Hyper-sexuality in female rap


While rap remains a male-dominated genre, more female rappers have become popular in recent years. From new artists such as Megan Thee Stallion and Latto to icons like Nicki Minaj who continue to rule the charts, there are now many mainstream rap songs sung by women. Even so, their top hits lack diversity.Ā
Spotifyās most streamed female rappers as of late are Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B and Latto – with over 176 million listeners collectively. Dojaās top song on the platform is āWomanā, an afrobeats track about the divine feminine. Minajās recent hit is āSuper Freaky Girlā, a song about her skills in bed. Both Megan and Cardiās most-streamed track is their collaboration āWAPā, which stands for āwet ass pussyā and is true to its name. The same goes for Lattoās top song āBig Energyā, a reference to ābig dick energyā.
I love all these songs and stream them regularly. But it doesnāt take a fan to notice the pattern in mainstream female rap today. There are outliers, like the aforementioned āWomanā. Overall though, sex sells. Thatās no surprise and can be said for almost any industry. However, women sexualize themselves more often in rap than in most other music genres.
Take well-known female pop stars such as Taylor Swift, whose biggest Spotify hit is āI Donāt Want to Live Foreverā ft. ZAYN. Despite being for the 50 Shades Darker soundtrack, the songās content isnāt sexual and instead describes missing an ex. Dua Lipa, another female pop star, is known for feel-good songs about living in the moment like āDonāt Start Nowā. In addition, Ariana Grandeās most-streamed track āThank U, Nextā is about learning from past relationships.
Female pop music is hardly devoid of sexuality- all the artists mentioned have tracks about sex. But female rap hits are overwhelmingly sexual, while top songs by women in other genres are more diverse.
Thereās nothing wrong with sexualizing yourself per se; some third-wave feminists consider it empowering in a culture that used to shame female sexuality. After all, male rappers and artists in general get far less backlash for their sexual content. But it shouldnāt be a requirement for female artists to get famous. What does it say about the way we view women if the content from female rappers that we make the most successful nowadays is almost always hyper-sexual?
Many people, for instance, know of Minaj’s āAnacondaā, a song about butts. Fewer people are familiar with āThe Crying Gameā, her emotional song about a conflict-addled relationship. It has around 40 million Spotify streams compared to over 388 million for āAnacondaā.
Minajās older hits arenāt as sexual, from the crush anthem āSuper Bassā to the confident party track āStarships.ā As Western culture has become more sexual in recent years, so has her content- and sheās far from the only one.
In a way, many female rappers are just working the system to their advantage. Itās not their fault sex sells, theyāre merely following industry trends that have made other women successful. Ultimately though, hyper-sexuality serves the same crowd as purity culture did; men.