five female rappers that need to be on your playlist

tierra whack

A breath of fresh air in the hip-hop community, Tierra Whack’s insistence on not taking herself too seriously makes her a serious contender in the rap game. Inspired by childhood books like Dr Seuss, Tierra’s lyrics are nostalgic, yet contemporary; absurd, yet poignant. She describes her childhood reaction to books such as ‘Dr Suess’ in an interview with DAZED, saying ‘Oh, they’re rhyming. Rhyming is rap. Poetry is rap. Rap is poetry.’ Far from the degenerative genre of ‘easy-listening’, Tierra’s 2018 album ‘Whack World’, constricts each song to sixty seconds, creating a challenging and dynamic exploration of caricature and introspection. Her songs seem to reflect her childhood obsession with writing poetry and rhyming her homework. The bittersweet, nostalgic melody of songs like ‘Hungry Hippo’ and ‘Black Nails’ weaves intermittently with songs about chicken wings and the parodied, heavily autotuned Deep South voice in ‘Fuck Off’. Melanie Martinez, another artist known for her fascination with the infantile (two of her albums being named ‘Dollhouse’ and ‘Cry Baby’), recently featured Tierra on her track ‘Copy Cat’, in an amalgamation of nursery rhyme style and sassy lyrics. Overall, Tierra Whack is playing with a neglected niche in the modern rap scene and she should definitely be on your playlist.

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little simz

Primarily, Little Simz is one of the UK’s most talented lyricists and musicians, and secondarily, she is a pioneer for equality, rapping about the importance of women in power and her own struggles as a woman. In an interview with the Guardian, she states, ‘I’m not a UK female MC, I’m an artist’. Undeterred by the industry’s tendency to categorise musicians by their gender (how many times have you heard Stormzy or Dave referred to as a ‘UK male MC’?), Little Simz has taken the world by storm with her raw talent and refusal to tick any single box. Her presence has been felt in the rap scene ever since her debut album ‘A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons’ in 2014. On her 2019 record ‘GREY Area’, rock drums and punk synth accompany pan flutes and disco strings in ‘Offence’, introducing the fusion of genre that knits the entire album together. Distorted vocals and angry bass perfectly complement the shouted penultimate line of the chorus in ‘Boss’: ‘I’m a boss in a fucking dress!’, before thawing into the breathy backing vocals, funky bass, and soaring vibrato soprano strings in ‘Selfish’. Eerie, Egyptian inspired tremolo stings in ‘Venom’ accompany the gritty lyrics:

‘They would never wanna admit I'm the best here
From the mere fact that I've got ovaries
It's a woman's world, so to speak
Pussy, you sour
Never givin' credit where it's due 'cause you don't like pussy in power’

An oriental melody carries ‘101 FM’ through a nostalgic look at her roots and ‘Therapy’ shows Simz at her most introspective:

‘We live in a society of frauds and counterfeits
People are dyin', give a fuck about makin' some hits
Probably shouldn't say that out loud, but I did

[..]

Teach my daughter about the wonders of the world, I'm convinced
If she's anything like me I'm raisin' a king.’

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princess nokia

Self-proclaimed feminist and tomboy, Princess Nokia is the alias of multi-dimensional hip-hop, rock, drum and bass, emo rap, trip hop, jungle, altogether ‘alternative’ artist, Destiny Frasqueri. Noted for re-defining the boundaries of genre, Princess Nokia’s style is as volatile and fluid as her slick lyrics and contemporary sound.

‘I sing, and I act, and I model, and I photograph, and I write books. I’m a multi-faceted artist.’

LOUD AND QUIET 

Princess Nokia released two new antithetical albums last month (Feb 2020), one named ‘Everything Is Beautiful’, and the other named ‘Everything Sucks’. These albums celebrate Nokia’s contradictory identity, embodying her belief that women (and men) should be allowed to observe their personal diversity. ‘Everything Is Beautiful’ features 2019 hit ‘Sugar Honey Iced Tea (S.H.I.T)’, in which Nokia’s defiant lyrics are supported by sassy saxophone and gospel choral elements. ‘Gemini’ provides an introspective look into both Nokia’s appreciation of her dichotomic personality, and the setbacks it sometimes causes.

Full of disturbing intervals and punky distortion, ‘Everything Sucks’ is a complete contrast to the saxophone samples and peppy beats of ‘Everything Is Beautiful’. Princess Nokia is another essential female rapper to pay attention to, and despite criticism about her indecisive persona, like she says in Gemini,

‘I'm such a free spirit
That I don't fucking care.’

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doja cat

Doja Cat took the world by storm with her hit single ‘Say So’ which reached number four in the Spotify New Hits 2020 and Top Viral 2020 songs. After her tongue-in-cheek single ‘Mooo!’ music video reached meme status and went viral, Doja Cat gained immense popularity and presence. ‘Say So’ became famous on the TikTok app after Haley Sharpe created a dance routine to it, which was eventually featured on Doja Cat’s official music video (along with Haley herself). The attention that these two songs have secured in the popular sphere is deserving of all of Doja Cat’s music, which is full of daring sexual autonomy and fierce, catchy beats.  Her 2018 debut album ‘Amala’ includes ‘Go To Town’, which is an ode to oral sex, tackling taboos surrounding foreplay in an insistent attitude towards sexual equality. Her 2019 album ‘Hot Pink’ includes hit single ‘Juicy’, which was remixed featuring rapper Tyga, and is described by Doja in an interview with a classical musical expert as a song about ‘the beautiful part about butts but also, like, thighs . . . and, like, butts’. She adopts a punk-pop vibe in ‘Bottom Bitch’, sampling Blink-182, and unapologetically celebrating women in all walks of life. Doja Cat is on the rise in the rap scene and is definitely one to add to your playlist.

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chlobocop

With only 16.3k followers on Instagram and 3,598 followers on Spotify, twenty-one-year-old Chlobocop is popular in her native Glasgow underground music scene. Dubbed Lil’ Red Riding from the Hood aftr her 2018 album, Chlobocop’s avant-garde lyrics include references to drugs, sex, and her run-ins with the police. Trap hi-hats and 90s hip-hop samples accompany her husky, lethargic vocals, and her music videos and album art are dominated by her favourite colour: red. Her 2019 EP ‘Pay As You Go’ features the controversial ‘999’, which defiantly taunts ‘call the police on me, how the fuck did you know it was me?’, over a haunting, hypnotic backing track. Definitely one to watch, Chlobocop is certainly an up and coming contender in the rap game, who is rapidly and deservingly gaining attention.

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