Rap isn’t a ‘she’ thing...

From a chauvinistic perspective, female stars tend to lean more towards RnB while males thrive in rap. Just why is this? DAVID ODONGO

Female rappers like Eve, Rah Digga and Missy Elliot have had major successes in the industry. However, they aren’t as successful or wealthy as male rappers or even female RnB singers like Mariah Carey and Mary J Blige.

Some people would blame the likes of Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown for their sexually explicit lyrics for the downfall of female rappers. I beg to differ. 

Earlier on, female rappers dressed and acted like men. They even sagged their jeans. But the sexy and beautiful Foxy Brown and Lil Kim revolutionised the game by making it okay for females to not have to look or sound like a boy to be seen.

It is common sense that not all female rappers can be regal like Latifah; pro-feminine like YoYo, conscious like MC Lyte or classy like Salt-n-Pepa.

However, other female rappers like Khia and Trina have had to be overly sexual and vulgar to win in the male dominated market.

In Kenya, groups like Camp Mullah have a female in their crew, but she only sings. Rap is left to the boys.  You can’t compare the success of female Kenyan rappers Nazizi, So Soon and L-Ness to their male counterparts.  But who knows, things might change.

Lil Kim’s fourth album, Naked Truth, received a five mic rating from The Source magazine; it is the only album by a female rapper to have ever received the highest rating. 

Foxy’s Broken Silence is another classic album by a female rapper. An artiste like Lauryn Hill is considered a rap goddess. Just how relevant and active is she in today’s industry? Her commercially successful album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, released in 1998 is a classic. The recording earned Hill five Grammy Awards.

 In sharp contrast, 1998 was the same year Jay Z released Hard Knock Life, and he has been consistent, to date. He is worth $480m (Sh40.8billion) while Lauryn’s net worth lags at $ 8m (Sh680million).

Lil’ Kim’s last album was both critically acclaimed and highly marked on The Source. It was not as sexually explicit as her previous albums. It did not sell as much as her previous records.

In other words, if they didn’t do sex songs, they wouldn’t sell nor would they get play on the radio — in spite of the high marks received on their albums.

Shawna is another example. She is a great emcee but her biggest hit so far is the sexually explicit track Getting Some Head.

So, are we (the consumers) letting down female rappers? Or should they stick to RnB? Over to you.