry because I’m learning from them. And it was really dope when him and Mase kind of recognized the awards that I just had won, and (Smith) gave his perspective on that.
It does make you feel good and it helps you learn that even though I am young and I’m early on in my career, kind of like an ‘I can do this.’ I kind of settled in like nobody can tell me I can’t. If this is what I want to do, this is my passion.
If I’m starting out this young and getting to talk to these people, do these interviews and get their perspective, it’s kind of like a pat on the back. Like ‘you’re on the right track.’
The only recognition we get from Stephen A. on our site is we write about him and he gets mad at us, so it probably would be nice to get the opposite. But it’s interesting to hear you say that because I was talking about the comment section and the fans goofing around and whatnot, but I can imagine that with a little bit of an older audience or more men in the audience because of the hosts, have there been times when you’ve had to kind of distance yourself and not try to take in what people might think about each show, each moment? That’s a big platform to get for such a young person even though it sounds like you’re confident and things are going the right way.
Everything has happened so quick. It’s to the point where I’m not lingering.
Because I got comments about everything. People might be like, ‘I don’t like that lip gloss she’s wearing or I don’t like that she asked this question first.’ I don’t really care.
People are going to say stuff about me and the show regardless. If you enjoy it, you enjoy it. It’s just like your favorite movie. Sometimes people like horror movies and sometimes people don’t.
I’m just always looking at the next thing. Because it’s such a fast-paced environment because this has emerged not just in sports but I also am working with celebrities. It’s not like I’m thinking about the last show. I’m always onto the next thing.
I’m not lingering on things I can’t control.
Is that on purpose, like you’re intentionally trying to focus your attention? Or is it that it just moves so fast and you have to put out so much content that you can’t really bother even if you wanted to?
It’s so funny you ask me that because my mom and my dad ask me the same thing. I’ve just always been that way. I’ve always been like juggling multiple things at once, working on the next project, trying to better myself.
It’s not in the way that I’m trying to cope and not think about it. Because if I stopped and had time to, I guess I would think about (criticism) more, but there’s so much more. I don’t like to sit and kind of backtrack.
Maybe, I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but I haven’t even had time to stop and reflect yet. I’m just on to the next thing.
Where do you see your career going? I’m sure there’s a part of it that is like this is going well, why think about what’s next. Do you think it’s hosting this show for as long as you can, do you want to do more on the side, what would be exciting for you the next few years?
I think the possibilities are endless. If you told me that at 22 years old I was going to be hosting a sports show, I would have told you you were a liar. And now I kind of do that role.
So I wouldn’t limit myself to anything, but I’m definitely open to a lot of things. I have a lot of interests. Like I said before, I’m into acting, I like hosting. It doesn’t have to be just sports, it could be entertainment. I’d love to one day have my own show.
And at this point, I’m just using all of my talents, trying to portray myself the best I can. And hopefully people are resonating with our show, liking the content, and then you’ll start to see me in other places.
For me and for a lot of people, the show kind of came out of nowhere. I tried to look back and think, where did the audience really start to pick up? Which episodes really started to blow up? But a lot of the biggest episodes are just you guys talking. What moment or what episode do you feel like things really took off?
It’s been very random and organic growth.
I don’t even think I can pinpoint where it started kind of going up because it did come out of nowhere. The Stephen A. interview was a pivotal point and that was around June, but I would really just say down to the power of the internet, we’re just circulating.
And people were like, ‘yo I’ve never seen this before, what is this?’ And then we’ve just been picking up traction ever since.
At first we were kind of doing one episode per week. When we hit two, that’s when people were kind of like, ‘OK we want more.’
Last question. If people maybe know you from the show, maybe have you seen but don’t know your name or your story yet, what’s one thing you want people to know about you if they’re just being introduced to you as a person in this industry?
The only thing I can really say is I hope you stay around for the journey. It’s just the beginning and I hope you enjoy the content. That’s it.
Whether it be from the show, from other places, I do bring a new perspective and I’m hoping to group the two of entertainment and sports. That’s all I got.