Welcome to Week 2 of Black History Month: Women in Hip Hop. This week, we learn about how women used the platorm to promote empowerment. We also unfortunately see how their voices may be used against them, and how sometimes record companies use their voices without their permission. Don’t worry, though, this week may end on a low note, but the next two weeks will be more positive. This will be the “Empire Strikes Back” of the month.
Though they only had one major hit, JJ Fad deserves credit for being one of the first great all-woman rap groups out of the West Coast. The Rialto, California’s group was the brainchild of Juana Sperling, who hosted auditions at her mother’s house. The name originally stood for the original members’ initials: Juana Sperling, Juanita Lee, Fatima Shaheed, Anna Cash, and Dana Birks. This version signed with Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records and released 1987’s “Anotha Ho” with the B-Side “Supersonic”. Financial and interpersonal disputes led Cash, Lee, and Shaheed to leave the group and Michelle Franklin and DJ Train to join. This time “JJ Fad” was re-acronymed, “Just Jammin’, Fresh And Def”. They re-recorded “Supersonic” as an A-side in 1988. This version sold 400,000 copies independently, even before Eazy-E could secure them a major recording contract with Atco Records. There, they recorded the “Supersonic” LP. Both album and single would be certified gold, and they were nominated by the Grammys in 1989 for Best Rap Performance for a Rap Duo or Group, the first time the category was presented. When their second album failed to be a hit, the group went their separate ways, and they left the music industry. Their influence is still palpable. Music critics credit the success of “Supersonic” with forging a path for NWA’s commercial success. MF Doom’s “Hoecakes” sampled the intro to “Supersonic”. Fergie’s “Fergalicious is a direct interpolation of their hit. The song is also featured in the Dance Central 3 video game and is featured in the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer. In 2022, the City of Rialto honored the group by naming a street JJ Fad Way.
DEE BARNES (1973-)
Denise “Dee” Barnes is a former rapper, radio host, and television host. As Sista D, she partnered with fellow rapper Rose Hutchinson to form Body and Soul, one of the few prominent female rap groups from the West Coast. They gained popularity with their 1990 single “Dance to the Drummer’s Beat”, a re-imagining of the Herman Kelly and Life song of the same name. Body and Soul’s version married SoCal style with DC Go-Go rhythms provided by the band Trouble Funk. Their verse on the West Coast All Stars anti-violence posse cut “We’re All in the Same Gang” garnered them a Grammy nomination. Barnes also hosted a radio show on the LA-based Hip Hop station KDAY, and from 1989 to 1992 she hosted the Fox TV show “Pump it Up”, a show that featured interviews and videos from hip hop artists and was pivotal in giving the genre a national audience. “Pump It Up” made Barnes one of the few women hip hop journalists at the time. Unfortunately, Barnes mostly known as the woman Dr. Dre violently assaulted at a 1991 industry party on January 27th. The incident may have stemmed from parallel interviews Barnes had with NWA and Ice Cube after the two parties had recently parted ways with animus. Instead of confronting Ice Cube about his issues with what was said, he took his anger out on Barnes while his bodyguard violently kept people from stopping him. In the aftermath, his bandmates defended his actions, he pled no contest to the assault charges, and he paid a settlement for an undisclosed amount. Dre has recently expressed remorse for his actions, but the damage to Barnes’s career in music was affected. While Dre would continue to expand his career, Barnes was nearly homeless in 2019.
MC TROUBLE (1970-1991)
LaTasha Sheron Rogers was the first woman rapper to be signed to Motown Records.MC Trouble, she was known to hip-hop and R&B styles, an innovation that would be widely imitated by the mid 1990s. Her biggest hit was 1990’s “(I Wanna) Make You Mine,” featuring the R&B group Good Girls. It charted at No.15 on the Billboard Rap Charts. The song and video featured Trouble and others coordinated dancing while courting a man, a dynamic flip from most songs where the man chases the woman. She only released two records, the EP “Highr Rollers” (1988) and “Gotta Get a Grip” (1990). MC Trouble was a great contemporary influence on the likes of Q-Tip and Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest, and Boys II Men. Sadly, she passed away in her sleep in 1991 shortly after an epileptic seizure. Her loss was felt throughout the hip hop and R&B community. A Tribe Called Quest paid tribute to her in their single “Vibes and Stuff”. Freestyle Fellowship shouted her out in “Dedication”. Boyz II Men dedicated their song “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” to MC Trouble’s memory.
QUEEN LATIFAH (1970-)
Dana Elaine Owens was 19 when she released her album “All Hail the Queen” in 1989. With that, the New Jersey native launched a career rooted in Black Pride, Black Feminism, and Women’s collaboration. Queen Latifah is an original member of the Native Tongues Hip Hop Collective, and one of the only two women in the group. Like other Native Tongues, her flow and style heavily incorporated lyricism with heavy jazz and soul beats, a wider expansion of what hip hop can be. Her 1993 album “Black Reign” was the first solo female rapper album to be certified gold, and the single “U.N.I.T.Y.” earned her a Grammy. The song brought more awareness to sexual violence and the objectification/exotification of Black feminine sexuality. Beyond rapping, Queen Latifah is an accomplished singer, pianist, and actor. After release of her fourth album “Order in the Court”, Queen Latifah recorded two well-received jazz albums, “Th Dana Ownes Album” and “Trav’lin Light” both were well received, received several award nominations, and led to her headlining jazz and soul festivals across the globe. She starred in over 100 Movie and TV roles, including Khadijah James in the comedy “Living Single”, the uncredited template for the NBC drama series “Friends.” Queen Latifah’s role in the movie adaptation of Chicago led to her being the first female rapper to be nominated for an Oscar and receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her debut album is the earliest female rap recording to be added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
MONIE LOVE (1970-)
Simone Johnson is the second British rapper to come to prominence, after Slick Rick. She comes from a musical family, as her father is a jazz musician and her sister is a singer. They emigrated New York City from London in her teens. There, Johnson adopted the name Monie Love and started her own musical career. Similar to Queen Latifah, her lyrics are conscious-minded, espousing women’s and Black empowerment. Her 1990 single “Monie in the Middle” is about a woman’s right to choose what she wants out of a relationship. Soon after “Monie in the Middle, she was featured in Queen Latifah’s hit “Ladies First”, an anthem for Black & Femme empowerment, and the two of them are the women founding members of the Native Tongues hip hop collective, who include A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Black Sheep, and the Jungle Brothers. Later in her career, Love branched out into radio, first hosting a show in Philadelphia, then on XM Radio, and currently on WALR KISS 104.1 in Atlanta. She still has a show XM Radio called “Ladies First with Monie Love”.
YA KID K (1972-), MARTHA WASH, AND LIP SYNCING CONTROVERSIES
It is no surprise that hip hop and house music, both born in urban Black America, would occasionally merge. One example is rapper Manuela Barba Moasco Kamosi, known as Ya Kid K. She was the group Technotronic’s frontwoman and lyricist for their 1989 Belgian techno anthem “Pump Up the Jam”. The song was a worldwide hit, topping charts all over the world and going gold and platinum in the UK and US respectively. However, Ya Kid K was not initially given credit for her work on the song, and model Felly Killingi was featured in the music video and album cover art, lip syncing Ya Kid K’s vocals. Technotronic’s first US appearance on “Saturday Night Live” was a shock to many, as a short Ya Kid K bellowed out her lyrics instead of the statuesque woman in the video. This practice of using a model to be the face for another person’s vocals was unfortunately common in the 1980s and ‘90s, as record execs were more concerned with visual appeal in music videos than quality of music. Technotronic did this intentionally to boost sales, but for others the practice was done without the consent of all parties. It came to a head when singer Martha Wash Sued RCA Records, C+C Music Factory, and Eurodance group Black Box for using her voice without her permission. She was compensated, and the practice stopped.
SISTER SOULJAH (1963-)
Lisa Williamson is a rapper, former member of Public Enemy, an activist, and a New York Times best-selling author, but she is most famous for being deliberately exploited for political gain. The Bronx native went from abject poverty to becoming a dual graduate of Rutgers University and University of Salamanca. At Rutgers, she spearheaded the successful movement for Rutgers and other universities to divest from apartheid South Africa. Souljah was hired by Benjamin Chavis to develop youth and education programs for United Church of Christ Coalition for Racial Justice. In 1992 She joined Public Enemy and released a solo album called “360 Degrees of Power”. She launched her writing career in 1994 with her memoir “No Disrespect” and would write 6 novels after that. Most, however, know Sister Souljah because Bill Clinton took statements she made out-of-context and responded to them in the most obtuse way he could to garner votes from white moderates. When she said, “If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?”, it was an absurdist response to the LA uprisings after the police who beat Rodney King were acquitted. The hyperbole in her full statement was easily detectable and spoke to the state of LA and America’s remnant inherent white supremacy (the chief of LAPD was an actual white supremacist). Clinton instead did not address the issue but her words, pillorying Souljah and other prominent Black leaders worked with her, like Ben Chavis and Jesse Jackson, who worked with her on the anti-apartheid movement. Clinton would go on to win two terms as president and sign a “crime” bill that would exacerbate the underlying issues to which Sister Souljah spoke.
