Female Hip-Hop Artists and Discrimination
By: Taylor Knuchel
Tags: Discrimination, Music Culture, Women, Hip Hop

When it comes to the genre of hip hop and rap, who are some of the first artists that you think of that would fall into the category? For most people the answers would probably fall under names like Travis Scott or Kanye West, but not many of them will say names like Nicki Minaj or Cardi B. If people do say those names of female rappers, they just use comments like “That’s not real rap,” or “They don’t actually make good music.” This has been a common theme for female rap artists for decades. Female artists as a whole have undertaken all different music genres throughout the decades. Big artists like Taylor Swift or Christina Aguilera are now some of the most well-known singers in the music industry. It’s considered normal or culturally correct that females make music in those types of industries, referring to pop and country, but people don’t like the fact that they now are starting to come up more in the rap industry so as a result they try to tear them down in order to persuade them to stop. These female artists in the hip-hop and rap music industry shouldn’t be shunned for their music just because of their gender. They are proving to the public that this is not just a man’s industry anymore.

by Taylor Knuchel

Now female rap hasn’t just begun recently, it actually has been a part of the rap and hip-hop industry for decades. The only reason many people would not know about it is because of how much the male artists had expanded, like Afrika Bambaataa and Dr Dre. Looking at the first female rapper to make it big in the industry, we have Sharon Green, also known as Sha-rock. While being part of the Funky 4 + 1, she would rap at park jams, gigs at clubs, and in 1981 she was in one of the first hip-hop performances ever on “Saturday Night Live” (Edgers, 2017). This inspired more of an influence on other women who had a passion for making music just like everyone else in the industry. It took some time, but in present day we can now see just how much the industry has grown.

Nicki Minaj or Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, known famously as the queen of rap, is one artist that has taken the industry by storm. Her career began back in 2004 where she released her music on the popular social media application at the time called MySpace. After being seen by an executive with Lil Wayne, she was later on signed to Young Money Records where her career began to take off. She was the first female artist since Missy Elliot back in 2002 to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Rap songs without teaming with a male singer and has had several other big accomplishments throughout her career. Looking into her life accomplishments more, back in 2019 she was also honored by Billboards Women and Music as the first women to have 100 appearances on the Hot 100 charts (“Nicki Minaj,” 2020). Although she gets tons of love and appreciation from her fans, there are still major issues — discrimination for one — found in big companies like The Grammys when it comes to hip-hop in general.

Trinidadian-US rapper Nicki Minaj poses backstage with her awards during the MTV Europe Music Awards at the Bizkaia Arena in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao on November 4, 2018. (Photo by ANDER GILLENEA / AFP) (Photo by ANDER GILLENEA/AFP via Getty Images)

Looking at an article written by Neil Shah from Wall Street Journal, he talks about how the Grammy Awards are adjusting the rules in order to address concerns about the voting practices and treatment of hip-hop artists, which had threatened their legitimacy (Shah, 2020). It may seem like they are making their processes better for future award shows but in reality it might change how female artists are seen when the votes are cast. And for years they say that, “the Grammys has been criticized as offering inadequate transparency around its voting processes and insufficiently recognizing hip-hop, R&B, and female artists” (Shah, 2020). Issues like this have caused artists like Nicki Minaj to not receive the recognition that they deserve, but that all changed when Cardi B made her appearance in hip-hop.

Cardi B changed the music world very quickly after she released her major label single called “Bodak Yellow,” being described by Joanna Nikas from the New York Times as, “The rap anthem of the summer” and it was, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (“Cardi B,” 2020). This successful release gave her recognition as being the first solo female rap act to top the charts since Lauren Hill back in 1998. Ever since then she has continued to release all hits, even scoring the Grammy award back in 2019 in the Best Rap Album category for her album “Invasion of Privacy” (Globe & Mail, 2019). Seeing all of her success in the industry in such a short period of time makes you wonder, why aren’t more female artists being recognized for their work?

EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY — JUNE 02: Cardi B performs at Summer Jam 2019 at MetLife Stadium on June 02, 2019 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images)

Feminism in hip-hop is not something new. People have always looked at women in rap as objects for men in their music and less successful compared to men. An article written by Emerald L. Christopher-Byrd talks about how black women in particular have been criticized by white people but also people in the black community, they often call this “a moral panic,” which is mostly validation of dominant norms and values. Talking about black feminism and hip-hop feminism can help open a window for women to address these social, cultural, and political oppressions to give them a place to contest, challenge, and celebrate the hip-hop culture (Byrd, 2018). These artists don’t care about what others think of them, they just want to use their platforms to showcase that anyone can do a “man’s job,” that careers like rap shouldn’t be seen as wrong when a woman does them.

After all the research I have done about the female influences in the hip-hop and rap industry, it shows just how much women have grown over the decades when it comes to being really respected for their hard work and effort. This doesn’t mean they are fully equal in the industry. It’s still a long work in progress but women like Nicki Minaj and Cardi B have been major influences in current times for female rap artists. With more and more female artists winning awards and getting recognized by the public, it really does show that this is not just a man’s job. Our community is starting to realize the real power and creativity that female artists can hold, but again this did not just start recently. Female rap dates all the way back to artists like Sharon Green, or “Sha-rock”, who inspired women to speak up on issues. Nicki Minaj once said, “I do not see myself as a female rapper anymore. I see myself as a rapper,” and this is something that people need to realize. A rapper should be able to be a rapper regardless of their skin color, sexual orientation, and more importantly their gender.

When picking a topic for this assignment I knew right away that I wanted to talk about the way female artists are treated in the hip-hop and rap industry because it’s something I see people make fun of or degrade. I love listening to these artists, and so do millions of other people but yet our culture still somehow disrespects these women that do the exact same thing male rap artists do? That does not make sense. It’s childish and sad to see that people and companies even are okay with letting these artists not get recognition for their work. This is a conversation that needs to be had with my current generation because it’s the year 2020. We need to stop bashing women and instead encourage them to keep making music. This goes for other industries that seem to be more male dominate as well. Women need to stop being scared to make it in a “man’s industry.” They should look at these current female role models and want to be just like them. I hope that more female artists speak out about the discrimination they receive in this industry, and make people realize that they can create the same or even better music than male rappers can. So next time you hear someone talking bad about female rappers and their music they make, tell them just how far these artists have come and how powerful they are becoming in this industry.