Female Rappers

This week in class we discussed women in hip-hop and watched a video called women on the mic. During the video I learned a lot about women in hip-hop and realized we don’t have many female rappers anymore. It takes someone special to be a female rapper because a lot of people used to think that it was only men who could be rappers. Once women started rapping they weren’t taken seriously. No one would hear them out until they challenged someone and were heard and noticed because they had skill. Women felt that they needed to hold their own and had to do double what men did and be able to rhyme well enough to be taken seriously. It was said that the golden age for women’s hip-hop was in the late 90’s. Salt and Pepper, Queen Latifah, and Roxane were said to be the start of women in hip-hop. Once they became popular there seemed to be a push in the industry for female rappers. Once more women started to come out and be known, they felt like they had to start dressing sexy and singing sexy in order to sell their music. Sex sells so women figured if they wanted to make it in the industry then they would have to put themselves out more. Like by wearing less clothes, showing more skin, and rapping a certain way. Missy Elliot was the one to stand up and change that, she didn’t want to stoop to their level, she wanted to be her own person and prove that she didn’t need to change her ways in order to succeed. She had raw talent and was never scared to be herself, she didn’t care what other people thought of her. She had the talent so she didn’t need to dress sluty or sing sexually in order to sell records and get attention on herself. Lil’ Kim and Foxy made a breakthrough in hip-hop as well. They proved that they didn’t need a man behind them and that they could be their own self and still be able to sell their music. The issue however was that females became too expensive to keep up with and produce. They had a specific image to uphold and that image was becoming to expensive. The ideal image that was being portrayed was that women had to dress a certain way and look a certain way in order to perform. Meaning hours and money spent on hair and makeup and outfit changed, whereas men could just go out in jeans and a t-shirt and be fine. Women had to appeal a specific way that took extra time, men didn’t, so slowly less women were being signed Due to the fact that women needed so much upkeep, female rappers started to decline. At one point, the grammys even dropped the women rapper category because there wasn’t enough female rappers to nominated in order for their to be a winner. Now there is only two big female rappers, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. In the video we watched, they were saying that there is so many underground female rappers that need to become known. The future of female rappers depends on them coming up and becoming heard. Someone in the video said that the underground rappers are going to emerging soon and once they do it’ll be like a flood gate opening up. Once they start coming up and becoming recognized, the others will follow. It only takes one brave, strong, talented rapper to come up and change female rap in order for the rest to follow, just like what happened in the late 80’s-90’s. Female rappers have come a long way but they still have a long way to come. The world of music is constantly changing, and I think it’s time for some female rappers to come up and make a change again.