90's female hip-hop artists


The Best Female Rappers of All Time

In 1981, Saturday Night Live featured MC Sha Rock – the first female rapper to appear on national broadcast TV. In 1984, 14-year-old rapper Roxanne Shante recorded the first battle response in hip hop history. By 1988, MC Lyte was the first solo female rapper to release her own full-length album, Lyte As A Rock. “It destroys (hip hop) culture not to have the perspective of women,” Lyte once remarked after asking for the reinstatement of a female-specific awards category at the Grammys.

Lyte’s words permeate the entire history of the genre, from her early days rapping about growing up as a girl in Brooklyn, to Missy Elliott’s recent induction as the first female rapper into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Women added a new dimension to hip hop culture, with their ruthless approach to sexual liberation, body positivity, and equality which counterbalanced the genre’s misogyny. Today, their influence lives on in the fact that we are still so enamoured by the early women of hip hop, from the distinct spiritual essence of Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, to the persistent feminist legacy of Missy and Lil Kim.

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