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Final Cause Of Death: Female Hip Hop Committed Suicide

It was 1990 when I realized that Hip Hop was my music drug of choice.

There were MC Lytes, Yo-Yos, Queen Latifahs and Lauryn Hills. Women were very present in hip hop, when I was coming up. You couldn’t remix a track without allowing Da Brat to grace a track, or a Fugee performance wasn’t the same without Lauryn Hill jumping out on stage with her vintage hat of choice, swayed to one side. Females in hip hop were very relevant and promininent. I mean I remember gaining my first since of “Respect My Womanhood” from Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.”

Had a boy called me out of my name, he would have been suckerpunched if not told from his head to his toes. Why? Because back then the female rap game was all about promoting “respect for women”, and I couldn’t be a fan of rappers like Lauryn Hill and not love myself, or check the most disrespectful boy for calling me out of my name. I often raise my brows and wonder what happened to that? I remember watching award shows and feeling honored that women were receiving awards in the same categories as a men would.

Watching a women do the same things a man could do; even better, gave me a lot of inspiration as a child. I felt unstoppable watching these powerful female MC’s perform. They kept the real female hip hop fan base satisfied. After all, in the nineties it wasn’t about “selling sex” for these females. It was more about demanding respect for the female gender, and letting other people know “Listen, we’re not putting up with any sh*t”.

I needed that. Then something happened. It seemed to me that rap labels dominated by men started to push something much more distracting into the presence of female hip hop fanbases; SEX. And I mean, why NOT have a female rapper who can rap and also show her ass for entertainment? The easiest thing right? An influx of more feminine artists began to peak. There were the Lil Kims, Foxy Browns, who began to surface. Screaming “UNITY” amongst other females was beginning to wipe away slowly. All of the attention placed on “giving women respect” was masked by a sudden wave of “chocolate skin, bare assets, and speaking on situations like sex just like a male would”, in their hip hop projects. Hell, it was a little too contradicting to talk about “respecting women”, with your vagina print showing on an album cover. So with the introduction of certain female artists the final cause of death; Female Hip Hop Murdered Female Hip Hop.

Yep, we did it to ourselves. Once again, this situation proved that women follow the wants and desires of men way too much. We want to be sexy yet bad in their eyes, even if it means ruling out some of our own self respect in the midst of it. You think not? Sure look at the timeline of events. I was growing up in an era at 12 and 13 years old, wanting to be the great writer and artist people like Lauryn Hill was. Nowadays the same age group are destined to be like Nicki Minaj, a self proclaimed plastic surgery made female who claims to be bi-sexual. Where is the “strength” in that?

Female Hip Hop killed itself because the fan base became distracted and more focused on what the male population in hip hop wanted, instead of what WE as women wanted. Rappers influenced by true icons like MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, etc did not just die off on their own. They lacked support. They lost fan base to the needs of men. Women who were too naive to understand that we were playing into a man’s game. They died off because no longer did women want to listen to “being empowered and standing for respect”, but “sucking d*ck and being the freakiest b*tch in the bedroom for good for nothing materialistic men”. That’s why.

Female hip hop committed suicide because labels agreed to unleash females with one common thing on their mind; selling sex. We sold out. We as a female race in hip hop sold out, at something that to do nothing but produce sexual desire for the male fanbase of hip hop. Why put all this time in effort into my actual lyrics when I can get a record deal from having a fat ass, freaky lyrics, and a pretty face? This became the common thought across the board in upcoming female artists. Not to mention the many different men, pumping Koolaid into the hearts of goregous women with Senior Citizen weak bars, by telling them that their looks will make them go far. Instead, short lived rap careers became prominent for females. A few labels picked them up and used them for a short while, then gone. Amil vanished just like she never appeared. Lil Kim’s fan base continuously depletes because the fans have nothing left to grasp for. We’ve seen both tits. I think.

2 shots and we were down for the count. Trying desperately to pump the life back into our sector. I’ll tell you what. It’s going to take a woman with the courage of a giant to resuscitate female hip hop back to its respectable state. I pray one day she arrives.

Female Hip Hop Committed Suicide.

Chakara