I've been wanting to do a post on this for a long time as I've noticed that there's still a lot of people under the impression that women are no good at rapping and it offends me quite a bit as I'm a big fan of many female rappers. The situation got even more annoying for me a while back when someone said that the only female rapper that matters is Nicki Minaj. Although I agree that Minaj is definitely an influential artist and she is one of the most successful female rappers of all time, she is definitely not the only one that matters, in fact there's a whole load out there, especially younger women, killing it. And they are rapping about stuff that matters without being sexist and homophobic and in my opinion they are doing it just as well or better than male rappers.
Iggy Azalea
Iggy Azalea for example is great and, I'm not scared to say, one of my favourite pop-rappers. There's been a lot of hate towards her from a small portion of the internet that seems to stem from nothing as I've tried searching for legit stories of her being a dick and can't find any. Yes the song with Britney Spears was a bit terrible but other than that I've loved all the other songs she's released as a single, my personal favourite still being "Work".
Azealia Banks
My ultimate favourite of the most well known pop-rappers is Azealia Banks. I am a east coast kinda guy after all (I prefer the grittier and darker sound). The Harlem rapper may not be my top rapper but she is up there. You will know her for the single "212" featuring Lazy Jay but what you may not know is that she's been releasing music sing late 2008, originally under the name 'Miss Bank$'. My favourite Azealia Banks song is the 2014 single "Heavy Metal and Reflective".
Dominique Young Unique
I also love the lesser known pop-rappers, you'll recognize their music if you don't recognize their names. Dominique Young Unique has a great, like the name says, unique sounding voice. Her debut single as lead artist "Throw It Down" in 2014 was a fantastic song.
M.I.A.
It's not only Americans doing well with rap in the charts, London born M.I.A. is big world wide and if you know who she is then you're cool. She's more experimental than any the others I've written about and I love the way she combines many different styles of music.
Angel Haze
Angel Haze is another one of my favourites though they're not well known in the UK. Haze has a more traditional rap style and it's bad-ass. It's no surprise that they're from Detroit, the home of many of the best rappers, Haze included. I love the song "Werkin Girls", I love it's pure gangsta style.
Cleo.
One of my favourite genres of Hip Hop is the London Grime scene and one of my favourites in the genre is Cleo. (formally Mz Bratt). She's released consistently good but largely unknown singles since 2009 starting with the pretty funky "Who Do You Think You Are?".
Baby Blue
My personal favourite British female rapper is Baby Blue. She is known for her work with singer Estelle and collaborations with John Legend, Madness, Sway, Shystie, Ms. Dynamite and Lady Sovereign. You might know her masterpiece of a song "Bump".
Awkwafina
Then there's the lesser known and comedy rappers that make up part of the alt-pop genre, one of the funniest is Awkwafine of New York. She's a great rapper and her songs are both good and funny, check out "Daydreaming".
Kreayshawn
Kreayshawn is one of my favourites and she seems to be one of the most popular of the lesser known rappers and when you hear songs like "Go Hard (La.La.La)" its easy to see why. She has a great sound with catchy songs and a great style.
Ruby Ibarra
Ruby Ibarra is a pretty talented and little known Filipino American rapper. Like many of the best rappers, she spits about her life in an old school style. "Fallin' Down" and "The Cypher" with SLTG are highlights.
K.Flay
K.Flay is my favourite female rapper and possibly my favourite rapper in general. I love her voice and alternative style and I love the fact that she can play a large amount of instruments. Her rap career actually started out as a parody of popular rap songs, making fun of the bigotry and sexism a lot of rap artists get away with. Then it turned out she was really good and the rest is history. "Cops" is one of my all time favourite songs, it features pretty heavily on my playlists. And "Rawks" is one of the best rap songs I've heard for years.
Gangsta Boo
Gangsta Boo, also known as Lady Boo is one of the best gangsta rappers I've heard. She was a member of one of the best rap groups Three 6 Mafia (1995-2001, 2013-2014). She's more suited to the hardcore gangsta rap fans, A personal highlight for me is "Just Anotha Crazy Click" - Three 6 Mafia feat ICP & Twizitd.
Tkay Maidza
Tkay Maidza is an Australian singer and rapper, born in Zimbabwe. I must admit this girl is new to me too but I love the way she flows, it's so fast and smooth. I'm surprised "M.O.B." isn't more popular than it is.
Jean Grae
Jean Grae is another rapper with a great old school style, which is no surprise if you know she's been an underground rap star since the late 90s. "My Crew" is a great old school track.
Rapsody
Rapsody is another I've not long discovered but I love every song I've heard so far and as she says she does seem to be one of the best rappers, female or otherwise. "Dark Knights" is a personal favourite.
Lauryn Hill
Now if you where a hardcore rap fan you'd probably forgive someone for not knowing about the girls I've mentioned so far as they are new, alternative or underground stars but what about the classics that have been big since the 90s. Lauryn Hill for example, one of the biggest names in music and the singer and rapper on one of the most famous female rap songs ever, "Doo-Wop (That Thing)".
Missy Elliott
Then there's the freakin' awesome Missy Elliott who's behind actual hip hop anthems like "Work It" and "Get Your Freak On".
Eve
You can't have a list of female rappers without Eve, who you may know as 'the woman that does some rap bits on some pop songs from the 00s but she's much more than that. She's one of the best rappers ever. She has a lot of great solo songs and she clearly still has it judging from the epic 2013 release "EVE".
This has been the largest post I've done and the first one I've done in a while, it's because I feel passionate about the subject. I believe there should be more respect and love for female rappers as well as more recognition because it's been too long that people have been talking shit about women in certain roles in music including rap. Even most girls that like Hip Hop have no idea about most of the women on this list and that's a sad thing. I mean all these women are fantastic at what they do and I hope the amount of women getting into rap continues to rise. Especially since a lot of famous male rappers are pretty crap these days (the new ones, not the ones that have been around for a while).
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