Female Emcees
 

This is my reply to James in the Kanye West thread but I figured I'd delete that reply and rather make a thread on female emcees and hear your guy's opinions on the subject. Here's my opinion below, try and give a honest listen before you bank on your opinion of wackiness like Lil' Kim and Nicki Minaj.


Here's some of the dopest female Emcee cuts I can think of off the top of my head, you're absolutely right when saying sexual object female emcees are wack because they completely are, the dopest female emcees IMO do in many cases have that deeper voice, but the main element is they actual come with a cut that is hard, lyrical, or conscious, or has a combination of the elements listed before. Let me know what you think of these tracks.

-Bahamadia has extreme lyricism and her flow and beats make a extremely dope vibey cut
- Latifah has great flow, content, and another vibey beat and hook that you can't get out of your head
- MC Lyte is basically the Ice-T of female emcees, no one is more of an OG in her field
-Lady of Rage comes extremely hard with good lyrical content and productions
- Concious Daughters and Da Brat just come gangsta as hell and do it well

I think in all honesty the reason female emcees get a bad name is because the ones that actually get hits tend to be on the superficial "Hip-Pop" side of the music, once you look past mainstream names females tend to use just as many of the elements to create a dope emcee as their male counterparts do, the elements differ of course depending on which subgenre they go with. I.E. Gangsta rap doesn't have any lyrical quality to it.

yea i like those songs to varying degrees tbh... but i will easily acknowledge all of those female emcees are skilled and there are a few songs in there that i will actually listen to and enjoy.

but notice the one common factor in all of those female emcees? they all are pretty butch/manly. so i guess i sort of see them more a dudes.... but that's not pc. so i'll change my stance to i don't really rate most girly female rappers. this is what i meant by lauryn hill being the exception cause she doesn't necessarily come across as butch to me but she's still a good rapper.

but if you look at say nicki minaj i'd say she's relatively skilled lyrically... that's not why i don't rate her. it's just that she doesn't make the kind of music i like. she makes pop music basically and her content bores me. but as far as spitting goes i don't necessarily think it was fair for me to group her with kim because honestly kim was just a cheap biggie rip off in terms of style and a glamorized slut in terms of content. but minaj and foxy probably belong in the same group.

Never heard Bahamadia outside one JMT Violent by Design track. Does she still put stuff out?

How could you leave out Jean? I've had this discussion with JWB already but here's a few tracks:

You Don't Know


My Story




Reema Major - In This Life (Not really a fan of her poppy stuff, but I dig this song)


Da Brat - Sittin On Top of the World

How can you not mention Roxanne shante..the greatest female MC of all time. she paved the way for everyone else and she is still the best.
bahamadia is awesome as well.
Of the current i like Jean Grae and Rapsody.

She's aight.. def not a favorite of mine though.

I agree she easily paved the way, but those were all cuts I personally enjoy, I have yet to find a Shante track I actually enjoy, I can't get down with her annoying voice but that's my preference with no discredit to her influence.

she freestyled a lot of her early songs, Her voice is high pitched but i liked that fact she sounded so young and she was dissing everyone and holding her own.