Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Women of Hip Hop

Transcript

Women of Hip Hop · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stefan
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: never told you a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Annie. I know we've talked about hip hop a little
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: bit throughout all of our seasons slash episodes. No, we
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: talked about it for the Birds of Prey series because
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: it has a bomb soundtrack and we love it. Meg
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the Stallions on it. We heart Mega Stallions. We've actually
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: talked about her a lot, and we've talked about Massaga
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Noir in the hip hop world as well. So I
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: know you know a little bit. But if you had
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: to say, if you had to pick one woman hip
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: hop artist that you were like, yeah, I dig this,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: who would it be?
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Oh? No, it is very early in the morning, listeners,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: I thought, I don't have a good I love the
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Birds of Preise soundtracks, so that us making the Stallion
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: does your cat on it?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I love that.
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  Speaker 2: It's okay, we'll come back to it because we're going
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: to go into the definitions and the definition is different
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: than what I thought. So today we are excited to
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: talk about the world changing genre of hip hop and honestly,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: as we've researched and we're getting ready for this episode,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: realize that there's a lot maybe that I haven't learned personally,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: and so I'm like, yeah, I'll enjoy the music, but
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: knowing the background and some of the historical context to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: it and how young it is, like, it's not as
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: old as I thought it would be, even though it
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: shouldn't have been a surprise. In fact, again, yesterday, I
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: think again we talked about the five that you and
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I talked about this, and I really thought I knew
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: what hip hop was and even try to give you
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: a very generic explanation, But as we delved into this,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I realized it wasn't completely right. It's not wrong, but
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: not right either, And the genre in itself is broader
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: than just about music and different from other forms of
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: music that we often confuse it with, such as rap
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: and R and B, even though it could be a
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: part of it. So my simplified version is hip hop
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: is more rap and less R and B. Again, it
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: seems it could be both or neither or just one.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of like what, not just what, but
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: just listening to the fact that this is a movement
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: more than just a genre. So again, FYI, as we
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: start this year in twenty twenty three, it marks the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: fiftieth anniversary for hip hop, and this is kind of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: while we're doing this episode, Yes, yes, just to be honest,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: and we couldn't celebrate without talking about the history and
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: the women in the industry who made and continue to
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: make history in hip hop. And as we begin, we
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: want to go ahead and start with those definitions that
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: we're talking about, and again it's not as clear, so
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: we're gonna go from different sources. According to Merriam Webster,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: it is quote a cultural movement associated especially with rap music,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: and then it goes on to say also the styleized
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rap also rapped together with
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: this music. So kind of yes, as I said, I
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: was like, thinking, we'll rap than R and B, and
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: I gave you examples, but I would argue that both
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: like Beyonce and TLC, who from what I gathered, lean
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: towards the R and B would be hip hop. But
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: again maybe you know again, I'm just like, huh, because
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: at first I was like Beyonce, I thought that that
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: was an R and B. But then as I see
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the definitions, like she's a culture, she's a movement, who
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: knows and it is her Internet, as we've said before,
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  Speaker 2: and for its technicalities. One article describes hip hop music
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: something that includes rhythm and blues and beatboxing.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, and breaking that down. Masterclass describes it this way.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Hip Hop music is a varied musical genre, but most
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: hip hop songs incorporate several common elements. One strong rhythmic beat.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: A rhythmic beat is the strongest unifying factor of hip
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: hop music. It can be fast and aggressive or slow
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  Speaker 1: and relaxed, but it carries the song steadily forward and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: serves a backchop for vocal performance. Most beats in hip
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: hop songs aren't simple dum lines. Beat making is a
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: complex and varied art form that results in other songs
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  Speaker 1: and sounds. Two vocals. The majority of hip hop songs
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  Speaker 1: incorporate rapping as their main vocal style, a rhythmic, usually rhymed,
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  Speaker 1: type of chant that interplays with the beat. Other vocal
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  Speaker 1: styles include singing, spoken word, auto tune, and ad libs.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Three breaks. Break is a term for long percussive periods
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: in a hip hop song. In the nineteen seventies, DJ
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Cool Hirk is credited with developing the concept of a
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: break and encouraging dancing called break dancing, breaking, or b boying.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: During these instrumental measures, Modern hip hop songs often include
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: breaks to harken back to the genre's roots or encourage dancing.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I have to tell you, I feel so nerdy right now.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I need it. Look, we need it.
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  Speaker 2: And to be honest, outside of living it, I don't
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  Speaker 2: think people actually talk about what it is and what
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: it really encompasses. There's even a debate about what it
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: is in different articles that I read. It gets territorial,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: I will say that. So even for us to understand
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: it in an academic measure, because that's what we do. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: more research base. It is nerdy. We are breaking down
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: a very cool genre into show. I read this and imagine,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: but we're gonna keep doing it because that's how we are.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: In another article titled what is hip pop Music, they
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: describe it like this. Hip hop is a musical genre
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: from the inner cities of the United States. In the
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventies, in New York City, African Americans, Jamaicans, and
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Latinos combined rhythmic drum beats, djaying, and rapping to create
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: a new and unique musical genre. Rappers usually provide the vocals.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: In hip hop songs, these musicians use rhythmic vocal technique
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  Speaker 2: over the music of a song instead of instruments. The
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: backing music tracks come from DJ playing records and performing
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: turntablists techniques. Hip hop songs combine a variety of genres
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  Speaker 2: such as R and B, funk, disco, and dub, and
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: can even sometimes include spoken word. So again like it
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: kind of just encompasses all of that. They further break
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: down the characteristics similarly to master classes, but add the following.
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  Speaker 2: So they add MCing and this is the lead of
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the song. They'ugh most have singing and background vocals. This
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: includes the rappers that can be also called MC's DJing
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: and turntablism. And this is where the two turntables and
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: mixer not microphone comes in, which loops in US samples records,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: and this is where we see the beginning of scratching
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  Speaker 2: as a form of musical technique, so using the record
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: to make that I'm not gonna.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Do it, yes, you know it, you know it.
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  Speaker 2: There's also drum machines such as the roll intor eight
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: O eight and if you've heard people referencing in they're
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: apps eight oh eights. This is what they're referencing, and
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  Speaker 2: good old beatboxing that is used to make the beats.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm also not going to try that because I
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  Speaker 2: know I'm not cool.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, at least we're aware. But again that is
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: a bit more simplistic than what it has become. As
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  Speaker 1: one article put it, hip hop has expanded from just
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  Speaker 1: being a music genre but to a lifestyle. In an
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: article written in the Digital Musical News dot com, they
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: write the hip hop movement, for its part, consists of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: wrap and several cultural elements, including one's lifestyle and experiences.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Looking at what hip hop has become, it has become
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: a way of life, a cultural style. The article compares
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the difference between rap and hip hop, saying rap represents
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  Speaker 1: a rhythmic style of vocal recitation that's popular in most
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  Speaker 1: of hip hop's top songs, but it's just one component
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  Speaker 1: of the broader hip hop cultural movement. And the article
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  Speaker 1: quotes mrs As saying you could be a rapper, and
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  Speaker 1: you could be a musician, and you could be a
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  Speaker 1: pop star, said mrs. But it doesn't make you hip hop.
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  Speaker 1: Hip Hop is definitely it's a culture. There's elements to it.
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  Speaker 1: There's all types of things that go along with it.
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  Speaker 1: And as music industry, how to dot com writes, hip
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  Speaker 1: hop is more than music. It's a culture that was
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  Speaker 1: cultivated within inner cities of the United States but has
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  Speaker 1: become a worldwide powerhouse, influencing modern music and generations to
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  Speaker 1: come right.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: And we've talked about that when we talked about K
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  Speaker 2: pop in itself and how big it has spread. It
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: spread faster than I thought, but yeah, and how it's
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  Speaker 2: taken on the entirety of the globe today. And as
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  Speaker 2: the state of hip hop continues to influence and change,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: we can see how it's grown so large but has
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  Speaker 2: also been about a cultural way of being and not
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  Speaker 2: just a type of music genre. So let's talk about
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  Speaker 2: the history of hip hop.
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  Speaker 1: You ready, yes?
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  Speaker 3: Yes?
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  Speaker 2: So in the busy areas of the Bronx in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: seventy three, Dj cool Herk made music history. During a
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  Speaker 2: party to celebrate his sister, DJ Hirk developed a new method,
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  Speaker 2: the break, which we mentioned earlier, which according to Educations
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: through Music, it is where the instruments jam out together
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: with very little vocal additions. This was a section where
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: folks could really let loose and show off their dance foods.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: He soon would extend the breaks into longer sections known
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  Speaker 2: as loops, and he kept going as that same article, right,
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  Speaker 2: he decided to try something new. He would play a
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  Speaker 2: break from one song and once he had finished, he
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  Speaker 2: would go into the break of another song, and he
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  Speaker 2: would call this method the merry go Round, which we
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  Speaker 2: know is the modern day DJing. Again, this is really
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: nerdy way of explaining what's happening in the world of
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: hip hop. We are definitely the non black people explaining
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: hippyness all right anyway, But it wasn't until nineteen seventy
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  Speaker 2: nine that the term hip hop would actually be used.
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  Speaker 2: It was the sugar Hill Gain who would coin the
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  Speaker 2: term in their famous and first Billboard charting hip hop record,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: rappers Delight. We all know this rap?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I actually have an embarrassing story about it,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: but yes I do right along with I was talking
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: about this because I didn't know it was such a
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: long song, and I told somebody I knew all the lyrics,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and he was like, oh really, and I was like, yes,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I knew all the lyrics to the shortened one, but
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I did not know it was such a long version.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And I embarrassed myself and I still think about it
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: to this day.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Oh you thought you knew? I did? So did you
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: go poor white girls?
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: The type of moment, Well, it was also a white guy,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: so but yeah.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but they're more connes sitting probably.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Again.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: This started the genre of hip hop spreading through out
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  Speaker 2: in New York and it spread throughout the nineteen eighties
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  Speaker 2: even wider around the world.
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  Speaker 1: So, now that we have the basics of the beginning
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: of hip hop, let's talk about the legendary women of
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the hip hop world. So did you know that one
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: of the people who helped release sugar Hill Gang's Rappers
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Delight was legendary R and B writer, singer, and producer
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  Speaker 1: Sylvia Robinson. Here's what bill Board had to say about her.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: She's arguably one of the most consequential producers and label
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: owners of all time. Her business opened the doors for
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: all the independents that followed, from def Jam to top Dog,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and her music pioneered distinct concepts that set the template
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  Speaker 1: for hip hop's entire creative arc. From party rocking to
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the DJ as musician to social consciousness. Sugar Hill made
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: everything possible for today's hip hop stars. Her works were legendary,
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  Speaker 1: but that isn't to say a lot of people tried
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: to erase it. It was known through her time in
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the music industry many did not properly credit her for
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: her hard work, including her work for Iken Tina Turner,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: which she claimed she had quote paid for the session
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: taught Tina the song That's Me Playing Guitar, which had
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: earned their first Grammy nomination for the song It's Gonna
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: work out fine.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Right, And I think in the article it says that
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: the Amel producer who owned the label was actually credited
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: for that instead of her, which we've seen.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: A lot yep.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: However, her work was undeniable. She would later be named
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: chairman of Epic Records, which happened only one other time
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: before her, especially on a major record label for a
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: black woman. So she was definitely making some headway. And
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: as for the historic first hip hop record, according to
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: that same Billboard article quote the creation story of rappers,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Delight is oft told how Sylvia's teenage son Joey, assembled
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: three of his friends, none of them experienced rappers, Henry
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: big Bank, Hank Jackson, Guy Ghee O'Brien, and Michael Wonder
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Mike Wright at her studio to write and perform the rap.
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  Speaker 2: How Sylvia instructed her studio band to replay the instrument
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: to Good Times as the song's musical bed. How the
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: resulting fifteen minute long track caught fire at radio at
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: a pace beyond even Sylvia's divine vision. How fans across
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: the country grappled and then grooved with this strange talking record.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Sylvia's epiphany birthed a million musical revelations. Perhaps no people
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: were stunned as much as the creators of this rap style,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: who were across the Hudson River in New York and
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: had never heard of any crew called the sugar Hill Gang.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: And it continues. Sylvia named the act after the fancy
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Harlem neighborhood that loomed over her own childhood home, one
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: hundred and thirty seventh Street. She re christened her label
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: with the same moniker, making a clean break from the
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: all platinum debacle, and there was a lot of issues there.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: The new record was Sylvia's Brainchild, produced by her but
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: financed in an arrangement that Joe had broken by Levy
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: and Joe's her husband. She slapped a writing credit for
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: herself on Rapper's Delight, even though many of the lyrics
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: were crude from Curtis Fisher, known as Grandmaster Kaz, who
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: had tossed his notebook to Big Bank Hank with the
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: shrug and the studio band played music composed by sheikhs
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, who had to retain an
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: attorney to secure their rightful credit. Now, with all her
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: amazing work came a lot of controversy in drama, and
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of criticism about how she did things
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and what she did in the name of money, which
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: again eventually led to the end of a sugar Hill
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: record as well as the divorce from her husband's slash
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: partner at the time. Soon after, she did start another
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: record label called Bona Mee Records in nineteen eighty nine
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: that would signed a new up and coming talent, Naughty
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: by Nature. You down with opp and he no, okay, i'.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: See I didn't. I was reading it and I was like,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: what is that? And then when you said it, I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: was like, ah, yes, I have heard that.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: I was hoping you were going to respond with, yeah,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: you know me, but you know what, it's okay. Unfortunately,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: towards the end of her life, not everything was a
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: happy ending, but no matter what, her works and her
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: contributions are legendary and help build the foundation of hip hop.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: And then, in nineteen seventy nine, the first female group,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: The Sequence, was formed. Not only were they one of
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the first groups, they were the first assigned to a
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: major label and have their album go gold. Their influence
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: was so big that many use their music, including Doctor Dre,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: who sampled their voices for one of his hooks. The
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Goot comprised of three childhood friends from Columbia, South Carolina,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Cheryl the Pearl Cook Gwendolyn Blondie Chisholm, and Angela ANGIEB. Brown.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Though they are not largely recognized today, they were the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: beginning for so much in the hip hop world. Here's
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: a quote from a Rolling Stone article. The group recorded
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the hard grooving sugar Hill Record single Funk You Up
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine, one of the very first hip
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: hop songs ever etched to Vinyl. Though never officially certified,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: it was a nationwide smash, serving as the first rap
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: hit performed by women and only the third rap song
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to chart in the top fifty of Billboard's hot soul
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: singles thrust from a South Carolina housing project into the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: national spotlight. The Sequence were also America's first Southern rap group,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and in a seventies landscape where the few rap records
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: that existed were chorus free rhyme marathons, the Sequence seamlessly
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: mixed singing and rapping, unwittingly paving a lane for artists
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: like Lauren Hill, Drake and future. Gangster rap came out
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: of my mouth? Did you know that? Says Cook. She
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: takes a minute to speedily cycle through her verse on
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty single and you know that to get
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to the smoking gun, I said, We're not confunction. Were
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: not the Gap or the sugar Hill girls with the
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: gangster rap she recites with force. Were not Chic or
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: sugar Hill. Were the Sequence girls with the gangster thrill?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: We were the only ones talking about gangsta in records.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: It came out of my mouth. They never truly got
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the credit that they deserved, but they definitely left a
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: mark in the industry, being one of the first Southern
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: hip hop groups, as well as signing with sugar Hill
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Records and touring with fellow artists. They were icons in
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: the industry, but deserving of more praise and for money.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, and if you will go back to the Rolling
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Stone article if you ever want to read about them,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: they do talk about the side that they got screwed
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: over a lot, a lot, including not getting credit for
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: their work. Then we have the mother of the mic,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Sharon Green or better known as shaw Rock, who was
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: a Bronx based rapper. She was a member of the
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: first hip hop group that appeared on national TV. The
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: group called Funky four plus one starting out as a
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: B girl. As we talked about before, it says bee boys,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: but here they say big girl starting out as a
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: B girl or breakdancer. Was signed as the plus one
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: for the group on the sugar Hill Records in the
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: late seventies. Her style influenced many of the later mcs
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: such as MC Light and DMC of Run DMC. Here's
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: a quote from Kimbero McLeod uses, a scholar about Shahrock.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: A unique aspect of the group was that Shawrock wasn't
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: portrayed as a sex object, but was more or less
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: considered equal among the male members of the group. Aside
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: from the minor success of the all female sugar Hill
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Records Rap Crew. The sequence Funky four plus one signified
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: the last moderate success of a woman rapper in the
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: industry until Roxey and Chantey and Salton Peppa came along
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: in the mid eighties. So the legendary MC's paved the
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: way for so many and even performance on Saturday Night Live.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Here's a quote from her from an NPR article. The
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: very moment I got my taste for hip hop is
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six, as a be girl, you know, being
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: out there breakdancing and watching young kids move around throughout
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the Bronx, traveling as a nomadic bee girl and bee boy,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: just to hit those break beats. The mceing came in
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy seven. The first person that I saw breakdance
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: was friends of mine that had went to junior high
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: school with me. They taught me what it was to uprock,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: which what it was to just hit the bees whenever
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: you hear that certain break beat and she goes on.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: The circle was always male dominated. It was a young
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: male sport at the time. I was sort of like
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: a tomboy growing up, but there was just a feeling
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: that you knew you had to be a part of it.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Some of us was living in poverty, politicians always doing
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: their own thing. So when we came within that circle,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: that was our way to get away from all the
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: other negative stuff. I mean, just being out there in
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: the street and just listening to some of this, the
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: sounds of the music and the percussion, it just gave
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: you a feeling like you could just take on the world.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: It just empowered you as a woman. And she went
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: on to talk about her time as being the first
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: female MC. She says, in late nineteen seventy seven, I
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: became the first female MC, but at the time there
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: were only two male mcs in the organization, Keith Keith
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: and KK Rockwell. And then at the beginning of seventy eight,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: we added another MC to the group, Rayhem. This is
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: how we became the original Funky Four. Then you had
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: the Furious Four, which was a Grandmaster Flashes group. They
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: had four male members. So the Funky Four and the
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Furious Four before we became the Funky Four plus one,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: and before they became the Furious five, we created the
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: first rap battles in the history of hip hop culture.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: That means groups going against each other. I was the
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: first and the only female MC to ever battle anybody.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I was always a secret weapon in order to compete
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: with my group. A lot of other groups were scrambling
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: trying to find female mcs that can be able to
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: deal with shah Rock. I never felt no kind of
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: way because my group had always let people know out
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: there in New York City or wherever we traveled, whether
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: it was Connecticut, Washington, d C. Any place up and
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: down the I ninety five corridor, that MC Shahrock was
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: the best female EMC and that they had the best
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: female EMC ever. And she truly was receiving many awards
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: in her lifetime, including the Honorary Award from Council of
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: New York and the Women's Distinction Award by the Hip
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Hop Cultural Center.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And then we have the legendary rock Sane Chante also
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: known as Lolita's Chante. Gudin Chante began at the age
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of nine and would go on to put out an
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: instant hit Roxane's Revenge, which was the pushback to Roxanne
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Roxanne by UTFO in nineteen eighty four, which was the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: first answer record which could be placed under a distracker record,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and this was a way of calling out others by
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: name and fyi. She was one of the first to
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: do this. She also was someone who helped other mcs
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: get exposure and helped their careers take off, including the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: MC biz Markie.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Then, of course, we couldn't go past the amazing talents
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: of saltan Pepa and y'all. They fuelled me in my
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: middle school days. Their records and tapes not only made
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: you move, but as a young girl, fed you lines
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: that made you feel powerful, confident and I'm sorry, as
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: we said back then, all that apologies, but I had
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: to be said. As one of the first women hip
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: hop groups, they flipped the narrative on its head. During
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: a time when rappers were objectifying women, the ladies of
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Salt and Peppa came out blasting about their own actual
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: knees and ones and turning the gaze back on the men,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: and it was a successful tactic. Their debut album in
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty six, Hot Cool and Vicious made them the
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: first female hip hop group to sell over a million records,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: and they quickly became the best selling rap group of
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: that time. Salton Peppa includes Ryl James aka Salt, Sandra Daton, Akay,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Peppa and djrel roper A Gay, DJ Spinderella, and in
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: their debut record, there was the mega hit which is
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite and is still on my old
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: school playlists, push It. Here's a quote from the Riches
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: dot Com. The album included the single hit push It,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: which became a massive success, reaching number nineteen on the
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Billboard Hot one hundred chart. As mentioned in Billboard, the
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: song's infectious beat and catchy lyrics quickly made it a
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: favorite among fans, and the iconic ooh, Baby Baby Cook,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: You're welcome became instantly recognizable. In nineteen eighty seven, DJ LaToya,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: who was originally part of the group, parted ways with
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: a group and was replaced by DJ Spinderella, thus giving
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: birth to the iconic trio. The success of Push It
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: propelled Sultan Peppa to stardom and help them become one
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: of the most successful female graph groups of all time.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Their follow up albums, Assault with the Deadly Peppa and
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Black's Magic, continue to build on their success and solidify
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: their status as trailblazers. Throughout the nineties, Sultan Pepper continued
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: to release hit singles and albums, including Very Necessary, which
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: included the hit song What a Man and Shoop. The
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: album became a huge success, selling over seven million copies worldwide,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: as reported by You Discovered Music. Yeah, they also had
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: None of Your Business, which was one of my favorites.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: And I just love screaming that and that that album
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: is still so good. Guarantee you're going to see people
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: trying to carryoki either What a Man or Shoop today.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: It isn't just that their music was that good, but
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: they inspired so many and brote down barriers. Here's another
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: quote from the article. Saltan Peppa also broke down barriers
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: for women in hip hop. They were one of the
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: first female rap groups to achieve mainstream success, and their
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: success paved the way for other female artists to follow
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: in their footsteps. Salton Peppa has also received several accolades,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: which include a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Duo or Group, multiple nominations from American Music Awards, three
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: TV Video Music Awards, and two VH one Hip Hop Honors,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: and in twenty twenty two, the iconic trio presented a
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as reported by People,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: for their unparalleled contribution to hip hop. These awards were
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: all very well earned by the group and they continue
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: to inspire other hip hop artists today, including Megan thee
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Stallion and so many more.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And we have to talk about MC light. Mc lights
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: are Lana Michelle Moore was the first woman rapper to
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: release a solo album, but that isn't the only thing
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: she was known for. She was known to take on
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: issues of misogyny and sexism within her lyrics, so much
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: so she would eventually be credited with helping transition hip
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: hop from just good times to being a quote socially
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: conscious form of expression. Her work has influenced so many,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: including Queen Latifah, Little Kim, Missy Elliott, and Lauren Hill.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: And of course, her work has gotten her many accolades
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: including Icon Lifetime Award, I AM hip Hop Award from
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the b T hip Hop Awards, and honored with the
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Lifetime Achievement from the Hip Hop Inaugural Ball and so
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: many more.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Right, this would lead us to the legendary nineties my
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: era with the likes of Missy Elliott, Lauren Hill, Little Kim,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Foxy Brown. That era is incredible. There's so many more
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: that I've missed out, but so good so good. I
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: would put TLC probably in that era too. Queen Latifa,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: who was the first solo female rapper to earn a
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: gold certification and even was the first female rapper to
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: get a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and yeah,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: she has become a household name. Her work influenced a
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: whole neutener race.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Then we have Little Kim, who is not afraid to
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: be her sexy self. As xxlmag dot com put it,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Little Kim's sexuality was front and center in nineteen ninety
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: six the release of her debut album Hardcore, with lyrics
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: such as I used to be scared of the dick,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Now I throw lips to the handle it like a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: real Little Kim boldly embraced her sexual exploits, something no
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: other female rapper had really done before her. She's often
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: considered the first to take the never ending objectification of
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: women and throw it in men's faces. And Samantha, I
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: appreciate you laughing at me off screen.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, I love that you had to rease that.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: And her works vote for Itself, selling over fifteen million
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: albums and creating her own iconic fashion statements that have
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: been talked about for years.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Now do you I don't know. Do you know what
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: the boob jiggle?
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I mean I know of boob jiggle. I don't think
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I know the boob jiggle.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Well, she was on the red carpet and I don't
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: who she was talking to, but she literally had a
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: pasty that she was the first one to do with
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: this like she had it was a beautiful alve it
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: and knew her breasts were like just kind of of
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: paisty one of them. And the person who was interviewing her,
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I forgot it was decided to tap it on the
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: red carpet.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, it is.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: But that moment lives in history of MTV moments.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Okay, no, I have not heard of that. HM.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: So many thoughts. Well, this brings us to Lauren Hill,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: who is a woman of many talents. From the beginning,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: many new Hill would be successful. Her time with the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Fujis blasted her into hip hop fandom, and her solo
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: projects would become a sensation. Here's a quote from you
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: discover music dot com releasing The Miseducation of Lauren Hill
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight to public and critical acclaim. Mixing
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: neo soul sounds with powerful feminist lyrics. Hill delved deep
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: into the complications inherent in womanhood, motherhood, black femininity, and
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the music business. HiT's like Do Wop That Thing, Everything
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Is Everything, Lost Ones and X Factor still sound as
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: fresh and compelling today as they did at the time
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: of their release. And this album debuted at number one
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: on the Billboard one hundred, the first chart topping for
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: a female MC, and would go on to win the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Album of the Year trophy at the Grammys, a first
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: for a female rapper.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Then we have Missy Misdemeanor Elliott. She is a legend
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: in every way. With four Grammys, a star on the
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Hollywood Walk of Fame, over forty million records sold, and
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: being the first female rapper to enter the Songwriters Hall
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: of Fame, she has become another icon in the hip
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: hop industry. Here's a quote from a Refinery twenty nine
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: dot com article. Together with Timbaland, Missy helped create the
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: experiential sound that defined hip hop in the late nineties
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: and early two thousands and solidified the success of several
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: of our favorite black artists and groups. But Missy is
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: more than a musician. She is a visionary artist who
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: is willing to reimagine the world she inhabits using visual elements.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Remember when she pulled her own head from her body
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: in the minute Man video, or when she seemed to
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: be the queen of some creepy underground species and get
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: your freak one. How many times have you seen a
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: poorly recreated version of our iconic costume from rain super
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Dupa fly with black trash bags? That was an interesting,
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: interesting video. And yeah, the legends that she worked with
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: included Aliyah as well as Left Eye from TLC. Like
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: she definitely creates a lot of amazing music and still
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: does till this day, even with her diagnosis of Graves disease,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: she is still trucking in that music industry. So these
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: are only a few of the many legendary women who've
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: been impacting the world of hip hop. Of course, today
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: there are new icons coming into play, from the Queen
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Nicki Minaj to Megan thee Stallion to Lotto to Doja
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Cat and so many more. And with new mediums such
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: as social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, more and
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: more talented artists are stepping up to be a part
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: of this hip hop culture and being discovered in new ways,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: creating new music videos or music takes dance challenges, which
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: we didn't even talk about. Dance in the hip hop
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: world as well, which is something that I love seeing
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: and I love watching because it's so visually pleasing. And Yeah,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: with all of these amazing works, we didn't really delve
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: into any of the controversies that happened within the hip
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: hop industry, especially when it comes to women and Black
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: women in the industry, as well as queer women in
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: the industry, because we are celebrating today, but there's a
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: lot to be said that that needs to be fixed,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: that still needs to be addressed today. We see issues
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: constantly when it comes to black women rappers and what
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: they do, and we should always be aware of that
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: because it is something that should never be forgotten.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, hard degree, But we hope that you enjoyed
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: and that you can take a moment to celebrate. Maybe
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: listen to your favorite hip hop songs after this. I
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: know I've got some songs I want to go go
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: listen to and send your favorites along or anything we missed.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: You can email us at Stephanida mom Stuff at iHeartMedia
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at mom
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at Steffan Never
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Told You. We also have a tea public store. We
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: have a book that you can pre order at stuff
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: you should read books dot com and also pre order
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: it on Audible. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: our executive producer Maya, and our contributor Joey. Thank y'all,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. Steffan Never Told You
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: is production of my Heart Radio. For more podcasts on
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, you can check out the Ihart Radio app,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.