“How can you call yourself a feminist if you love rap music?”
When your favorite artists include the likes of Ab-Soul, Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, and Kanye West (like me), people often think it’s okay to question your morals.
I can be a feminist and love rap. There are quite a few rappers out there who share the same morals as I do. Obviously, some are more demeaning than others, and that’s something I choose to accept as part of the genre. However, (and I know I’m not the only Collegiette that feels this way) hearing a rapper empower women is only the coolest thing ever.
So here’s a list of rappers that accept women as equals, because (for some reason) that’s still an issue.
1. Common
Hailing from Chicago, Common made his debut in 1992 and has been steadily releasing music since then. On his most recent album “Nobody’s Smiling” (which everyone should check out), he features a song titled “Hustle Harder”. Basically, he’s saying that women put in work for what they want.
He tells us that “if she had kids she could mother/father them both” because she’s that good of a parent. Common gets my love for being realistic and honest.
2. Tupac Shakur
First and foremost, RIP. Even though he’s not around to make music anymore, one of the gems Tupac left us with is the song “Keep Ya Head Up.” This song features the brutally honest verse,
“Do we hate our women? I think it’s time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women. And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies, that will hate the ladies that make the babies. And since a man can’t make one, he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one. So will the real men get up. I know you’re fed up ladies, but keep your head up.”
He manages to touch on women’s reproductive rights, fights against the misogynist ideas many rappers portray in their music, and honors the respect women deserve. He couldn’t be more of a hero if he tried.
3. LIL B THE BASED GOD
This isn’t a joke, Lil B loves his women in the best way possible. Last year in late June, after the debacle about abortion rights in Texas, Lil B conducted an interview with Rolling Stone and provided surprisingly articulate opinions:
“women’s rights are something that I really care about. Girls of all ages support me, and I want to do what I can to help women feel good. Because that’s going to help out guys, too, you know? And it’s going to help the world in general. We need to understand each other – more empathy, just continuously trying to learn about other people’s situations. Love is the cure to everything.”
If anything, this shows how big of a heart he really has.
4. Nicki Minaj
Nicki’s feminism is not everyone’s feminism. She’s all about showing her teeth as she climbs her way up through a genre dominated primarily by men. She’s not the poster child, but she is all about owning her sexuality (have you seen the Anaconda video?) and showing that a woman’s body is not just for the eyes of a man, as it has been depicted in most of rap.
To me, Nicki kills it. To others, maybe not. However, she does show that nobody can tell her what to do with her body because, hello, it’s hers!
While I wish this list was longer, it goes to show that not every rapper is comfortable crossing that line. Jay-Z might be next on the list if Beyonce can convince him, or maybe on Kanye’s next album baby North will have him rapping about his girls. Slowly but surely, feminist rappers are making a splash in the rap game.