Will the REAL Femcees Please Stand Up?: Women In Hip-Hop

 

 

Ever since female rappers took their hiatus from the rap scene in the mid 2000’s they have had trouble coming back. With exception of rap mogul Nicki Minaj, female rappers are just not getting the spotlight they deserve. It’s not that they aren’t making music it’s that they either don’t have the “look” for a certain label or they don’t have the sound. According to HardKnockRadio.com “Female hip hop artists must be beautiful and sexy first. Voice and talent are secondary priorities.” But it hasn't always been that way. Over the years the female rap genre has gone through as many changes as Hip-Hop in general, and there has been numerous femcees who have broken the barriers and gone above and beyond the expectations of their peers as well as their fans. In this post I'm going to highlight some of the female rappers that I believe have left their mark in Hip-Hop.

BACK IN THE DAY:

In the late 80’s/early 90’s female rappers began emerging on to the scene. M.C. Lyte, Salt N Pepa, and Queen Latifah all laid the foundation for female rappers today.



Mc Lyte is often called the "pioneer" of female hip-hop, although she was not the first female rapper she was the first to release a full solo album. Her debut album, Lyte As A Rock, was released in 1988 and featured her first single, “I Cram to Understand U (Sam)", The song is about a woman who is in a relationship with a man who she thinks is cheating, her friends try to warn her about him but she doesn't listen. In the end she finds out he's addicted to crack cocaine.

MC Lyte's lyrical skill and adaptaion of masculinity allowed her to break the barriers that were placed upon women in the Hip-Hop indsutry at that time and open doors for rapper such as Missy Elliot and Queen Latifah. 





Queen Latifah's first album All Hail to the Queen, was released in 1989, when she was just 19 years old. She is known for her socially, and politically conscious lyrics. Her songs mainly talked about gender equality, and empowering women. She also, the first, if not only, female rapper to go on to be a model, comedienne, and actress. Her most successful song/anthem of female empowerment to date would have to be: "U.N.I.T.Y" The song was released in the mid 90’s and it promoted empowerment for women, and spoke out against domestic violence as well as the use of disrespectful slurs against women in Hip-Hop.

WELCOME TO THE 90'S

The 90's was a great era for women in Hip-Hop as well as Hip-Hop in general. There were rappers emerging everywhere from Philadelphia, to Miami, and Hip-Hop/Rap was not just a New York thing. The 90's brought up a new breed of female rappers and they were not afraid to show off their ASSests.




Lil Kim brought in a new type of female rapper. She was bold, sexy, and not afraid to show off her skills. Lil Kim was the first female rapper to take the word “bitch” and turn it into something used as a greeting to another female. To her the double-standard did not exist and she was just as entitled to rapping about her pussy just as much as a male was to rapping about his dick, and she never let anybody forget it.

Lil Kim challenges the way rap songs are typically set up in her song“How Many Licks” by having a male, Sisqo, on the chorus, whereas females usually sing the chorus of a song and males rap the main hooks. “Having a man sing reinforces Lil’ Kim’s masculinity and emphasizes her power over men.”

In Lil Kim’s song “Suck My Dick", she raps about getting oral sex from a man and as she did in "How Many Licks", makes herself dominant over the man, who is in this case is giving the oral sex, not receiving.

Lil Kim’s sexual lyrics and overly sexualized appearance forever changed the image of female rappers. And by the end of the 90's every new female rapper was following in her footsteps.


THE NEW MILLENNIUM

The early 2000's offered a bright future for the female rappers and it showcased female rappers at their prime. Below are some of the most successful female rappers of that time.



Da Brat





Her debut album, Funkdafied, sold one million copies, making her the first female rapper to have a platinum-selling album.



Trina




Trina first gained notoriety in 1998 with her appearance on Trick Daddy's second studio album www.thug.com, in the single "Nann Nigga". Since then she has released five moderately successful studio albums; XXL Magazine calls her "the most consistent female rapper of all time". She will forever be known as "The Baddest Bitch"


Eve



Eve's 1999 debut, Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady, was an unprecedented success, making it the third album by a female rap artist to top the Billboard 200, behind Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) and Foxy Brown's Chyna Doll (1999).



Missy Elliot







Missy Elliot is the only female rapper to have six albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one double platinum for her 2002 album Under Construction.








WHO'S RAPPIN' NOW?

As far as mainstream goes, the female Hip-Hop artists have been seriously lacking in that area. With Nicki Minaj being the only female rapper taking over the Billboard Charts, and collecting all of the "best female rapper" awards, but she better watch out because there are many upcoming underground artists such as Iggy Azalea, Azelia Banks, Angel Haze, and Lola Monroe.......





Maybe even me..



jk....but seriously







LMAO