The Kid Mero, otherwise known as Joel Martinez, has addressed the end of Desus & Mero, declaring that the pair have wanted to pursue separate interests for over a year.
It comes after he split with his late-night partner Desus Nice, otherwise known as Daniel Baker, and ended their Showtime series.
There have been reports that the pair separated over issues relating to their manager Victor Lopez and his involvement with their Showtime series.
Mero says the move has been in the works for some time and they signed separate overall agreements to allow them to work on their own projects. He didn’t, however, specify who the overall deals were with.
Speaking on the Basic! podcast, hosted by former MTV exec Doug Herzog, he said, “Desus and I had discussed pursuing separate interests over a year prior to the show coming to an end and that conversation solidified us in signing overall agreements that recognized our intent to operate independent of one another. As far back as June of last year, we were both pitching or looking to join existing projects as individuals. It’s not like I’m breaking up with my girlfriend on the phone. It was a strategy and one that we all agreed on.”
He said it wouldn’t have been the same to force a partnership “that’s coming to a natural end”.
He admitted that it was a hard decision and the intent was to go their own ways in a “supportive” way.
“At the end of the day, when things are winding down you got to recognize that they are winding down and not supermax Patrick Ewing when he has two [knee pads] and his career is coming to a close,” he added.
Mero starred in Oz Rodriguez’s Netflix comedy film Vampires vs. the Bronx and appeared in ESPN’s Derek Jeter documentary The Captain, said that he planned to focus on writing. “I started writing so [I want to] dig a lot more into that, features, series, books, I want to get into all of that,” he said.
During the podcast, he talked up Lopez’s role in his career, which went from writing music reviews for Vice’s Noisey to working at Complex, starting a podcast with Desus, and appearing on MTV’s Guy Code before getting their own Viceland and Showtime shows.
He added that his family also supported him. “That’s why my feet are firmly planted on the ground, I surround myself with good people and I don’t get sucked in to that industry vortex, that’s hyper important if you want to have longevity in entertainment,” he added.
