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SMNTY Classics: Women of Hip Hop · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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