I still don’t know an Iggy Azalea from an Azalea Banks from a Philip Banks, but that’s because I’m old and out of touch and I remember the golden age of hip-hop. Even though the ratio of female MCs to their male counterparts was still something like 95:1, there seemed to be more of a balance. Plus, female rappers didn’t have to flaunt their tits and ass just to be respected in the game. See? There’s something we can blame Kim and Foxy for besides being mediocre rappers who probably didn’t write many of their best known lyrics.
Granted, we still have the Jean Graes of the world who can spit and don’t have to worry about wardrobe malfunctions every time they jump on stage, but Jean and her ilk are perennially underground-not destined to get a whiff of mainstream success. Not that the females listed below got much (if any) mainstream success, but then again, hip-hop in its (almost) entirety was an underground phenomenon at this point.
Random note: the idea for this list came to me when I used the hashtag #donttrytoplaymeout on Twitter. Word to Yo-Yo.
Roxanne Shante “Live On Stage”
When you talk female emcees, one of the first names out of anyone’s mouth should be “Roxanne Shante.” She was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word-dropping “Roxanne’s Revenge” barely out of junior high school. “Live On Stage” came right at the tail end of the ’80s, at the very beginning of the (regrettable) hip-house era. Check out the dude in the bodysuit working it out. For you low-budget video freaks¹, there’s also a Biz Markie cameo and some low-key camera hogging by Marley Marl, who I’m pretty sure is not the same guy doing the actual hypeman talking on the record. I remember this joint because Video Music Box used to run the hell out of it, and also because it shared its name with another song by a female emcee that came out at almost exactly the same time…
Miss Melodie “Live On Stage”
Aside from being the wife of the legendary KRS-ONE, the late Miss Melodie had rhyme skills of her own. Her “Live On Stage” was a little less commercially-minded and more outwardly Afrocentric than Shante’s. Note her dismissing of “video ho”s in the clip.² Melodie only made one album, but she was featured on two all-star rap classics organized by her hubby-“Self Destruction” and “Heal Yourself.” Considering Marley’s Juice Crew and the BDP Posse had serious beef around this time, do you think the whole “Live On Stage” thing was orchestrated? Yeah, probably.
Isis “The Power Of Myself Is Moving”
Just about every hip-hop crew had at least one female member, and Isis was the First Lady of Afrocentric (some would say militant) X-Clan crew. “The Power Of Myself Is Moving” boasts an unwieldy title, but an undeniable groove, courtesy of Slave’s late disco smash “Just A Touch Of Love.” Within a couple of years, Isis had split from X-Clan, changed her name to Lin Que, and hooked up with MC Lyte…however, this was her best-known record.
Antoinette “Who’s The Boss?”
Representing a bit more of a hardcore lean than her stablemates Kid ‘n Play, Kwame and Salt-N-Pepa (they were all produced/managed by Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor,) Antoinette briefly made a splash in the hip-hop world with “Who’s The Boss?” Damn it, they cut the video off before the explosion!
Nikki D. “Daddy’s Little Girl”
I wanna say that Nikki D. was the first femcee signed to Def Jam, but I’m not 100% sure about that (Wikipedia has confirmed this for me.) Nevertheless, she probably had the biggest budget of all the rappers on this list thanks to being affiliated with the house Rick and Rutthell built. Her first single to make any noise was “Lettin’ Off Steam,” but “Daddy’s Little Girl” was a more radio-oriented track (and a bigger hit.) It sampled DNA’s remix of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” before it’d even slid off the charts. “Daddy’s Little Girl” wound up on an album called…wait for it…Tom’s Album, consisting of remixes, covers and songs inspired by “Tom’s Diner.” Yes, this existed.
Like most hip-hop circa 1990, there was a message in the danceable groove-this one regarding safe sex.
There you have it. Any other forgotten female rappers you’d like to shout out? Leave a comment!
¹-Is it me or were about 60% of all hip-hop videos from this era (Eazy-E’s “We Want Eazy” and Kwame’s “Ownlee Eue” come off the top of my head) recorded on the same stage?
²-I am pretty sure the main “video ho” is a dude.