Soon as we thought we found the most ratchet female rapper, an even more ratchet one comes out.
The other day while on tour with an award-winning concert musician I was sent a track by a young female artist in hopes I would do a story on her. I loved her name “KIA DA COLDEST”, so I called her for an interview. She had an innate sweetness about her and I completely enjoyed our conversation…..it was then that I sound tripped her EP and while celebrating the rhythmic dynamics of her music, suddenly, without warning, I had to gasp at the words in her songs…..her raunch aesthetics was over the top…
I had to question whether Hip Hop had taken what could possibly appear to be a wrong turn….or was I so out of touch with today’s generation that I missed the richness of Kia’s delivery due to my own personal feelings concerning her lyrical content.
There has been an onslaught of new, female, rap artists entering the business, using vulgarity…. that often makes one shake their heads. The hyper-sexualized genre is said to be what the industry is calling the slut music era. The question that I keep asking myself is who thought it was ok to take a classic old nursery rhyme like Fre’re Jacques and demonize it as in the song “Eat My Pu__y” by new artist Kia Da Coldest?
It is apparent that upon the release of “WAP” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion it sent into effect a chain reaction of ratchet records being released by female artists that literally changed the hip-hop game overnight. WAP not only garnered 513 million YouTube views, it would be the spark that ignited a ratchetness that had not been seen in hip hop in a very long time. America seems to not only listen, but crave for more of the same…. Fast forwarding to artist Sexyy Red featuring Sukihana and their song “Pound Town” which immediately garnered over 20 million YouTube views while feeding the Hip Hop community with the vulgarity they had not seen in over 25 years.
Sexyy Red’s lyrics are comparable to the likes of the 90s group 2 Live Crew, who publicly and legally earned the right to be “As Nasty as They Wanna Be.”
How does this change affect the hip-hop community throughout the world? How will this artform protect the denigration of females in general? Who is monitoring the morality of the industry and will labels that profit from this unacceptable lyrical content stand up and be held accountable, or will they place profits above purpose as they did during the Tupac and Biggie beef era? While freedom of speech is our right and we must respect that fact, there must still be some line drawn to protect our youths from its effects.
On the other hand, progress hasn’t been felt equally by all hip-hop artists. Women and members of the LGBTQ+ community have all faced backlash from observers outside the industry and gate keepers inside as they looked to express themselves sexually…..Women like Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and others demand the right to embrace and control their own bodies and sexual identities, the verbal and physical expression. Feminists have long critiqued thought for its focus on the male gaze and how it would penetrate it’s multiple dimensions…..
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