Who’s Not Invited: Apparently Women in Hip Hop

Not to long ago I started writing for Essence.com. Today I wrote a commentary or the absence of women in hip hop, and how for the last five years or more we’ve been asking the same question: Where are the Woman in hop? My thing is we either answer the question or stop making excuses read an excerpt below, and go to Essence.com to read the full story.

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No longer is the music industry a hostile environment with limited spaces for black women to shine in pop culture across the board. The only things that still limits us is ourselves, and occasionally the lack of support from other women. If we want the playing field to be equal moving forward we can’t play the game the same. Ask Lil Kim, Da Brat, Remy Ma, or Foxy Brown who got caught up behind bars rather than killing it behind the mic. Or how about Eve, Queen Latifah, or MC Lyte who decided to be actors who rap, rather than rappers who act. Then there is Brandy, Monica, and Erykah Badu who made the personal choice to go on a hiatus when they entered motherhood. Groups like Destiny’s Child, Xscape, Salt-n-Pepa are all all dismembered making it hard fom the individuals separately to make it out the gate. Janet, Ashanti, and recently Keyshia Cole like to boo up and then bow out for a while. Toni Braxton, Deborah Cox, Lauryn Hill, Ciara, Tamia, Missy Elliott, all figure out a way in spite of their celebrity to disappear for significant amounts of time. And for the few women keeping us in the game like Mariah, Beyonce, Alicia, and Mary, we must support, so they can be example to those like Melanie Fiona and Jazmin Sullivan who are steady climbing.

Read more: http://www.essence.com/entertainment/music/male_music.php#ixzz0Z8MSiOVK