Twin Cities Hip-hop Corner

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Ladies of Hip-hop, Who's the Champ?

The subject of best woman emcee has always been a discussion in the hip-hop community, there always has to be a champion. The trend that is easily noticed lately is Nicki VS Cardi. At the moment yes, these two are relevant. However, we must consider some of the women artists that came before them. We chose the four most relevant MC ladies we could think of. We picked and chose individuals that have impacted hip-hop critically; Cardi, Missy, Lauryn Hill and Nicki.

What qualifies any of the individuals listed above, to be the best in their category of woman emcee’s? Is it the streaming numbers, the performance, or the delivery? Or can we sum it all up to relevancy? We’re gonna’ break the swisher down evenly and see what kind of stats we’re working with, as well as if these stats are even important. Spotify streams, networth, and lyrical content.

Ms. Lauryn Hill

Spotify monthly Listeners: 3,282,419

Networth: $8 million

Lyrical content:

Ms. Lauryn Hill spits ill bars, she touches base on many social justice issues as well as empowering her audience. This lady killed shit in the 90’s and hasn’t put new content out since 1998. However, she still has executed tours and has attended festivals like Minnesota’s own, Soundset and other well-known events. She has excellent content and a style that is still fuck-wit-able. She has been able to hold shit down without selling out.

Image: napjc.org


Nicki Minaj

Spotify monthly listeners: 34,374,260

Net-worth: $75 million

Lyrical content:

Nicki can rhyme and can keep up with the opposition (mainly men). In her songs she mainly talks about being independent, flaunts her riches, and talks super dirty about sex. News flash: SEX sells. If she was in a different era, could we have expected a more conscious version of Nicki Minaj?

Artwork: Bo Ismail

Missy Elliot

Spotify monthly listeners: 5,074,747

Net-worth: $50 million

Lyrical content:

Missy Elliot became popularized in the early 2000’s. She is/was the perfect blend of old-school mixed with the new. She talks about holding your ground, hip-hop itself, as well as ALOT of sex. She is extra descriptive to the point where she sounds raunchy (in the best way possible). Missy took a break for a long minute and I think we can expect her to release single hits here and there.

Artwork: Robert Ball

Cardi B

Spotify listeners: 29,746, 679

Net-worth: $8 Million

Lyrical content:

Cardi. Cardi B is the newest woman emcee addition to the hip-hop industry. She talks about dating drug dealers, breakups, sex and flexing. She gets very personal on most of her songs letting her fan-base in further than most artists. She talks about everyday-personal struggles and making sure she’s financially stable. Ex-dancer gone rapper, this lady is killing shit as well.

Artwork: Pedro Enrique Ferreira

As far as fan base and fan support, Nicki has the highest monthly listeners on Spotify right now (1.17.19). This is the same for net-worth. Looking at that information alone Nicki Minaj remains to be the “Queen of Hip-hop”. However do you think that those numbers reflect skill and pen woman-ship, as well as style?
Lets strip those numbers away and talk about who has remained relevant and who has the best delivery. I’m going to cut to the chase. Missy Elliot is the fucking G.O.A.T woman emcee. Why? How?

Besides not needing to sell her body (visually) to the industry, Missy Elliot can drop a song five years from now and all generations will fuck with it. She has a special gift of appealing to older and younger generations. Other artists still sample her music in their songs as well as delivering dope shit with her iconic music videos as well as her sound. Not only that, her style is very unique. She is a trend setter in a tasteful, but very weird way.

On top of all of this Missy Elliot is the 1st female emcee to be nominated for The Songwriters Hall of Fame. This is fucking crazy due to many factors that you can figure out for yourself. But overall this is a historic moment for women, hip-hop, and the black community over-all. She is a strong leader and sets a decent example for women all around the globe.