FEMALE RAPPERS
F5...@cunyvm.bitnet
Ma Rainey and then Billie Holiday. In the early days of rhythm and blues,
there was Ruth Brown and then Aretha Franklin. In the early days o rap music,
women were missing. From the beginnings of rap's macho image has kept women i
the shadows. Even today, a casual observer might assume women have one role:
to be available when the guys yell, "Yo bitch!" Like most of rap's image, tha
's not true- another myth brought to us by a mass media that views rap as some-
thing to alternately chuckle over and be afraid of. Truth is, women more and
more are getting their share - or taking it. On the recent billboard chart
women held four of the 30 rap positions, which is far from parity, but beats
zero. Most importantly, a new generation of female rappers stand poised to
move in. Concrete evidence of this can be seen Saturday, when the Viewer's
choice pay-per-view network premieres a two-hour special called "Rap Fest I:
Sisters in the Name of Rap." The lineup includes Queen Latifah, MC Lyte,
Roxanne Shante, Nikky Kixx, Yo-YO(who performs with Ice Cube, the only male
rapper), Thunder, Finnesse & Synquis, Precious Ivory, Shelly Thunder, Precious
Harmony, Nerfetiti, Antoinette, Silk Tymes Leather, Ms. Melody, Sunny & Deligh
, Poison Posse, The Original (Spinderella of Salt-n-Pepa) & Pink D, Marla Mar
and the Good and Plenty Crew, Duchezz, Def Dames, Nicki Nicole, Essence, Tam-
Tam and Cookie Crew. This show is dedicated to MC Trouble, a rising rapper who
died this year from heart trouble. The two-hour "Sisters in the Name of Rap
was filmed in a nine-hour marathon on Oct 8 at the Ritz.
MC Lyte, the first female rapper to cut a third album, says "women has to work
harder than men. A guy who just looks good can get away with only being able
to rap a little, but women have to work hard at everything."
Her new album talkabout drugs and drinking. But she also take time to talk abo
t a date who's outof line.
Nerfetiti talks about the ways in which American society trie
to exploit rap without really accepting it. Hoes with Attitude and Bitches wi
h problems talk back to male rappers who knock women in the same street langu
ge.
A further discussions of this is in Daily News Sunday Paper,
ew York LiveofNovember 10, 1991.
F5...@cunyvm.bitnet
comes on this saturday but I don't have pay-per-view network. For anyone
that has pay-per-view maybe you can record it and I could buy it from you.
Geoff Bronner
Not only are female rappers getting more and more time on the charts, they
are also starting to establish themselves as a group and appeal to a lot of
women with a message that isn't so familiar.
Recently a friend of mine was at a Pro-Choice rally in the Boston area and
she saw a group of women from the Boston area that had buttons that read,
"If you're dissin' the sisters you ain't fighting the power."
This is a new attitude in a lot of ways but it isn't "PC" or anything like
that. I think it is reflected in the recent albums released by Heavy D and
Father MC which treat women in a very different way than, for example, Above
the Law or Ice Cube.
Even Ice-T seems to be trying to mellow his attitude with the song
"Bitches2" on the O.G. album.
Opinions?
-Thumper
--
geo...@Dartmouth.EDU - Computing Support Technician, Tuck School of Business
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
- United States Constitution, Amendment IX.
Alan Ralph
writes:
>Not only are female rappers getting more and more time on the charts,
>they are also starting to establish themselves as a group and appeal to a
>lot of women with a message that isn't so familiar.
>Recently a friend of mine was at a Pro-Choice rally in the Boston area
>and she saw a group of women from the Boston area that had buttons that
>read, "If you're dissin' the sisters you ain't fighting the power."
>This is a new attitude in a lot of ways but it isn't "PC" or anything
>like that. I think it is reflected in the recent albums released by Heavy
>D and Father MC which treat women in a very different way than, for
>example, Above the Law or Ice Cube.
>Even Ice-T seems to be trying to mellow his attitude with the song
>"Bitches2" on the O.G. album.
>Opinions?
More power to the ladies, I say! They're helping to diversify rap music
and that's a good thing. If it makes the boys like Ice-T reconsider their
attitudes toward the female populace.
What I don't want to see is rap music becoming bland, correct even...
without a message (and a hard one at that!) rap will be lost forever.
Here's hoping rap is still with us for a long time to come...
Alan. (a rap FAN! and proud to say so)
Gavin Inglis
>This is a new attitude in a lot of ways but it isn't "PC" or anything like
>that. I think it is reflected in the recent albums released by Heavy D and
>Father MC which treat women in a very different way than, for example, Above
>the Law or Ice Cube.
I think Ice Cube mouths off about bitches etc. but is quite aware of how
ignorant his attitude is, and he isn't above showing himself up. Listen
to "Man's World" on AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. YoYo rips the shit out of
his attitude in her own spunky style, yet Cube puts it on the album.
Any thoughts?
Also, does YoYo make a cameo appearence in Boyz n the Hood? As the girl
whose grandma's got the meat cleaver?
Don't truss it,
--
Gav | "psh-tcoo psh-tcoo psh-tcoo psh-tcoo psh-tcoo
<ai...@uk.ac.ed.aisb> | psh-tcoo psh-tcoo" - Ivor the Engine
WERLING
> What I don't want to see is rap music becoming bland, correct even...
> without a message (and a hard one at that!) rap will be lost forever.
> Here's hoping rap is still with us for a long time to come...
I still don't understand all this stuff about a message. Does rap
REQUIRE a message to be considered legitimate? The message is more
important than the art? I just can't say I agree. Often the message
gets stale. EDUTAINMENT is all repititious message and virtually no
musical integrity or energy. That's just an example.
--
Andrew Werling awer...@nmsu.edu Pffff!
Donnell T Walton
cleaver...
I just wanted to be first to answer this one. YoYo did make a pico-cameo in
Boyz. See was sippin' a 40 at the barbeque, dappin up Cube's babe about
Tre's looks. She was not that mega-fine dope body sister from Tre's dream.
I repeat She was NOT the ex-Soul Train dancer, with whom Singleton was
blest.
"Not talkin' 'bout the holocaust
I'm talkin 'bout the one still goin' on"
With the key...SISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSY
D