Hip-hop is more than music. It is a culture and a movement that has enabled the black community and other people of color to express themselves and their struggles to the world. Today, hip-hop is the most popular musical art form, dominating the charts and moving millions around the world. However, while the art form has continued to grow into the hands of mainstream America, the greater the divide has been placed between black women and men in hip hop. As an art form that is supposed to bring solidarity, it has left many black women without the proper support system to propel their careers.
Although some will say beef/battle culture is an important aspect of the culture, it has also been used to pit black women against each other resulting in the limitations of their success. This continuous pattern has been seen throughout the birth of hip-hop and now recently with the intense conflict between Nicki Minaj and Latto. This conflict, as well as many others, is fueled by the music industry’s consistent lust for the objectification of black women; resulting in their lack of representation and publicity in the music industry.
Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, many white middle-class Americans left the cities to move into the suburbs, leaving behind African Americans and Latinos to face many challenges within their communities. This occurrence, known as the white flight, would help stimulate the cultural phenomenon known as hip hop. Early rap artists were signed to small independent labels as many believed hip hop would be a passing fad and doubted its ability to become a viable commercial force. However, it continued to thrive along with the growing number of artists. Females were especially beginning to leave their mark on the art form, illustrating their experiences of the world with their unique style, flow, and lyrical content. Rappers, such as Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Lauryn Hill, Foxy Brown, Eve, Lil Kim, Da Brat, TLC, Missy Elliott, and many more were household names that have had a major impact not only on rap but also on the music industry itself.
Additionally, men were consigning women and inviting them to join their crew/label camps where they would play major roles. This simultaneous contribution of both men and women during this golden age of rap was harmonious as both groups were successfully making chart-topping hits while respecting each other’s penmanship. Women had greater opportunities for major record label deals, critical acclaim, commercial success, radio play, and touring that, in 2003, the Grammys took notice and created a new category for Best Female Rap Solo Performance. However, this harmony would soon backfire as hip-hop became more successful and valuable. Rappers would soon be exploited and fall into the corrupt hands of record labels as well as the music industry as a whole.
The rapid involvement of major record labels in the world of hip-hop would forever change the course of the genre. After major record labels bought out the smaller independent companies, leaving rappers with limited options, there was a noticeable shift in the lyrical content of the genre. Whereas, previously, lyrics focused on political, social, and cultural issues, the lyrics now were becoming more hyper-violent and hyper-masculine. Male and female rappers were influenced by pressure from record label exectivies. In order to maximize sales, record industry moguls encouraged hardcore, provocative edgy lyrics while rejecting/marginalizing artists who went against the grain resulting in a directly proportional relationship between rap music’s explicitness and the sale of its records. This would be a common trend for years to come, as dominating male artists made a fortune by demeaning and degrading black women, portraying them as hypersexual beings, and limiting their opportunities by lack of support and cosigns. As a result, marginalized female rappers began to decline, only leaving those willing to accept the stigmatized role of the hypersexualized black woman.
According to Ana Duvernay, director of a documentary regarding women in hip hop, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were more than 40 women signed to major labels while in 2010 there were just three. The decline was so drastic that the Grammys, along with BET and VH1, removed the female rap categories from their competitions. The remaining female rappers were regularly violated for the profit and pleasure of the music industry without recourse or protection. Record Labels routinely controlled the images of black women by enforcing stereotypes that have been rooted in America’s racist history. These stereotypes date back to the slave era as black women were viewed as “hypersexual jezebels” deserving of sexual exploitation. Since black female rappers were only limited to one lane of rap, they were often systematically pitted against each other in order to maintain their high status in a music industry that marginalized them. This would cause a continuous cycle of conflict that would start with Lil Kim and her fellow contemporaries and continue today with Nicki Minaj and Latto.
Granted that hip hop beef and battle rap are a part of the culture, there is a distinguishable line between beef amongst males and beef amongst females. Female rappers lack support from record labels and are encouraged to compete by the music industry. Therefore, empowering the idea that they cannot coexist as there is only one seat at the table for a woman. On the other hand, men have plenty of room at the table, as they have the privilege to choose from a multitude of different lanes in hip hop: Lyrical, mainstream, pop, trap, underground, street, experimental, and many more. With all these options and the backing of record labels, men can beef without being concerned to emerge as the King of Rap. After Lil Kim’s 2003 hit “Magic Stick” and Missy Elliot’s 2002 hit “Work It”, no women held the number one spot on a rap chart until seven years down the road with the emergence of Nicki Minaj. She, like her previous predecessors, was supported by her male counterparts (Lil Wayne and Drake) and given creative control under Young Money Cash Money Records. After her third album release in 2014, she took a break to perform in other ventures. During this time, Cardi B finally broke through the music scene in 2017 by dropping her first smash hit single Bodak Yellow which went number 1 on the Billboard 100 Music Chart. What makes her rise to stardom even more special was the fact that she accomplished all this on her own without the help of a male cosign. Consequently, she became the first solo female rapper to reach number 1 unaccompanied since Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing)” in 1998.
After this, as expected, the mainstream media and music industry excessively publicized Cardi B as a threat and pressured her and Nicki to compete against each other even though they had no underlying issues – they even had a song together titled Motorsport. This immense buildup resulted in their physical altercation at the New York Fashion Week Event in late 2018
Despite the tremendous exploitation that black female rappers have experienced since their spark in the 90s, there is a new glimmer of hope. Fortunately, today, there has been a surge of female rappers getting mainstream attention and commercial success along with Cardi B and Nicki Minaj. Artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Noname, Lizzo, City Girls, Saweetie, Rapsody, Doja Cat, Rico Nasty, Tierra Whack, and Kash Doll have all been receiving top-charting hits, critical acclaim, radio play, and stats that are creeping just behind the men. What makes this even more spectacular is the fact that these artists have continuously supported each other and have risen to the top without being subjected to the cosign of men. While the playing field has expanded to include more women, there is still more work that needs to be done to truly give these female artists the proper representation that they need.
