Down with the Queens

Don't forget bout me an ex rod dig a note name if you want to see him flex If you're planning to stay Kathy and the Layer be our guest waiting on reparation, start handing me my check yet. Yeah, it's like this and like that dope knife fall lay but my mama coming back. Of course it's a different color and fly. I'm Tai's more for excellence because my chromosomes got a second accident. And I don't think it's an accident that happens. I'm the best the rest and

happen to have all this extra estrogen. Who she kind of feminine? She must be psycho. You're kind of right though, I'm maybe it's private. I'm taking my off to wa Ron makes Ron making take some pot host because the monument ape the Faith in the Rock boy Man, even where the episode Wescovery Christ has started, I'm deadly obscured. But I'm sure you heard of miss Hank to the art, Tak to the e R the eons where I put every beat that at beyond y know what's good people,

which is dope nighte Lingua franca. And we are waiting on reparations up. So how are you doing? Yo? Um? I went through an ordeal yesterday. What happened? Yeah? So the long background is that in the wake of a lot of the gun violence that I've been referencing um in the show, just kind of talking about what's been going on in the neighborhood, a lot of people have been stepping up to like sort of form organizations or

launch programs for the youth. Because some of the people who have involved in the shootings, either as suspects or victims, have been very young, the youngest fifteen years old, and so a lot of people are stepping up for the young people, trying to, you know, get them involved in leisure services activity from the government or launched their own

like tutoring programs and getting kids jobs, etcetera. And so this one group and we're working with UM Save the Youth had the idea of purchasing a city bus to transport kids around to different activities in town and then have us like a mobile portable, UM hangout spot, like put some PlayStations in there, just posted up on the block and have a spot kids can come hang out and instead of like we're down the streets by themselves.

So UM, we bought the city bus, uh like two weeks ago, and UM the plan had been that, uh, my partner Paul and this dude Donald, this this other guy that rolls with him, we're gonna go down and pick it up yesterday. So they had plane tickets. They drove them to the airport at like six o'clock in the morning and they missed their flights. So we were like, well, we're already an hour and a half. It's only another

four hours to Florida where the buses. So we just drove down and got it and then in um we got it picked it up, drove it back. It was like a tropical rain storm, but other than that was fine. Um, so we got to make it. The bus broke down and Magan and so we hung out and makan for like four hours trying to figure out what to do around what time was that that was around we had to make around We're megan for like four hours. Finally decided to get it towed back to Athens at like midnight,

and so we got back here. I got everything wrapped up, including I had to like go to it and find an a t M to pay the toe trunk person at like four o'clock this morning. So we got like four So I was in the in the car or otherwise dealing with like bus stuff for twenty two hours yesterday. For the love of the children. For the love of the children. You know, I really believe about this project.

I think it's a great idea. Um. I just definitely did not intend, you know, like I had a whole day planned yesterday and then it was like, well, nope, I am driving to Florida. I guess. So that has been my That has been my saga. And that is how I mean. I even I want to be like, well, you know, at least everything got taken care of in

the end, and that's a hell of an ordeal though. Yeah, we gotta get the alternator tuned up, I guess on the bus so that I can be mobile again, or like, you know, there's there's a there were many things that were still left to be done in the bus anyway, like you know, getting it wraps with something cool, and like we were planning on converting it to like biofuels so we can get like restaurant donation grease to like fuel it so it would be cheaper to fuel and

like teach kids about sustainability all this stuff. So now that's just one extra thing on the list. But unfortunately had a little bad news in the family. Uncle of mine and Liberia had passed away. Yeah, I mean apparently, you know, there's a new strain of COVID that's going around in Liberia that's causing some damage. They're like as a matter of fact, of happy in a couple of African countries. Just to you know, words of the people

out there. You know what I'm saying, not to push anything, but you know you should go and get vaccinated because that's like literally the reason why is the stuff mutating and changing and new strains and stuff like that. Yeah, and it's it's truly a privilege to have the opportunity

to get vaccinated. There's so many like people in other parts of the world they're like hoping that they could get vaccinated and show you right, yeah, who don't even have vaccines available and like, yeah, cases are up in a lot of parts of Africa. I've heard. Well, I'm very sorry for your loss. Yeah, it's it's it's sad, but it's you know, it's life. Um, But let's get into some more positive things because we have a pretty

jam packed episode for you guys today. We're going to be talking about women in hip hop the impact they have and to talk about that, we're gonna be chatting with author of the book God Saved the Queen, which is a fantastic, fantastic book by the way, I really recommend it. Yeah, that God Saved the Queen's The Essential History of Women in Hip Hop, author Kathy and Ley, And we're going to have her on a little bit. But before we do, you know, I was the one

who was primarily on this interview. Unfortunately the ride didn't get a chance to be there, which I really wish. I mean, it was just a matter of like a you know, circumstances scheduling and stuff. But it's like I felt definitely kind of like, you know, man, I would have loved to hear the two of you guys go back and forth on this topic. But at the end of the day, I think we had a pretty good conversation that you guys are about to hear. But what

are some of your thoughts Mariah about? Like, first of all, just like the trajectory that women have had hip hop, both on the mic and behind it, you know what I'm saying, And how's that changed or evolved in just even your time of like being in the game, let alone like the history of the whole thing. Yeah, well, I mean I feel like I was somewhat of a late bloomer with my own hip hop career just because of like the way that women are treated in the industry.

Like I grew up feeling like I didn't have any hip like female hip hop role models, despite you know, kind of listening to folks like ms elliott Um. But I think it's because of like the prominence or lack thereof that like female hip hop artists have tended to hold within the mainstream industry, like who who um labels elevate and like you know who was seen as like

the main stars, etcetera. So despite the fact that there have always been always been really robust representation within hip hop culture for women since its inception, I think when that sort of like gets filtered through, like the corporate music landscape, a lot of it gets filtered out. And so, um, it wasn't until I got older that I, um, you know, started making using myself. But it's interesting, like the double edged sword of you know, even still like being a

female hip hop artist. And I'm sure there's an of other like identity intersections where people are like you wrap, like what in addition to being female, like which I think is the main thing when people find out a wrap and like, you know, never mend me like what.

But you know, we we had our battle rap episode recently, and a lot of that, you know, being a part of that culture, um, just being subjected to and just like an easy target of a lot of misogynists attacks and good and you could say in good fun or whatever, but being pretty much the only the only female battle rapper in the scene when I was doing my thing, um and experienced just a lot of life just had a good tough skin around, like my gender identity with

that regard um and oh but otherwise just interpersonally in the scene doing with a lot of misogyny, like uh, just like I guess there's assumption like you trying to hit on me and stuff like that where it's just like I want you to I want your respect as an artist. I like want you did respect my music. Um, I don't want to feel pressured like look a certain way in order to like get your attention on stage. I just want to be quiet, am And so some

considerations that I think male artists don't always face. But on the flip side, um, I think that the novelty of being like one of the only female rappers pretty even the battle rap scene and happens and back in two sixteen to seventeen, it was actually like a boon, like it had the reverse effect of what I experienced as a kid with regards to like the female media blackout was in the music industry where it was like, oh, snap,

let's book that girl. Um, Like, I feel like I got more opportunities than like the male artists, of whom there were so many they were almost impossible to differentiate like, oh, there's like so many dudes out here, but let's get that one girl, you know, to play the show, to do this thing, etcetera. So to and to a to an extent, it was actually a benefit to me um

as well. So it's just a mixed bag, honestly, UM And I try to be really a about the I guess, like I don't want to call it privilege, but like the some of the ease with which I was able to like get opportunities because of my gender, because like

I don't want I don't. I just think it's dangerous to always construe gender as like a like a form of oppression necessarily worth like in some instances, actually it benefited me, And like I want to be very real about that, um where even though perhaps interpersonally in the scene and otherwise I had to put up about ship from people that just like didn't perspect women on the

artists who side of things. So do you think that some of the advantages that you feel that you got, do you think that was a circumstance of the time period that you're in and that you're active in, Like do you think? And I think so too, Yeah, Like if you were like the only female rapper in the battle scene in Athens in Like, do you think those advantages still would have existed in that same way? No, No, I don't. I mean because I think I think today.

I mean, like I haven't looked at the numbers. This is tobally anecdotal, but from my experience of hip hop music, it does seem like there are a lot more prominent female hip hop artists today than there were when I was growing up. Um, like more than I can count on one hand. You know, we got like Nicki Minaj, one of the best sellers um in the industry, Megan Stallion. Yeah, like there's so many and there and and genre blending to folks that sort of bringing some people like Beyonce

and their delivery in their music. It's increasingly popular for her to like take on like a hip hop like a rappers affect and some of her songs because it's like being normalized that like being a woman that raps is cool. I think we're talking about that Beyonce thing before. I still say beyonceonp I don't know write your lyrics. I hope it's her because goddamn, sometimes it's like whoa,

that's nasty, lord a mercy Jesus Christ. Yeah, and so yeah, I mean I think I like to believe that girls growing up today, Um though though representations of women in hip hop are still highly sexualized, um, there's at least a great representation in general. So there's like a little girl growing up today could be like, oh, I could be a rapper, because like they see the music videos they here, they watch the YouTube, you know, they see

they see women doing this thing. Whereas when I was growing up, it was like, look at Missy Elliott flailing around in some trash bags on MTV and I can't say the rain, you know, like, and that was and that was effectively it in terms of my exposure to women in hip hop. Yeah, I mean little Kim was definitely well Kim, yeah, Kim ground Like it was all three of them were like around the same you know

what I mean, the same time period. So like, because I remember back then being a little bit older than you, like, Missy was like the breath of fresh air. Yeah you know what I'm saying, because because you know, Little Kim kind of came out the gate with the hyper sexuality thing. And then obviously when something is popular, you have a bunch of you know, like people like that kind of imitate, you know what I'm saying. So it kind of seemed

like that was a saturation. So by the time Miss Elliott came around, it was like, Yeah, I'm just doing like these crazy wild videos and I'm in the trash bag and yeah wild out and ship. It was like, oh man, that's cool. It's like quirky and weird and you know what I mean. It was like an alternative.

But how do you how do you do? Do you feel any kind of way, like the same way that certain images are proliferated throughout hip hop, Like you know sometimes when we talk about like the glorification of gang life and gang imagery and stuff like that, do you think that kind of that same sort of thing is happening might be happening on any level with like in the mainstream with female artists, like the proliferation of Yeah,

I do think so. I think that, Um, there's like a there's this there's a sense of like to be hard in this industry. There's like a couple of different ways, like got a lot of money, I'll fuck you up. I like, you know, a bang I'm like abstrapped or like like I get it in and like I might not own that in terms of like female rappers. It's like I'm gonna tell you omahara, bitch, because like I'm gonna get into some pretty graphic detail about like what it's about to go down when the lights go off

kind of thing. Like I do think that is a very predominant Um, it's it's it's a trope of the lyrics and the music videos. Um. But then but like you know, we have people like Princess Nokia that like you're also owning like female representation in a very um just ut like outside the box way of like what your body can be like and like owning that, and it's owning different what you wear. You know, it's like

different kind of stuff like that. Um, I think that we are, even if even if it's mostly within the underground, just like expanding notions of femininity within hip hop of recent and I think it's good. It's good. I mean it might take a while to trickle into the mainstream, and depending on how you find mainstream, someone like Princess Nokia is highly popular, but um, you know, we're getting

broadening the horizon. I think I think that we're getting towards like novel forms of storytelling, um and different like in visual representations, different ways women can look in hip hop. But it's ultimately a battle against like what capital rewards. Like I think that we do see a lot of sexualized imagery and like lyricism among women because like, that's

what we'll get you on. That's what will gives you you know, uh play you know, uh universal music will drop that Sony was going to drop that, you know, no doubt. It's the reason that you see, you know, the violent imagery and the gun imagery. It's with the It's with the market demands, you know what I means with the market rewards. So that's what the market's going to get. So we are going to take a little

break and then we get back. We're gonna have Kathy Andelay and we're gonna talk to her about women in hip hop and her book, God Save the Queen's. So today we are adding with author of the book God Save the Queen's, the Essential History of Women in Hip Hop, Kathy Anderley, how are you doing, Hey, how's it going? I'm good. I really need to invest in like a soundboard. So when I introduced people like that, I can like press like the audience sounds like yeah, like welcome you

to the show. Right. So the first thing that I want to ask is I always like to ask people because it interests me, how did you get into hip hop? Hip hop as as just like a fan? Just from you know, you know what, what what was it about hip hop? Pat your interest to get into as a fan? Um? You know, I'm an eighties baby, and when I kind of left the fog of the boy band era and I'm talking new kids on the block, not Backstreet boys,

because I'm that old. I think that I would say that I would mark you know nine that that that period of time. The first video that I think I've really just gravitated towards was a Lady's First and it was one of those things where I was like, wait, what's happening here? Right? And I was only like ten years old. But then it was in two with TLC Ain'to Proud to beg and you know, there was there

were so many other songs and videos in between. But when I can say that I went from hip hop fan to hip hop head, I would say it was during that period of time and it's it's a it's a funny introduction because you know, like at Proud to Beg literally set the tone for my entire style up until Fujie Law, which then changed it all up again.

And you know, I was a Fujies fan between two um boot for whatever reason, Booth Bop was like, I was like, Wow, this is a great song, and you know, because I was a distract to fancause a Lauren Hill. But I think like I went through these little periods of time where like if you start with it was from like Ladies First and Browns to Beg Fougi Law and then like no Time by Little Kim, Like I have very specific moments and there's the guys are in

between two. But you know we're we're here to talk about the ladies, so I um, you know, keeping it topical, but that was definitely I would say Ladies first. So because so if Ladies First was like, you're the thing that made you go from just being a fan to like being ahead, then is it is it fair to say that like strong female oriented hip hop was kind of like the thing that opened your eyes to like what with the possibilities of what could be done with

the genre. It was more, yes, but it was also a relatability factor because you know it it was aspirational at that point where it's like, oh, I could be that cool one day, right, And I think that that was that was one of the things that also because if you're thinking about that time period too, I was like a big fan of a different world and everything that was going on the whole, like Flower Child era of hip hop, Like there was sayah and it was

a vibe and it was it was different. It was fundamentally different from what I, as a kid had been listening to. And I think what, you know, I grew up in a single parent household with my mom, so I was always drawn to strong female leads and I was I was, you know, raising only child, so to be to see that in other women, even as a kid, it just it was representative of my mother. It was

representative who I wanted to grow into, you know. And I can say I wasn't having like these really deep thoughts as like a ten year old, but I know throughout yeah, throughout over the years. What what always piqued my interest in the way of um of hip hop has always been what has connected to connected with me based upon my own values and and and the women

around me and the woman I wanted to become. So then, okay, so now going from being like a hip hop head to actually being someone who is involved with like, you know, the whether you want to say hip hop industry or hip hop culture. You're like you know, and you've been ingrained and involved in it for twenty years plus. So

what was it that made you then make that transition? Well, as a kid, I UM, I might have written on a few walls that might have been my person my my first introduction to them, to the elements UM, but you know, I as far as working in hip hop as a teenager, I UM, I worked at a court store and my section was the hip hop section because of course, right it was actually a hip hop and electronic which was really funny because the two beats that I would write about, um became hip hop and electronic

music because I just it was just cataloging and constantly knowing what these states and reading liner notes. It just became a fascination. And then from there I went and I worked in places like fat beats and and and

things like that. But you know, I when I was nineteen eighteen, nineteen nineteen, yeah, nineteen, I started handing out flyers for the Roots and UM promoting their Black Lily concert series while I'm from Jersey, but Black Lily was also at the Wetlands and uh in New York and UM they were they were pushing, you know, Black Lily into nine. So I was like handing out flyers and doing all this stuff. And that's when you know, things

fall apart. Happened. They want the Grammy, all these things, and I like literally hopped on at that point, and it became clear to me that in some way, shape or form, I wanted to become part of beyond you know, the culture of hip hop, the industry of hip hop right and contribute in some way. I knew I couldn't wrap. I certainly couldn't break UM, so I UM and I

really tried and failed. When I was at Fat Beats to DJ, I could do a little something, but I'm not going to sit there and you know, put any put put a d J in front of my name unless it's DJ Tanner. But but I I during that period of times, who was when I got started in writing, and there were so many people who were part of the roots okay player message boards who were magazine editors and writers and did all that kind of stuff. And you know, I was a writer. I always wrote as

a little kid. I always you know, journals, and I was a writer. And I was like, well, wait a minute, do you remember what your first like story was. I do. I covered, Um, you remember when the graffiti writers were, um, we're tagging on trucker cups. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My first story was a little right up about how that was like returning to fashion. I had a friend who did that too for him. Yeah, he made some good money doing that. We're based in Georgia. I live in Savannah, Georgia.

My co host lives in Athens. Wow. Okay, yeah that was like that was hot. Like you would go through soho and it's like all the like old school um graffiti writers were like, you know, tagging up on hats and stuff. And I remember, um, I had one that um, this one particular writer and the knack he tagged my old tag name on it, and I thought that that. I thought that was like the coolest thing. And they used as the image for my for my article. Yeah. So then from there on, you just it just started.

I just kept going from there and that was my first print article. But I actually entered in a really weird period of time for for journalism in general, because I realized that I could pursue journalism at a time where the Internet was kind of like figuring itself out and we had a lot of those like were they live journals back then? It was something there was there was something was going on that was like kind of like, you know, the predecessor to blogs. And I used the

Okay player message boards. There was a section called the lesson and um I used that section to sit and write my own little wanna be op eds and stuff, and it just you know, it kind of continued from there until I, I mean, I feel helped something like that helps you develop like a writing voice there, right, absolutely, And I think that was the biggest, the weirdest thing too, when you when you were at certain magazines who want to eliminate voice from pieces because there's like this uniform

voice that was that like a is that like a thing where they try to take like the uniqueness out of the writing styles and stuff depending on the section of the magazine. When you're getting started out there's there's the front of book, you know, the fob that's got one voice, you know, and then you go to the middle where you get more of the features, and then towards the end is where reviews typically I'm judging. I'm going by the source and double Exile for for speaking

in hip hop. Um oh, I didn't mention that at the beginning that you've written for the source Double Xel, rolling Stone, Guardian et Centric. So okay, so you know, we got the first writing assignment and it's been going since then, so obviously we're skipping a bunch. But when we get to the point of you're sitting down to write God Save the Queens? What what has it inspired

you to? Like? Because I mean when you whenever anybody takes an endeavor like that, you know, something with something like that, I'm I'm kind of talking about it from a sort of artist, you know, perspective. So it's like you, as the artist you're about to partake in creating a book, like, what is it that made you feel like, hey, this is something that I need to do and now, well, originally I wanted to do it in two thousand nine ish,

it had been in the works for like a long time. Yeah, but publishers just weren't feeling it, like they didn't know because I kind of wanted to do it during the time period where there was a lull in that one female hip hop artist, right, like the the one that everybody always talks about, the one, And when I was thinking about this book, it was like one of those things where there was no current person who was like at the top, right, So this is like you said, like,

oh nine, Yeah, this was like literally minutes before Nicki Minaj Blue, like you know, two thousand and eight, she was doing her thing on the mixtape circuit. But you know, two thousand nine was like the year right that it led into. And yeah, I was like I was like just too late at that point, and I think, um,

I put it on hold. And over the years, I covered you know, um women in hip hop as my primary beat, like just constantly trying to bring new, um, new female hip hop artists to the surface while still you know, um giving flowers to all the legends and and that kind of continuous coverage. And then you know, an artist came to me and wanted me to do her book and it did n't materialize, and then you know, I had an agent by then, and he was like, you know, is there like a thing you've been kind

of sitting on. I was like, well, you know, I've been sitting on this idea of a book on women and hip hop. He's like, that's the book, Like create the first one so the rest can like they could be broken up into individuals, like there's no there's no Bible so to speak. Right, So that's really where it

came back around. So when you say that, you were kind of put you know, trying to see what was up with it back then, and we said, like, publishers weren't failing at yeah because it was because it was about women in hip hop. No, I think it was because they didn't they didn't know how to create the story. So there's a book called Girls Like Us that um talks about Carol King, Johnny Mitchell, and Carly Simon, right, and it's like three representative women in that like folk rock,

singer songwriter genre. And I was asked to think of three, right, three women in hip hop, and that could have so you could say Queen Latifa, Lauren Hill, and Little Kim Let's say, right, But then you've left out mc light and Salt and Peppa and Roxan Shontay you know, um, and so then you could say Rock Sandschnte, Salt and Peppa and Queen Latifa. But then you've left out MC light,

You've left out Money Love, Foxy Brown. So and then there was like this thing where it could be like, okay, so representatives, right, so you could go beginning, middle, and then who was the last, like who was the looking ahead? And in theory, that could have been at that point Nicki Minaj. But there, you know, at that point, there was also just we didn't know, we didn't know it was to come, We didn't know any of it. So I think, you know that was that was the biggest struggle.

And yeah, I think it might have a lot to do with women in hip hop. It it could have to do with women in general. It could do black women, Like there's there's so many different reasons why publishers act the way they act, and I'm just I'm glad that it finally happened. But in putting a book together and you take a look back and now you've got four decades of coverage that you have to be responsible for accurately covering that became it was like, oh, what did

I sign up for? But I mean, do you how do you think it's been received? I mean, people really like it. It's so funny because I'm just gonna say it, there's always like a random white dude who will pull some like female rapper out of obscurity, like you forgot about and I'm just like, it's all it's always that dude that will try to like we don't don't forget you know, so and so had bars and it's just like, alright, cool, Like if you wrote a history on hip hop in general,

did how's your how's your ski? Low? Chapter? Going? Yeah, Like I was just about to I was going to make that same analogy. It's like I kind of look at it, as you know, hip hop is like a history book that has its chapters, and it's like it doesn't it's not somebody not being in that history book isn't a denigration to their art or their contribution, no more than it is for like you personally to not be in a like actual classroom history book, you know

what I mean? And like shout out of Skilo because you know, I too wish I was a little bit taller but like but it's like but it's like honestly, like, don't come to me and asked me my Silky Fine wasn't in the book. Yeah, you know, like you know, a shout out of Stilky Fine too, because Romeo and Juliet was a jam. But I you know, there's I had a whole chapter that had to get cut from the book where you know, I was carrying on about conscious daughters and nonchalant and even Nana Cherry you know.

Um so that kind of it just put a hard pause, um like looking for that kind of feedback because it was only and it was only going to make it a matter of just like trying to like prove that they like you don't have to know every single female rapper in history to make a good history book about

female rappers. Yeah, I mean I used to. One of the things I used to do is like I would go into record stories, into the hip hop section and just like I spend like an hour, two hours just looking at the sheer volume of stuff that has been

released through time. I mean, there's so many cats that dropped one album or two albums like twenty years ago that you know, unless you discover it for yourself personally, it kind of will be lost in time, so you can't really I don't know how you can have that expectation that if somebody's making like an essential guide, it's like got the word essential in it for a reason.

You know, you can't have everything right, it's just in you know, even there are there are a lot of um, you know, female mcs that should all have mentioned, like you know, Miss Melody, and like I tried, I tried, I tried, but it was you know, and I made sure that if there wasn't a whole chapter or something like that, then at least there was a mention to kind of just be like, you know this, this happened, you know, but it's it's hard or what do you

think of the evolution of female rep as the years of progress? I think that it's been I hate saying that because I'm on some like I'm on some you know, dogmatic hip hop ships. I'm you know, I'm looking at people as mcs and I hate putting the word female before the word see. As long as you can, I think we're good. Um. I think that it's very much in line with what's going on in hip hop in general. You know, you have you have your artists who, um

remain closer to the core of hip hop culture. You have your artists who are categorically pop music because hip hop is now the dominant genre, so it's pop anyway, right. Um. You have the artists to who mess with other genres and incorporate that into their their sound style. You know, you have you know, conscious artists, you have sex positive artists. Sometimes you have a conscious sex positive artist. I mean, I it's just very much in line with what's going on.

You know, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of everything. Because now we are given the luxury of having multiple women in the space, um, where it's not necessarily pointing it out like wow, look at all the ladies, Like it's not that's it's we around you know. Maybe like about two years ago, that was like the cool observation. Right, it's not an observation anymore. Now women are just women winning. Yeah. So who would you say is like or amongst some

of your favorite contemporary female hip hop artists. Well, see, my contemporary for me is still some of the legends who are like still doing it like I'm doing it. I mean that that counts. I mean when I say contemporary, I just mean people who are still doing it. I don't mean somebody who's new, right, I mean I I love Little Kim like like up and down, you know, and I do, And I love Nicki minaj To Um, but I love Meg i Um. I love Rhapsody with

all my heart and soul. Shout out to my sister Rhapsody. I there's It's funny because there's so many women now that cater to different parts of my personality and I love I love that we have that option again, like all this like diversity, Like I love No Name. Um, I love cash to Hall Drezy my girl. Shout out to Drezy and shout out to cash to. We've covered

no Name like a lot of no no Um. I love Lotto too, but Lotto she's dope too, Like I think, like there's just there's a there's just I can listen now, I can listen with a different ear, even Ruby Rose, like I like it's you can you listen and you're like, oh, you can hear the history and sometimes we don't. We don't think automatically when you listen to this, when you send the city girls, right I hear Trina, I hear Kim right, and I think that it's cool too. It's

cool that that's happening, you know. And the thing that was also a really cool is in um Cardian Meg's wop video just all the other um women in hip hop that they had in there, like Suki Hana was in there, like there's it's just cool. Like what's happening right now is just dope. But I'm just I'm happy. I'm I'm happy that I can even hear a couple of songs and be like okay, like and be put on in ways that I might not have been. Like I that silhouette challenge is literally the way that I

heard a Doja Cat song. Yeah, you know, and I don't you know, I know that there's a couple of other Doja Cat songs I've heard in the past, you know, um there's like the say so right, But when I heard her rapping on that, I was like, oh, that's kind of like a left eye flow, you know. You know, I was going to ask you about that because I think the left eye is truly underrated for how dope

she was as a rapper. Left eye is everywhere, Like I when I hear Cardi B, I hear Left Eye, where that's I guess I never I never thought about the Left Eye CARDIV comparison. Left is one of my favorite UM female in season history, and nobody gives her the credit she deserves because she was That's exactly what I was gonna say. It's because you know it has that It's I mean, it's just when people think of TLC, they just they think of it as like an R

and B or a pop group. So you know, people forget that just about every song, like Left Eye had at least twelve bars. I mean, I did a piece years back that TLC was the female public Enemy. Oh that's where a Left Eye was a combination of Chuck They and Flavor Flave. Okay, yeah, that that's that's that's baby. Baby Baby ruined our dreams of TLC being just a rap group with Left Eye at the forefront with the bars and Chilian Tea bas singing in the back. Is

that what it was supposed to be? Well, Left I was UM. Tebows and Left I were the first two members right UM and then there was a third girl named Crystal, and I didn't work out with Crystal, so It's the reason why Chili her real name is Rosanda. It's the reason why her first name it doesn't have the same letter like Tien t Bas Lisa, left Eye, Chili, Crystal. You know. But it was it was like, you know, that's why Rosonda, like you know, she joined the Fold later.

That's why I did. I had no I like, I didn't even know that that was because now that I think about it, I just think about how dope that would be and somebody should try to do that, like a group like that. But where the rappers the lead man? You know, Um, the Fujis have four members originally, um, a fourth girl named Marcy. No, I didn't know, but yeah, and then Marcy left and then it just became white and Lauren. Oh man, did she before they blew up?

I mean, do you remember Marcy? I hope she's well, you know, but yeah, yeah, Marcy might have actually been there before Lauren because Lauren's brother, Molani, he was the one who I think brought her because he knew Whack left and Proz. I think that's how the story went. I heard something about a con was supposed to be a member, but he got locked up. Thus locked up so he wasn't there or something like that. I mean, anyway, that would have been a cool group. That really would

have been like a supergroup in hindsight. Um, so do you do you see us being at a point where maybe like four or five years down the line, maybe you know, the dominant most popular form of rap is you know, female rap, and that there's like that's like the the game, that's been the game, but people are just afraid to say it. So it's in five years from now, maybe they'll be the most will litill be more comfortable? Right? Women have have tapped into every single

part of you know, hip hop society. I mean, for god's sakes, find me a male rapper who has a piece of political history like the Sister Soldier moment. They don't have that. You know, we women have hip hop have tapped into every single aspect of everything. And in this even this year, the most controversy because you know, hip hop causes controversy, but what's the most controversy wop? Literally? Right?

You know, so no women women are at the top, like that's it's it's a because most of the dudes, like, um, a lot of the men are are singing now I'm calling it wrap. You know. So if we're talking about someone who's just literally straight spitting, it's women. It's not men, because when women do the same meaning thing, they become an R and B artist. Lauren Hill, I mean, I gave her two chapters in my book. She's the only artist outside of Roxyne Shante that has two chapters in

my book. You know, Lauren Lauren Hill. For me, I became a Lauren Hill fan. I had a I have a very specific story of why I even how I came to no Lauren Hill's music. Um. So one of my friends when I was growing up and in grammar school, I was like seventh grade, eighth grade. It was like it was right before Sister Act two, so it sustract.

He was like nine two. So we're talking so um, a friend of mine, his cousin with somebody in the Grand Puba's squad, Like, I want to maybe dj Alamo, somebody like somebody in that um collective an He said to me, he was like, you know there's um there's a female wrapper, a rapper coming out of New Jersey and they call her l And I was like really because I was just getting into you know, hip hop at that that time, it was like I was one

to two years off Ladies first. It was before actually before TLC because TELC was ninety two, and um he was like yeah, he's like and she's really good and I have this like tape and you know, and played me some rough and it was when Lauren was doing that you know that that bouf bab like that like that kind of like that weird like you know, like when why like why Cleff wasn't instructing her cadence And I was like, but um, but it was it was that kind of but I was still like, oh, like

cool right and then um, his like I was just always keeping up with what was going on with Lauren Hill, with the Lady they call l Which is really funny because if you listen to the Ladies in the House, um big cap song at the end when they're doing the the role call and it was like Bahamadia unique and it was and they go through each other precise and they're like and the lady they call L and like they that's what they literally call her. And that's how I came. That's how I was introduced to her.

The Lady they call L right, and then you know, since she was he was like, yeah, she's going to be in a movie. And I was a Sister Act fan. We were we were in Catholic school, so I was a Distract fan and then you know, I um for some of our younger listeners. Lauren Hill was in Sister Act too. It was way before your time, don't worry about it. So they're scene in Distract Too where Lauren Hill comes out into the playground like I got the flow.

I got the flow, and then she you know the here I go on the microphone about to wreck it right, and it was like I know that whole do you want to hear? It was crazy. So there's a part where she goes but if Bi Bopara's want to rocket kicks some monk or some miles. It's because of that verse that I started listening to Thelonious Monk. Lauren Hell put me onto every other artist anything that Lauren Hill mentioned. I listened to, Um, I'll be Nina Simone and defecating

on your microphone. I started listening to Nina Simone. But it's because Lauren read so much and listen to so much and learned about so much. So when you listen to the lyrics, they almost sound like they're contradicting each other, but Lauren makes the through line the cathic thank you for talking with me. UM, what do you what? What do you have coming up or going on right now? It's funny you should say that I'm holding So I have moll My book God Saved the Queen's is out

now on paperback UM and then on August. Uh, baby Girl better known as Aliyah, I can't show that in that. Yeah, it's coming out in August seventeen. It's on the life of Aliyah and UM. I actually in November have UM an oracle card deck that I designed with the amazing

Monica Hanna. Now and it's the Hip Hop Queen's Oracle Deck, where I've taken the women from God Save the Queen's as well as UM other prominent like hip hop adjacent women like Mary J. Blige, you know, UM another artist Aliyah and UM we made an oracle card deck and I wrote the guide book so that you can pull a card and based on the attributes of the artists in their career, like you can get like your your

intention for the day. And then I have another big, major project that um is going to be announced soon. But um, where can people find you? Um, I'm across all social media platforms at CAT three thousand k A t H three zero zero zero. Yeah, thank you for talking with Thanks for having me. Oh yeah, this has been really dope. So that is it for us this week. We will be back next week and it will I have a feeling next week is probably gonna be pretty

pretty heavy whatever. Whatever, it's been a long time. We shouldn't have left you without a deb beat the step two Hey yo, Joe, drop that yeah on, I don't even know what y'all. Uh wait, no reparation. We wain't no reparation, yeo. This this is flex beat. See you next week. Listen to the rats first, don't just leave. Thank you for tuning it. Can't wait to do again. That was a proven when freestyle of use of pen. I go from Frodo to Green Street, who again? African

and Toto please don't fool with him. Cops on my tail, but I think that I'm losing them in its record heat outside, so I use a swim. Oh, I think it's in my reach. That's what I'm doing. I'm see you on next week. I'm gonna end this ship. I don't even have to speak. Take my black ass right to Savannah Beach peace. I'm dope. Night. We are Waiting on Reparations. See you next week. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts