GUEST POST BY FEGOSSEN:

Hip-hop gets a bad rep in the feminist world. Songs like “Get Low”, “Lollipop”, “Slow Motion”, and “Golddigger” paint a pretty ugly picture for the rap artists out there. This is vastly unfair. Yeah, the majority of rappers and hip-hop artists are men who have a tendency to focus on a rather sexist male perspective. I recently looked up the lyrics to Freddie Gibb’s “Shame” and realized, yeah, it’s a song about the walk of shame. Oh, and how good Freddie Gibbs is in bed. (I’m still listening though. Gibbs is amazing.)

But the female hip-hop artist isn’t about to put up with this shit. They’re probably some of the most liberated voices out there, not just as shining beacons in a form known for its objectification of women, but also as the voice of women. Here are three albums all by female rap artists every feminist should be listening to:

1. Queen Latifah’s Black Reign
   

   

Instinct leads me to another flow everytime I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a hoe trying to make a sister feel low you know all of that gots to go

This album is fantastic, 90’s rap from someone we (at least I) often forget used to rap. The song “U.N.I.T.Y” is an angry rant at the men who think they can just smack your ass whether you’re wearing cut off shorts (oh nineties, we miss you) or sweat pants, and will call girls a bitch. In “Mood is Right”, Queen Latifah tells us she thinks the sex is better if you’re in love and that she really doesn’t need anyone else. This icon was giving women a voice long before Chicago.

1. Azealia Banks’ EP 1991 and Broke with Expensive Taste (released next year)

You could see I been that bitch since the Pamper and that I am that young sis, the beacon, the bitch who wants to compete

Banks has a beautiful new voice. Whereas the other women on this list are speaking out against a male dominated society, she’s throwing shit right back on the same level as the guys. In the song “212”, she tells you straight up if you get in her way, she’ll steal your girl and your spotlight. She hasn’t even released the first album yet. We’re all watching you darling! We’re excited.

1. Missy Elliott’s Under Construction
   

   

I be representing for the ladies n’ we got something to say. We been quite too long – lady-like, very patient. We didn’t get mad when Prince had his ass out. We thought he was going to turn around to the front and have the front out too, but, you know, that didn’t happen. We always had to deal with the guys, ya know, talking about how they gonna wear us out on records. So I had to do records that were strictly representing for my ladies n’ how to keep your man, keep his eyes from wandering, looking around. And I’m not saying sex is a topic we should sweep under the rug. I’m not saying go out and do it, but if you do strap it up before you smack it up, flip it, throw it down, OH NO. Jimmy, drop it.

This short speech appears at the end of the track “Pussycat”. Yeah, Missy’s fantastic. I don’t have anything to say that she hasn’t proved herself.

Thanks fegossen for submitting this post to us!