Heading into the eighth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 11, Jasmine Kennedy and Sam Star had just faced off in the lip sync with Sam just barely eclipsing Jasmine to earn the extra point and $10,000 cash tip. As such, Sam jumped out to an early lead with three points while Jasmine claimed two. The non-winners during the first challenge — Hershii LiqCour-Jeté, Joey Jay, Kennedy Davenport, and Shuga Cain — were all preparing to hand out their single MVQ point to the sister of their choice.
With only two more challenges to go, every point mattered in the race to join the queens from Brackets 1 & 2 who advanced to the semi-finals. The queens still in the competition from Bracket 1 are A’Keria C. Davenport and Dawn and from Bracket 2 are Crystal Methyd and Silky Nutmeg Ganache.
For their second challenge, the Bracket 3 all stars combined the subtle skill of shade with their high energy personas in a Rappin’ Roast. Actor Brian Tyree Henry served as guest judge alongside series stars RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, and Jamal Sims. Read on for our recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 11, Episode 8, titled “Rappin’ Roast Redux,” which began streaming Friday, June 19 at 12 a.m. PT on Paramount+.
“I really wanna care. I’m lookin’ for it, tryin’ to find it. I don’t.” — Hershii LiqCour-Jeté
At the MVQ ceremony, Shuga made a case that the bottom four queens all worked hard enough in the challenge that they each deserved a point. Joey and Hershii honored a deal they made during “Untucked” to swap points in the spirit of giving the “early outs” a fair shot in the competition. Shuga then started the effort to evenly distribute the points by giving hers to Kennedy only for Kennedy to vocalize cases for both Jasmine and Hershii. As frustrating as Kennedy’s speech was to Shuga, she still swapped the point and so each of the bottom four landed on the scoreboard with one point.
Despite their blossoming friendship, Jasmine was “giving a little sore loser energy” by going around the room garnering opinions from the other girls that they thought she defeated Sam in the lip sync even if Sam was the one the judges selected. The next morning, Sam was still pressed about the conversation and told her sisters that it was hurtful for her win to be undermined in that way. Though it was all in good fun, it was an appropriate prelude to their second challenge: a “Rappin’ Roast” where they had to throw shade at each other through the art of rap lyricism and stage performance.
“I’m ’bout to give these bitches honky tonk hip hop hell.” — Sam Star
Before the girls got to work on their roast lyrics, RuPaul invited them to participate in a “Pass the T” mini challenge. In this competition they voted by majority rule to name each other in shady superlative categories: Shuga most likely to give the shirt off her back, Joey most likely to invite a sister into a threeway, Shuga most likely to use face filter apps, Jasmine leaves an impression with her body odor, Kennedy can wear anything, Hershii and Kennedy tied for doing the most with the least in performances, Shuga is the “most blessed and least booked,” Jasmine and Sam tied for not reading books, and Jasmine was unanimously selected as the “most vain queen.” By the end of the challenge, Sam and Shuga tied with the most points to split a $2,500 cash tip.
During the brainstorming and writing session, Joey and Shuga committed to go out of their comfort zone as “sweet” queens to take the reading challenge to heart and read their sisters down. Joey felt like this was a great opportunity to use her wit and cleverness to stand out in the pack. Hershii was equally excited by the challenge, mostly because it wasn’t a design challenge, while Jasmine knew that if she didn’t stay on top for the second challenge then she’d lose momentum and could be in jeopardy to advance. One strategy was for Jasmine to continue to poke Sam’s sensitivity at being torn down, but Kennedy was there to gas Sam up by advising her to commit to “live up to that target” instead of being thrown off by the girls.
“Baby, I’m fittin’ to give everything including my panties, okay?” — Kennedy Davenport
For the challenge, the girls got to select their own running order for the rap performance. Joey confidently volunteered to go first, followed by Jasmine, Kennedy, Hershii, Shuga, and Sam who accepted the pressure of the last spot. In their final performances, the highs were Joey referring to Jasmine looking “fish, angler” and having great overall timing, Jasmine changing “gay-ass bitch” to “bitch-ass gay” on Joey, and Kennedy rhyming Shuga with “booger.” Some of the lows included the multiple references to Sam borrowing her clothes from Trinity the Tuck, Hershii being a forgotten pork chop, Shuga’s age, Kennedy being back for a fourth time, and Joey being a filler queen.
After the performance, the queens walked the runway in the “Ladies Who Lunch” category and the judges deliberated to select Hershii and Kennedy as the top two. With Hershii the judges were impressed by the cadence and embodiment of her rap and in Kennedy they saw a seasoned performer that delivered an overall masterclass. In order to win the cash tip and an extra point, Hershii and Kennedy went head-to-head in a lip sync to “The Ladies Who Lunch” by Elaine Stritch with Kennedy named the winner. In the next episode, Joey, Jasmine, Sam and Shuga deliver another MVQ point to the queen of their choice, altering the ranking on the bracket’s scoreboard and setting the stage for how their final challenge will play out.
