TAG Body Spray | Signature Series

Can female rappers make a comeback?

In the early days of hip-hop, female emcees rocked the mic with their male counterparts. Roxanne Shante, The Real Roxanne, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah were just some of the few fem-cees who managed to hang with the boys and also flip their own styles. Then in the 90’s female rap splintered off, creating two separate but distinct factions. On the one hand, there were the Foxy Brown’s and Lil’ Kim’s of the world, who expressed more sexuality in their rhymes than most had been used to and then there was Lauryn Hill who paired hip-hop and R&B like a fine white wine and seared salmon. But then, like a scene out of a bad Sci-Fi channel movie, all of the fem-cees disappeared.

Recently, famed underground lyricist Jean Grae posted her verses for sale on Craigslist. For $800, Jean Grae would spit a hot 16 on a beat CD, tape, MP3 or what ever form of media you’d like to have her rap on. Foxy Brown, who was supposed to be welcomed back into the rap game after serving a bid, reportedly missed her show date and effectively canned her own career. It’s been more than five years since Foxy dropped her last album and in that time a lot about rap music and the music biz have changed significantly. Competition not only surrounds artists on release day, but blogs and fan sites can make, break or resurrect careers.

Given these facts, does it make sense for the female wordsmiths of yesteryear to keep on spitting? We all saw what happened to Amil. One day she was there, the next day there’s rumors that she’s flipping burgers at Burger King. According to the Internet, Lauryn Hill is stark raving mad and her live shows vary from her channeling spirits to slaughtered versions of her own songs. Of course, all these things have to be taken with a grain of salt, because the blogging media loves to throw salt wherever it can. After all, that’s part of the fun.

But just as the fem-cee world splintered off into two parts with Lil’Kim, Foxy and Lauryn, it’s split again, this time creating a new section of artists like Kid Sister, M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj. While some of these artists, particularly Kid Sister and M.I.A. skew more to the hipster side of things, Nicki Minaj, is resurrecting that style of hardcore fem-cee rap that has made artists from the mid-90’s so popular. Even though these rappers are relatively untested, it’s going to be interesting to see whether or not they can make it at a time where the female rap voice is so quiet.