Like Lil’ Kim, Foxy was frank and outspoken about her sexuality and her desire while still commanding – and demanding – respect.įrom the moment critics got their first taste of Lauryn Hill on the 1994 Fugees album, Blunted On Reality, she was hailed as a star.
Critical reviews were mixed but Foxy’s sales were strong, and “Get Me Home” was that rare radio banger with decades of staying power. Smith, rapping over the remix for “I Shot Ya.” She was signed to Def Jam in ’96, the same year she appeared with Lil’ Kim, Total, and Da Brat on the Bad Boy Remix of “No One Else.” It was also the year her debut album, Ill Na Na, dropped. One of the most distinctive female rappers of the 90s, Foxy Brown entered the scene at a mere 15 years old, and first appeared on LL Cool J’s album Mr.
#90s hip hop songs female full#
Loaded with deceptively simple beats that reveal their complexity as they weave over, under, around, and through textured melodies, the album is both warm and fresh, full of the jazz and soul influences that have become synonymous with the Philadelphia sound. Her debut album, 1996’s Kollage was an instant classic, and the very first LP to be co-produced and entirely written by a female rapper. Lyrically dexterous with a smooth, unflappable flow, Bahamadia’s verses serve less bombast than her contemporaries, but are no less verbally crafty. One of Philadelphia’s first prominent MCs, Bahamadia, a former producer, was moved to join the rap game after being inspired by the likes of female rappers Salt-N-Pepa and Lady B. With songs such as “Push It,” “Do You Really Want Me,” “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and “Shoop,” Salt-N-Pepa were frank and outspoken about their desires and their sexuality, while simultaneously demanding respect, preaching feminist values and speaking out against assault and discrimination. Calling themselves Salt-N-Pepa, the two put out “The Showstopper,” a response to Doug E Fresh’s hit “The Show.” Clad in short shorts and tight midriff-baring shirts, this duo ruled the sex-positive revolution of the 90s.
When Cheryl James and Sandra Denton joined forces in 1985, much of the record industry still believed hip-hop was a fad. Songs such as “Monie In The Middle” and “RU Single” both slyly and cleverly struck back at expectations and assumptions about black women in relationships without sacrificing the flow. Love eventually joined Native Tongues in New York, where she collaborated with Latifah on “Ladies First,” and released her own album, produced by Afrika Baby Bam. One of the only other female rappers in Native Tongues, Monie Love and Queen Latifah struck up a fast friendship after Latifah and Native Tongues traveled to the UK, where, at a show, they met the British rapper, who had been making noise in the underground scene there for years. There may have been setbacks but I never let them get to me.” But none of it affected me to a degree to where it mattered. In a line-up, they didn’t want to put me where my songs warranted me going. “There may have been times when promoters didn’t want to pay me what I deserved.
She has described the scene in its early days as competitive and skill-based, but not without a gender bias. Lyte’s flow, lyrical precision, and refusal to self-censor gained her industry attention quickly. The first solo rapper to release her own, full-length album, MC Lyte’s Lyte As A Rock dropped in 1988. They all had distinct variations in style, flow, and lyrical content, but what each woman had in common was a fiercely independent voice and the power to remain consistently and resoundingly herself. But in the early days of the genre, while critics were still deriding hip-hop as a passing fad, female rappers were beginning to make up a formidable piece of the genre’s biology, unapologetically detailing their interpretations and experiences of the world they lived in. Braggadocious lyrics about violence, sex, swagger, and masculinity reign in a space where women, in most cases, are cast as either conquests or a faceless Greek chorus, their own stories largely ignored. The 80s and 90s saw the best male and female rappers alike used wordplay, repetition, and extended metaphor to relate experiences that were dark, violent, romantic, or hopeful, casting themselves as hero, witness, or seer.īut given the music industry’s history of marginalizing the contributions of women, it’s easy to see hip-hop as a boys’ club. Just as the sound of the movement was created by the creative repurposing of music that already existed, the success of the genre’s MCs was based on their willingness to shatter old forms and wield the shards to create a new style of self-expression. From the start, hip-hop was about storytelling.
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