Female Emcees in The 'Rap Game'.

Whadddup, Readers?!

Alrighty, so.
Earlier this week, the GirlSpeak editorial board (& I.. teehee) breifly discussed females in hip-hop (particularly, rap).
From what I managed to pick up through my mid-afternoon daze (a terrible experience when you're in the workplace, might I add) there was a category at this year's BET Awards honoring female emcees worthy of recognition on that night.
Among the nominees were women of the current mainstream rap, such as Young Money's Nicki Minaj, & also women that are still praised for their music although they've been somewhat missing from the mainstream charts these days, such as Lil Kim.

We editors of GirlSpeak went on to discuss our opinions on the matter & also what we personally felt towards a certain female emcee's image & role in the media - Miss Nicki Minaj.

My personal opinion of the Harajuku Barbie & also every other female rapper sitting pretty in 'the game' is that they are the in the category of the very least credited artists in this industry & hardly have an image of their own as individuals the moment they spit a verse & hit it big.
Female rappers are most of the time shrugged off as mere sex symbols & are not usually given as much recognition as their male counterparts.
Also, with the number of female emcees at a humiliating low, each rapper that emerges is compared with the last; bringing me to the controversy of Nicki Minaj & Lil Kim.

Both of these rappers have very similar images & deliveries. Both are portrayed as extremely sexual & produce catchy, pop-ish music that, in a sense, mirror eachother quite well..

Nicki Minaj has to deal with a slew of negative feedback & controversial publicity, while years back, it was Lil Kim that carried the same burden.
Listeners & fans have no choice but to call to mind either when the other is mentioned. The fact that Nicki Minaj won't be seen by so many as a legit artist of her own craft is almost painful &, at times, makes me sympathize the woman.

It's so hard to find a quality female emcee that doesn't rub off as a simple duplicate of the ones before her, but it's an even tougher struggle when you can hardly credit the newer artist for setting herself apart from all the rest.
It sort of makes you wonder who is really at fault here.

The media, for projecting each up and coming female rapper in the same light.
The listeners, for being so quick to judge her & compare her to the last.
Or, the artist herself, for not forging a path entirely her own & producing a brand-spankin-new concept that we haven't heard too many times prior.

In my eyes, though, whether or not Lil Kim truly is the protoype of Nicki Minaj, as nominees in such a confined category such as female rap, both of these artists deserve praise & recognition.
Blowing up in an industry that is predominately male, is inspiring enough as it is.
I've chosen to peer past the comparisons & petty glamours, & to look at this situation for what it is;
the population of female emcees is growing & that is something definitely worth celebrating.

-O.G. Kush