Female Emcee- History Lesson

I was raised in a female dominated family by a single mother who had me when she was 20. She was hip-hop for me, my mother. She was deep into George Clinton, The Gap Band, male soul singers and discovering this new thing called hip-hop. By the time I was 7 and 8, she had me listening to Rob Base and Slick Rick.

My mother probably forgets that she introduced me to hip-hop and how powerful an impact it had on both our lives, but I remember her being a hip-hop head right up until Pac’s death when her growing disgust with the direction in which the genre (at least commercially) was moving culminated in a near break with it. She couldn’t reconcile the Tupac of 2PACALYPSE NOW to the Tupac of all eyez on me, or rather, chose not to. For her, it was too real, too painful to do so. And while she respected Kim and Foxy’s skills, she often got bored with the endless barrage of sexual imagery. She often said she wished Latifah had made more than just one record after Black Reign. She’s since seen the broad scope of these artists and while she still won’t listen to any of Ill Na Na, moms will get down to some BK Anthem.

It’s tempting to say that being raised by a woman naturally makes me more open to hearing a female emcee. But that’s not entirely true. If it were more men would have bought Kollage and Bahamadia would be doing Old Navy commercials (not that she’d really want to. Who knows?). Because how many men are raised by single mothers, right? But this is not the case. My mother raised me to love and respect women, truly. And not to respect that any woman in my life would submit and be the good patriarchal wives and girlfriends. My mother was all about equality and it wasn’t lip service.

More to the point, my mother was a true head and she was as skeptical of female emcees as the next man. But when Latifah and Lyte were doing their thing on the regular, my mother walked a lil’ taller in the world, you know. Here were sisters representing who she was, what she felt, thought and desired. It’s not discussed (sadly) but that impact was real, it was moving, and it was widespread.

In truth, I love strong women. Nothing sexier. And intelligence and talent are a turn-on…my mother used to get so mad and come home and bug out if a fine brotha turned out to be a moron. I picked up on that. Intelligence makes all the difference.

So when I heard Queen Latifah I knew here was an emcee. She is, arguably, the greatest female emcee in history every thing added up (image, impact, skills, sales, etc). Nelson George said that she’s the closest thing hip-hop has come to producing an Aretha Franklin. High praise, no?

From then on, she set the template for what I was gonna respond to in female emcees. Gimme some attitude, gimme some grimy street realism. Gimme some sex appeal. Yes, it evolved, but the essence of the female emcee is equal parts regal charm and aggressive posturing.

The reason I wanted to write this is because of the broad appeal and complexity of the female emcee and how it got to that point. In my mind there are 5 important moments in the evolution of the female emcee. Y’all can quibble about how many, but these are the biggies as I see it.

1. Roxanne Shante’s Roxanne’s Revenge

This song has spawned over 100 answer records. It is a testament to Shante’s skills because Roxanne’s Revengeis itself an answer record. The song came about when Shante decided to poke a little fun at UTFO’s Roxanne Roxanne, although the rumor is that UTFO didn’t make a show and Shante over heard people talking about it and offered to make an answer record.

But it’s a benchmark in hip-hop history because it was the first time a woman had gotten the best of a man, and men are still trying to make that track better. It can’t be done.

Roxanne Shante called hip-hop on its growing misogyny and opened the door for other aggressive, assertive women (most notably MC Lyte who was the first commercially viable female in rap) to state and restate that men aren’t the only ones who can rock the mic.

2. Salt N Pepa’s commercial viability–Hot, Cool, and Vicious

But it wasn’t till the next great female answer record dropped, that women became a real force to be reckoned with. The Showstopper was undeniably catchy and set a precedent for the way Salt N Pepa were gonna handle business. They brought humor and sex appeal to a genre that was growing increasingly introspective and serious.

Unfortunately, this makes their legacy seem less revolutionary than it really is. Salt N Pepa is seen as the first generation of hip-hop’s MTV artists, and that is true. But their impact was felt in the underground more than is recognized. It was felt with their aggressive touring.

When sisters and brothers went to a Salt N Pepa show, you saw females rocking the mic, and perhaps more importantly, you saw females on the turntables. It would be impossible to quantify how important such a sight would be for young girls (and boys).

Salt N Pepa went out on the road and worked the underground harder than perhaps any of their contemporaries and far more than their image makes it seem. You won’t find a female emcee alive that won’t pay homage to their trendsetting shows and music.

Perhaps it is telling that they are the first and last great female rap touring act. Few if any toured after them and lasted.

3. Queen Latifah’s debut release, All Hail The Queen

Up until All Hail The Queen was released in ‘89, female emcees were the female counterpoint to the male. They adopted the male swagger and the flows of their male peers. Salt N Pepa, for instance, modeled themselves after Run DMC.

But Latifah was about being feminine. She was about reflecting a feminine perspective and putting forth a three-dimensional realistic feminine image. Her flow could be dangerously lethal (especially on tracks like 1994’s Rough) but more times than not she was smooth, laconic even. She made being a female emcee be about being truly feminine and being true to what she as an individual wanted to be. She wanted women to find strength in themselves.

And this is precisely the reason she was the first female emcee to gain national recognition and still maintain her underground support. She was the first accepted on her own terms. In truth, her sophomore album Nature of a Sista and 1993’s Black Reign deserve classic status, but Queen Latifah enjoys what few rappers do—recognition of a body of work.

Her image allowed for the rise of such women as MC Lyte (who was actually before Lah, but really took off after her) and Yo-Yo. Strong women who knew who they were and didn’t need a man’s image as a template to construct their own. And they were the first women to really make it big. MC Lyte had the first gold single. Queen Latifah had the first gold record.

4. Bahamadia

For all the strides women had made by 1994, many of female emcees didn’t write their hits. Even Queen Latifah had brothers penning her joints. And this fact allowed some of the more insecure brothas in the industry to feel like it was still a man’s game.

I don’t think folks were really ready for Bahamadia.

But Bahamadia was the first modern female emcee. The first substantial woman to benefit from the revolutionary rhyme skills of Rakim. She could do it all and combined a cool confidence with a sly wit and sharp metaphor.

Bahamadia was the first female rhyme slinger to truly rival a male in terms of verbal dexterity. She is considered to be the finest female emcee in history, skills alone. She took the female rapping art form and made it versatile in ways that previous rappers never did.

It can be argued that Queen Latifah was the first to rival a man truly but I say Bahamadia because she was the sistah that the first thing out of everyone’s mouth was her skills. Queen Latifah’s image was first in people’s mind, and her formidable skills supported that.

Because of Bahamadia’s breakthrough, female heavyweights like Jean Grae, Lady of Rage, Mia X, Da Brat, and most notably, Lauryn Hill could make it. It is quite possible that the world will never know the brilliance of these women. Jean Grae is the one closest and most likely to grab the national spotlight. However she seems uninterested in it, which in today’s climate, is quite admirable. Rage’s Necessary Roughness might be the best female rap album behind Bahamadia’s Kollage, in terms of lyrical dexterity alone, I don’t know. Mia X is quite frankly the best thing to ever come out of No Limit. And if Brat would find a voice, something to say, she could be huge…she’s already got mainstream buzz and support.

But it is an interesting phenomenon that as the skills of female emcees grew their commercial viability (across the entire group) remained relatively stagnant in the early to mid 90’s. Da Brat’s first million seller, Funkdafied seems a fluke given she hasn’t been able to sell even half that since. Bahamadia, more than any other, has suffered. Her lack of commercial viability mutes her importance in mainstream eyes, but any emcee worth his salt will tell you that listening to Total Wreck was a mind blowing experience, or that the best verse on The Roots’ Push Up Ya Lighter was put in by Bahamadia.

Y’all will soon know.

5. The rise of overt sexuality–Lil Kim and Foxy Brown

This is a development that we are still trying to evolve out of and for good reason. At its best, the extreme sexuality of rappers like Lil Kim is true subversion (male fantasies held arms length away from the men) and at its worst, it can be the jezebel stereotype at it’s most potent.

I’m not sure how close those two things are, but what is clear is that most females are selling an image, not a point of view or a talent. This more than anything taints the rise of overt sexuality in female emcees. Sistahs like Trina just don’t have the skills. Except Eve, Lil Kim, and Foxy Brown on their best days, most female emcees of this new wave have little to no actual talent. But they have charisma and, more times than not, are backed by a male conglomerate.

Kim and Foxy lead the pack with street cred in Brooklyn. Their debuts did big business and they were the first to go multi-platinum. You will be hard pressed to find people in New York and most of the Upper East Coast who won’t fight you to the death about either of their skills. But like many hip-hop albums released in the past 7 or 8 years, their debuts are underwhelming. Foxy’s crumbled under the weight of her lack of input and Kim’s crumbled under the weight of scandal. Both were huge commercially and helped to usher in the era of big mainstream sales and prestige but next to know critical or underground support.

It’s worth contemplating the detriment the overt sexuality does to the artist herself, given the stretching that Kim did on her latest record, the relative brilliance of Foxy’s Broken Silence and the shelving of Ill Na Na 2. Both women seemed willing to broaden their subject matter and image and the public didn’t gel with that. Neither did the record companies. The shelving of Foxy’s album (which is brilliant, I have a bootleg) is a testament to prevailing patriarchal sentiment that keeps men in control of women’s images.

Coming in right after Kim and Foxy were a plethora of moderately talented but explicit women. It is crass to say it, but the formally misogynistic rap game was getting a nasty dose of criticism for promiscuous women. More than men, women are coming under fire for their subject matter and it sends sales skyrocketing.

Kim and Foxy and their less talented successors paved the way. But it would seem that by one-dimensionalizing themselves, they gave up their own agency and power. More than anything, this is the problem with the trend. Overt sexuality is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. But for a time, these women allowed the world to think that was all they had to offer and their careers, and the image of the female emcee, has suffered.

Conclusion

Where is the line going to be drawn? Is there a market for the next Queen Latifah album? I mean she recorded a torchy jazz album. Her last, along with the last MC Lyte album, bombed. Where there was room for party sisters like Salt N Pepa in the past and conscious sisters like Lah that is just not the case now. Rap is big business and the kids are increasingly narrow in their choices.

Women like Da Brat, Lauryn Hill, Neneh Cherry, Bahamadia, Medusa (rulin’ the underground right now, y’all), and even Mia X are seen as alternative because they actually have skills and are less willing to commodify themselves. The question remains whether or not sexuality is to be sold or can be sold. Is it wrong? Or is it perceived as wrong because the public is so puritanical? How sexual are women like Lil Kim or is it just an act? How do we know? How much does it matter if they have skills?

The questions are endless but the black woman is in a position where she can ask these questions of herself. And the public. That, in and of itself, is cause for celebration.

Regardless, the evolution of the female emcee has been rapid and important. The female emcee has gone from the angry sista dissin’ brothers to the sister schooling brothers, teasing and tantalizing the brothers, and rollin’ deep with the brothers. She can match them in a battle (Bahamadia) or make ‘em wanna settle down and think about the future (Lauryn Hill). She can get him excited and leave him like he does her (Foxy Brown) or she can echo the best and the worst in black women with one verse (Lil Kim).

But the female emcee is multi-faceted and more than capable of holding her own.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS–(*) denotes albums deserving of classic status

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill–Lauryn Hill
Bad Sister–Roxanne Shante
Kollage–Bahamadia*
BB Queen–Bahamadia
All Hail The Queen–Queen Latifah
Nature of a Sista–Queen Latifah*
Black Reign–Queen Latifah*
A Salt With A Deadly Pepa–Salt N Pepa
Blacks’ Magic–Salt N Pepa*
Very Necessary–Salt N Pepa*
Raw Like Sushi–Neneh Cherry
Lyte as a Rock–MC Lyte*
Eyes On This –MC Lyte
Act Like Ya Know–MC Lyte
The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP–Jean Grae*
Attack of the Attacking Things–Jean Grae*
This Week–Jean Grae*
Make Way For The Motherlode–Yo-Yo
Black Pearl–Yo-Yo
Dirty Harriet–Rah Digga
Down To Earth–Monie Love
Hardcore–Lil Kim
Chyna Doll-Foxy Brown
Broken Silence–Foxy Brown*
Unladylike–Mia X
Funkdafied–Da Brat*
Supa Dupa Fly–Missy Elliott*
Da Real World–Missy Elliott*
Miss E…so addictive–Missy Elliott
Scorpion–Eve
Do It The Way You Feel It–Medusa
Necessary Roughness–Lady of Rage*
Supernova–Lisa “Left Eye’ Lopes

-Taken From http://www.epinions.com/content_4277182596