It seems like female rap superstar Nicki Minaj smoothed the ways for the next generation of women in the hip hop industry. Sure, women always had a place in the business (Missy Elliott, Foxy Brown, Lil'Kim, etc.), but it has been quiet for a while. The picture above shows some of these hard werkin' girls [pron.: /wɜː(ɹ)kɪŋ].
What do these girls have in common? Each one of them has more balls than any current boy group.
Starting with Teyana Taylor on the top left, she became known by her 2008 song "Google Me" in which she claimed to be already a celebrity. But this song and its confident message was what really made her a household name. She was signed to Star Trak/ Interscope Records until last year, which kind of held her back from releasing new material. After the end of the contract she released a free Mixtape and signed a joint deal with Kanye West's label G.O.O.D. Music.
Kreayshawn's "Gucci Gucci" went viral in 2011. What makes her standing out of the others is her special voice. This voice, her name, the fact, that she looks really young, her unique way to mix up colourful, trendy clothes, and a lot of gold jewellery makes her the "sweetest" of these rap girls.
Rapper Tyga signed Honey Cocaine after he saw her rap video on his "Rack City" beat. Since then she supported him on his 'Careless World Tour 2012' as well as she supported Kreayshawn on her 'Group Hug Tour' at the end of 2012. The Canadian rapper of Cambodian descent just released a new video for her song "Love Coca (Love Sosa)".
Harlem raised Azealia Banks attended the famous LaGuardia High School in Manhattan and draw attention in December 2011 when she released "212". Her way of mixing rap with old school tunes and electro is what attracts a broader target group. Her debut studio album Broke with Expensive Taste is planned to be released in March this year.
The most famous and successful of them all is probably Nicki Minaj, who is platinum-certified and signed to Lil' Wayne's Young Money Entertainment. Like Azealia Banks, she graduated from the LaGuardia High School. She intentionally wanted to study singing, but she felt uncomfortable and auditioned for the drama class instead. After her graduation she couldn't really take a step into the acting industry, that's when she started focussing on music again as she explained in a documentary. Although very recently her sound has become more pop R&B she started her music career with rap.
Iggy Azalea grew up in Australia and lived there until she was 15. Because of her love for hip hop music and the dream to make it, she decided to move to the US - alone. She apparently told her parents, that she was going for holidays, but never came back. Since then she worked on her career. Her aim was to get a major label deal, but her album should be produced by rapper T.I., Interscope didn't agree and she refused the contract. Under T.I.'s label Grand Hustle Records she released the video Murda Bizness (ft. T.I.), which is intended to be the lead single of her upcoming album The New Classic. Since she posted the lyrics of a new song on Twitter it is suspected, that she just signed to UK-based label Mercury Records.
It is very rare that former video vixen's turn out to make a name of themselves as artists. Model LoLa Monroe did this anyhow. She started her career in various videos of rappers and singers, like Trey Songz's "Wonder Woman". Following this, she started working as an actress, but quickly focussed on rap music. What I don't relate to her good looks is that her rap skills of her remixes of Rick Ross's "Stay Schemin'" and Beyoncé's "Run The World (Girls)" are mostly appreciated by male listeners.
What you probably notice about rapper Angel Haze is that she looks a lot like singer Aaliyah. Her lyrics are described as very real and she discusses her disbelief in God and her abusive childhood. Other rappers criticize her for not knowing much about past rappers and the industry. After her song "New York" she got into an argument with Azealia Banks, who thinks a Non-New Yorker shouldn't "claim" New York.
I couldn't find out who the girl on the bottom right is. If you know her name, please let me know it and I'll be happy to complete this post.
xx
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