Two Is a Crowd: Why the World Won't Allow For Multiple Female Rappers

Divide and conquer. That seems to be the magic formula that keeps the music world from having multiple, successful female rappers coexist at the same time. I was fortunate enough to witness a time in the 1990s/2000s when there were several women in hip hop all individually different but collectively they rocked it. Eve, Rah Digga, Missy Elliot, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Queen Latifah, Yo Yo, Monie Love and many others brought a sass to the game that has yet to be duplicated. All females, all rappers yet none of the drama that floods our timelines today. Surely there were issues between women artists, hell look at The Supremes. Could you imagine how early the rift between Diana, Mary, and Florence would have began if they had social media accounts to vent their frustrations on? Thank goodness Twitter had not been invented then.

Why can't this sisterhood of hip hop exist today? The world has changed drastically over the past twenty years making it so much easier for the ladies to gain an more even footing in terms of business and careers yet we are still stagnant when it comes to the music business. 50 Cent once said that having a female artist was too expensive because of the cost of hair, makeup, and wardrobe. What this says is that consumers are only concerned only with the physical appearance of female artists and not the talent or tenacity that they possess. Are we as consumers that superficial when it comes to the art we consume? The better part of me wants to believe that it is bullshit but skim through comments on any Instagram post or Twitter and 5O Cent may prove to be correct by the way women are judged by their possessions and looks or lack there of.

Nicki Minaj is no doubt a beautiful woman with above average rap skills but let's be honest and say that the ass is what sets her apart and probably why most people even took the time to notice her early on in her career. She could spit a million sick bars consecutively and the conversation would still revert to her body parts. This is something she knows and reminds us of several times in her own music but the depth of the issue is bigger than Nicki. It is this notion that women are there to be looked at, fawned over but not heard to the point of where our voice truly matters.