You know what’s crazy? Think of how many times you have had the argument of “Top 5 – Dead or Alive”. How often do you ever hear a woman’s name come up? The truth is, while there were always certainly less female emcees than males, we have had strong representatives from early on. One thing it seems that gets everyone is in a fever, is when a female emcee comes out and cuts heads clean off – often in response to some B Side record, and the next thing you know? Mayhem. I have the perfect example. Let’s go way back.
1984 – UTFO released a record, the B Side of which was “Roxanne, Roxanne”. After UTFO canceled an appearance that they were supposed to make that Mr. Magic and Marley Marl were promoting, Mr. Magic and Marley Marl got with Roxanne Shante (at the tender age of 14, mind you) and made “Roxanne’s Revenge”. This record eviscerated UTFO and kicked off what would be a melee known as “The Roxanne Wars”.
UTFO and Full force brought out “The Real Roxanne” in 1985 with Elease Jack as The Real Roxanne (later replaced by Adelaida Martinez) as a response to Roxanne Shante’s record. What followed was dozens upon dozens of records by artists far and wide covering pretty much all angles and aspects of the Roxanne situation. From Sparky Dee to Dr. Freshh, Blowfly (RIP), on and on and on.
As a woman is sometimes known to do, Roxanne had everyone in a frenzy. Eventually this fiasco ran its course and gave way to the “Bridge Wars” involving the Juice Crew (also including Roxanne Shante) and others, but that’s another story for another day.
Before I move on from this – Roxanne Shante and Sparky Dee battled in “Round 1 – Roxanne Shante Vs. Sparky Dee” where everything was addressed from poor hygiene, to lack of chastity/lack of sexual prowess, bad hair, bad fashion, bad cooking (ouch). If you are a female who loves hip hop and you haven’t heard that record, here you go:
Roxanne Shante even as young as she was, would not hesitate to battle with anybody who wanted to try it. She went up against damn near everybody, and smoked MANY.
Around this time over on the left coast, you had JJ Fad working with Eazy E and N.W.A, signed to Ruthless Records. You might be wondering right about now why they didn’t show anything about JJ Fad on Straight Outta Compton. Why?? I wonder too (psssssh). Anyway, JJ Fad dropped a record which was tied to the Roxanne Wars called “Just Anotha Ho”, the B Side of which was their song “Supersonic” which gained big commercial success. JJ Fad was the first female hip hop group to be nominated for a Grammy.
I could write all day about women in Hip Hop. We really have had some incredible examples of lyricists. Artists like MC Lyte and others in the 90s represented female agency and a strong sense of self, giving ladies something to listen to that was just as powerful as the toughest male artists and helped to balance out some of that hard hitting masculine energy and misogyny which was so prevalent. If I get into naming names now, this will become one of those very long and boring list posts – so I will spare you all that. The point is – we ladies DO have the ability to step into the spot and shake everything up.
Fast forward to 2016 – we are STILL a force to reckoned with, and more-so every day. IN ALL ELEMENTS. Bgirls and female Rockers are hitting cyphers and battles and coming out with a ferocity that if your eyes are open, you can’t help but celebrate. Female DJs and Graff artists are representing and going head to head with some of the most skilled male counterparts. And last but not least, the female emcee is still STRONG. Forget about artists like Aggrazilla or whatever her name is, and these other trash ass manufactured junk food type acts that get all that press for nothing.
When I see the day that we are able to drop the “Female-this”, “femme-that”, “She-whatever” qualifiers on flyers or when we introduce ourselves, I will know we have stopped letting ourselves make excuses for where we might *think* we can’t keep up in this man’s, man’s, man’s world. I will know we have embraced the fact that we actually do have a seat at the table and if nobody pulls out the chair for us, that’s fine – because we will take it and from that seat we will be serving HEAT.
With that said, here in my hometown of Denver, Alisha B and the Girl Illa Movement have organized the first all female emcee cypher to be held this Friday at the Gypsy House. This event will be hosted by Aja Black and Ru Johnson and will feature some of the dopest gems this town has to offer. Here you’ll find Alisha B and the mighty Koo Qua giving you some tips to ready yourself, you better know your bars!
Whatever happened to Peace?
PEACE!
P.S. Any errors in this historical account are my own. Correct me.
WhoAskedUs? 