Hip hop's dismissal of women MCs, often relegated to novelty acts, was always curious. DJ Kool Herc—commonly regarded as the genre's father—only started rapping at the behest of his younger sister. Blondie's Rapture was the first song with hip hop vocals to reach number one on the Billboard charts, for Pete's sake. Rap, to its core, is super-feminine.
Watching the paradigm around women MCs shift post-Nicki Minaj is refreshing and carries the potential to inject some sorely needed variety in rap's content. One of my favorite MCs, laboring to weave feminist threads into the grander tapestry of hip hop, is Qveen Herby. If you're on Instagram and Tik Tok, you've probably heard snippets of Qveen Herby's track vitamins making the rounds this year. Herby's bars are entrancing and riddled with messages of self-love and spiritual alignment. Despite her music being heavily focused on this, Qveen Herby's tracks rarely feel preachy and pack enough punch to rival the output of any mainstream artist. If you wanna get in touch with divine feminine energy, get acquainted with the Qveen.
