Female rap has lost its modesty and its love. Listening to the first song ‘Lost Ones’ from Lauryn Hills sensational “Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill” album will let you know how far female rap has fallen from glory. Broadly speaking there is no more life lessons being shared in female rap, the “Doo-Wop” factor is missing. Female rap is soo much about competition and materialism that it’s missing “That Thing”.
Ms. Lauryn Hill gave advice, spoke about her mistakes and rapped about life’s realities. Current female rap is stuck on materialism, a symptom of a sickness contracted from its male counterparts. The genre has not moved past the Lil Kim Model. A model created by Biggie to reflect the loyal side chick/ride or die partner for a street dude.
Tierra Whack is a candidate to change things but she might not have the ‘normalcy’ to reach a broad female audience. She might be seen as too quirky or eccentric. A similar notion can be said for Rico Nasty who might be viewed as too punk.
Thee Stallion had the potential to be the relatable girl next door but her over powering sexual image leaned her away from an everyday life message. She’s now entrenched in competition, controversy and beef. She could have easily leaned more into her college girl reality to offer a balanced message.
If anyone has the power to make an album about life’s realities and stay away from competition its Nicki Minaj but she’s out to protect her crown. It’s very unlikely that she’d stray from the materialistic competitive punchline rap that established her domain.
Cardi is authentically who she is, a former stripper and is going to rap about that life. She can’t be blamed for being materialistic, however she can tap into her motherhood card and give us an album about life outside of hustling and materialism.
It’s not like we don’t enjoy a ratchet song now and again from the City Girls. The problem is balance is missing in female rap. It’s not so much that the materialistic message being the problem it’s more so that the message is one dimensional and steeped in materialism/competition.
In Male rap you can always switch on some Kendrick Lamar when you get tired of the same old I’m the biggest finesse rapper since Jay-Z type rap. We can turn to a Kanye album when we want a bit of gospel consciousness in our Hiphop. Who do we turn to for wholesome content in female rap? that’s the problem being highlighted. The idea is to spark some minds to help redress the balance. We aim to challenge female rappers to ascend beyond “I’m better than you rap” and introduce Lauryn Hill style “live your life but live it better rap” back into the genre.
One of the main problem female rappers will face in producing this style of rap is inspiration. To authentically rap or speak about something you’d have to have lived it.
Unfortunately the land scape of modern society has shifted, modesty and morality is not at the forefront of modern society. Toxic feminity dominates even in reality TV. Ultimately we are having a moral crisis in society where selfishness, materialism and consumerism has taken over our souls. Therefore we can not blame female rappers for reflecting a soulless society but we can challenge them to ascend and help create a better reality.
