More Power to the Pussy Part II: Don’t Stop
In the event you haven’t read the first part of this three-part article (or need a reminder), the subject is about black women creating, recording, and performing songs of a purely sexual nature with unambiguous lyrical debauchery. In Part I, we started with the Dirty Blues, a sub-genre of the blues of pornographic songs that were about nothing but fucking. Here in Part Two, we’ll discuss the same subject, but within a different genre.
In their respective parts, I start off with the foundation of both blues and hip-hop. This is done solely to firmly establish that women have always been participants in the creation of both forms of music. Without the brief historical mentions in Parts 1 and 2 (and soon, 3) of this article, there would be no context. Bear in mind that I am not writing a history of the blues or hip-hop which means that many female rappers (and other recording artists) who don’t fit the parameters of the articles will be excluded, and the same for everyone else who may or may not add to the discussion.
Men often get more shine than women when it comes to acknowledging the origins of and contribution to any genre of music, and hip-hop is no exception. Anyone knowledgeable of its history will be familiar with the Godfathers of Hip-Hop: DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Universal Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa. While some women do get some recognition when it comes to the origins of hip-hop, it’s usually on sites like this one that only goes as far back as Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shanté, Queen Latifah, and occasionally, The Sequence. Little is known about the women who were not only present and a part of early (pre-vinyl) hip-hop music and culture but contributed to its very foundation. One of these women was directly responsible for the birth of hip-hop and is the younger sister of one of its godfathers. She is the 1st Lady and Mother of Hip Hop.
Cindy Campbell is the sister of Clive Campbell, better known as Kool Herc. It was Cindy’s after-school party on August 11, 1973, where Herc laid hip-hop’s foundation at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the South Bronx, New York; the Home of Hip-Hop. She organized the event which technically makes her the first hip-hop promoter. Dancing to her brother’s breakbeats, she would eventually become a B-Girl, then later, a graffiti writer using the tag “PEP-1 (174)”. Cindy spent many years being involved in Kool Herc’s business affairs and in hip-hop generally. She is the founder of Hip-Hop Preserve Inc. a non-profit organization tasked with the preservation of Hip-Hop culture. Her contribution to hip-hop didn’t end with that party fifty years ago as Cindy continues to be an integral part of hip-hop culture.
Though not a rapper, Sylvia Robinson was responsible for launching the careers of many of hip-hop’s early rappers and popularizing rap music. Before becoming the founder and CEO of Sugar Hill Records, she was a singer, producer, and record label executive. Dubbed “The Mother of Hip-Hop, Sylvia was a savvy businesswoman who “brought rap into the public music arena by attaining one of the first commercially successful hip-hop songs and revolutionized the music industry by introducing rap, scratch, and breakdance” (source). I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that without the efforts of Sylvia Robinson, rap music wouldn’t have gotten further than the five boroughs of New York.
There is almost zero information on who the first woman hip-hop DJ was and the info that is available comes from one website. It’s called DailyRapFacts and it claims that the first woman DJ was someone named “Pam” who went by the moniker “A-1 DJ Pambaataa” (her name was in honor of Afrika Bambaataa).
“A-1 DJ Pambaataa became the first female Hip-Hop DJ when she joined The Mighty Crew with DJ Disco Wiz, Casanova Fly (Grandmaster Caz), Prince Whipper Whip, and Dot-A-Rock. Along with the crew, Casavona Fly had Casanova Fly Girls, which Wiz’s girlfriend was in. Casanova Fly took her under his wing…” (Source)
The article from DailyRapFacts is only one paragraph and two sentences long and there are no photographs of Pambaataa (not to mention the apocryphal nature of the article). There were other female DJs who were at the forefront of hip-hop in the early days, such as DJ Wanda Dee and DJ Jazzy Joyce, but the names of other female DJs elude this author at the moment.
It’s fortunate, however, that the early history of female rappers isn’t as nebulous.
Sha Rock, photo credit ROCK THE BELLS
"The women of hip hop have given our culture something to stand on, something to be proud of, something to say that this is not a man's world… We were on the frontline. We built this culture as well."
- ABC News, October 17, 2021
Sharon Green was originally from Willmington, South Carolina, and raised in the South Bronx, the birthplace of hip-hop. By the late seventies, she had taken on the moniker “Sha Rock” and became hip-hop’s first female emcee as the founder of Funky 4+1 (the first hip-hop group ever to hit national television). She would come to be known as “The Mother of the Mic”, inspiring future generations of girls to want to be rappers as well. Their performance on Saturday Night Live (hosted by Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry) propelled hip-hop into the national spotlight and into the history books. It also cemented Sha Rock’s hip-hop legacy as the Mother of the Mic.
The first all-women rap group was The Mercedes Ladies, which consisted of Sheri Sher, DJ RD Smiley, Tracy T, Eve-a-Def, Zina-Z, DJ La Spank, and DJ Baby D were founded Circa 1979. With the exception of a feature on DJ Donald D’s “Don’s Groove”, and Baby D’s “No sense”, they never recorded a single. But they made a lot of noise on the hip-hop scene back in the day, and the streets were listening as the Mercedes Ladies earned their spot in the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame even without a record contract.
l-r: Cheryl the Pearl, Blondie, and Angie B
There are people who believe that the Columbia, South Carolina trio known as The Sequence was the first female hip-hop group, which consisted of members Cheryl Cook ("Cheryl The Pearl"), Gwendolyn Chisolm ("Blondie"), and Angie Brown (“Angie B”, who would become R&B singer Angie Stone two decades later). The reason for this erroneous piece of information is due to the fact that they were recording songs that played on radio stations and clubs across the U.S., whereas Mercedes Ladies only performed local stage shows and block parties.
The candor, braggadocio, and confidence of the first southern rappers on wax came through loud and clear in their music. There was never any lack of sexual innuendo in rap music, but The Sequence came in hard, bragging about their bodies, looks, and prowess in bed. Southern women that they are, they brought that southern sass to rap music. The trio didn’t beg for men, they summoned them and laid down the rules of their game. Nor did they spare words when it came to what they expected out of men who were trying to get into their hearts and panties. Whoever at Sugar Hill Records (Sylvia Robinson?) made the decision to pit The Sequence against the Godfather of Rap, Spoonie Gee, made a brilliant decision. Sugar Hill Records had them triple-team the legendary smooth-talking, lady lover. In his first verse off of their collaboration “Monster Jam”, Spoonie raps:
“Well I'm a cherry piece, sometimes I'm a plum
Sweet as sugar baby, c'mon and get some
What you've been waiting for my dear
That month-by-month, year-by-year
That day-by-day, that week-by-week
Now you got a chance girl, I'm at my peak
My rap is strong, my love is long
And I'ma ding off a bell before it goes dong “
To which Blondie responds:
”With my brown eyes and my cherry lipsYou can't refuse my walnut hips
Everyone see me, walk down the street
They know I'm the one with the foxy beat
And I can turn ya on and I can turn ya off
'Cause I got control 'cause I am the boss
I'm like an Al Capone of the microphone
If you can't go with it then you've got to go home”
Other female rappers from this period who also had an impact on hip-hop from its beginnings were Zulu Queen Lisa Lee of Cosmic Force, and Debbie D, both of whom, along with MC Sha Rock, formed a group in the early 80s called US Girls that was featured in the hip-hop motion picture “Beat Street”. However, they may have had the history, style, and finesse that Roxanne Shante lacked, but they couldn’t match Roxanne’s ferocity.
Initially, I had intended to leave Roxanne Shanté out of the article since I didn’t believe she fit the narrative. Upon second thought, I realized that she was probably one of the most important parts of the subject. Roxanne’s appearance on the hip-hop scene was a significant one in that, unlike the female rappers before her who were in their twenties at the time, Roxanne was only fourteen years old when she recorded her first rap record. She was young and hungry and her hunger could be heard loud and clear on “Roxanne’s Revenge”. It was an unwarranted and unprovoked response record to “Roxanne, Roxanne” by rap group UTFO who rapped about a fictional character of the same name in their song. The way Roxanne Shanté went at them, you would think that the matter was personal. She came out with an attitude and a chip on her shoulder. I’m mentioning her here because while none of her songs were generally of a sexual nature, she changed the tone of the way women responded to disrespectful men, laying the groundwork for female rappers of the future to give as good as (or better than) they got from the men. When Roxanne battled Sparky D (another female rapper) on wax, they created what today is called “battle rap”. It was called “Round One” (there never was a Round 2) and presented itself as the first rap song to have sexually explicit (and profanity-laced) lyrics, and the preponderance of those lyrics came from Roxanne rather than Sparky.
Sparky in Verse 1:
You went to the doctor, and what did you hear?
The doctor said "Rox, you got gonorrhea"
So you went back home and said "Help me please"
Your man looked at you and said "You gave me fleas"
You went back home, and started to nag
You started looking at your ya pulling off crabs
Sparky D in Verse 3:
Oh such a pity, you're really too skinny
You're only fifteen, and you're just growing titties
You think you're a star with a size A bra?
And if you don't believe me ask your DJ Marley Marl
You call me fat but I'm also fly
Say it once again and I'll punch you in the eye
I drag you, ho, up and down the streets
Then you know Sparky D can never be beat
Roxanne’s in Verse 4:
Now yes, you're a heavyweight, and that might be great
But you're the only one who'll be leaning over the gate
Getting fucked in the ass 'cause you do it mighty fast
And you're the only girl who ain't got class
Roxanne in Verse 6:
A penny? A nickel?
Heard you fucked yourself with a motherfuckin' pickle
Everyone told me how you did it
And if you did something like that, God forbid it
'Cause we all know that you're not with it
And when you doin' sex said yo Spyder, hit it'
But he couldn't hit it, and you couldn't get it
So it's time for you, to get down with it
Now you must be blind, deaf and dumb
When I walk down the block I make Spyder cum
Sparky D was no slouch, the verse where she talks about dragging Roxanne down the streets should have been a kill shot. But the general consensus is that Roxanne Shanté murdered her on that track. The reason I believe, though, is that Roxanne punches below the belt. She mentions Sparky getting “fucked in the ass” and fucking herself with a pickle, then in the line where she says that she’ll “make Spyder cum”, she was talking about Sparky D’s man, Spyder D (who was also her producer). Sparky didn’t hit that low. The other thing about Roxanne’s knockout is that she didn’t just have a potty mouth; lyrically speaking, her rhymes were like sewage on steroids. Once Shanté spits that rhyme at you, the stench was hard to get out of your clothes. This, by the way, makes her the first rapper, female or otherwise, to make a rap on wax that contained sexually explicit language. It was “dirtier” than anything else on wax at the time.
Salt-N-Pepa made feminist raps (though a lot of their songs were written by their producer Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor), but none of their songs packed a punch the way Roxanne’s did. Her aggressive style provided the one ingredient that explicit songs needed if women were going to make rapping about sex work. Sha Rock inspired girls to want to rap, but Shanté inspired them to not give a fuck.
Salt-N-Pepa were feminist rappers and their music reflected that and it was quite apparent in their songs about men and sex. Despite their songs not being graphic (none of their songs on any of their albums contain profanity, in fact), it was they who gave young women the inspiration and confidence to express their sexuality in hip-hop (though Wikipedia seems to believe otherwise). They rapped about holding men accountable for their reprehensible behavior and demanded respect for women. But when it came to music about sex, their lyrics were on the PG-rated side. This isn’t to say that they didn’t come in hard; they definitely did and they had some of the tightest lyrics ever. But coming up right behind and beside them were female rappers who were doing more than just talking about sex, baby.
Salt N Pepa Give Medley Performance At 2018 Billboard Music Awards
When rap music started getting “dirty”, female rappers in those days couldn’t make the kinds of raps the men were making, even if they had wanted to. Record companies were certain that nobody wanted to hear women rapping. Despite there having been other female rappers at the time, Salt-N-Pepa were the most marketable female rappers and the industry didn’t want any more. Mainly because it had been long said that women were too “difficult” to work with in the studio (likely due to women refusing the sexual advances of men involved at every level of the recording process). So record executives decided that they would be too much trouble and weren’t worth investing in. But none of this stopped women from making hip-hop nor their aspirations to be as “nasty” as they wanted to be.
Women during the early days of hip-hop weren’t shy about talking about sex, but for the most part, there was nothing even remotely “obscene” or graphic in their songs (the same for the men, in fact). The only rapper who did make obscene songs was West Palm Beach, Florida native Clarence Henry Reid, better known as Blowfly. He wasn’t associated with hip-hop, though had he been, he would have been the first hip-hop rapper to record obscene and sexually explicit music. Nothing was off-limits in his raps. "I Wanna Be Fellated", "Gotta Keep Her Penetrated", "I Wanna Fuck Your Dog" and "Should I Fuck This Big Fat Ho?", were some of the tiles of his songs. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, they used to call recordings such as his “party records”, the kind you would play only for certain friends in the privacy of your home while smoking joints and drinking wine. Back when Blowfly was at his peak, no rapper seeking success would record the kind of songs that he made because it would be the end of their career. You have to appeal to the mainstream if you want fortune and fame. In retrospect, you can almost hear from the beginning of rap music that rap lyrics would eventually become “bolder” as the years progressed and that it would happen sooner than later. It didn’t take long for hip-hop music to embrace profanity, violence, drugs, and sexual themes with the advent of Slick Rick, Schoolly D, and Ice-T during the mid-eighties. But what were the women in rap doing while the men were slinging their drugs, dicks, and guns on wax, and just being misogynistic pricks in general? When women began to speak up and out more in their raps, they didn’t jump on the “gangsta” bandwagon” as the men had. They came differently.
The first rapper or rap group to come through with an arsenal of profanity, explicit lyrics, and hardcore sexual themes was 2 Live Crew. Like the aforementioned Blowfly, they would rap about anything. They were arrested due to obscenity laws, as were stores that sold their records. I don’t recall the rapper who said it, but to paraphrase, he said": “2 Live Crew took a bullet for hip-hop”. What he was talking about was the rap group’s battle for First Ammendment rights, which went all the way up to the Supreme Court, which they won. The preponderance of sexually explicit lyrics you hear in rap music now is a direct result of that victory. 2 Live Crew were also (inadvertently) responsible for the first female rap artist to go “whole hog” on sexually explicit lyrics. The rapper known as Anquette happened to be 2 Live Crew hype-man and label owner Luther (Uncle Luke) Campbell’s cousin (she was backed by “The P Girls”, Keia Red, and Ray Ray). 2 Live Crew’s first single was "Throw the 'D'" and I’m sure that I don’t have to explain to you that the “D” stood for “Dick”. Anquette heard it and wanted to make a dis record as a response to the 2 Live Crew song. That song became “Throw the P’”, and I’m sure that I don’t have to explain to you that the “P” stands for “Pussy”.
You might be surprised to know that Anquette demolished 2 Live Crew with her response. The men giggled while playing with their nuts, but Anquette slapped on the strapon and hit the crew where it hurt most. This is a line from the original 2 Live Crew version, and it was the “dirtiest” verse that I could find:
So while it's workin', you better start strokin'
To show your partner that you ain't jokin'
'Cause this ain't a dance from Mother Goose
Better freak yo' body an' turn it loose
To which Anquette responds:
When you came to Miami why’d you have to lie had a dude throw a dick that was miniature-sized
If you got a big dick and you wanna do it right just pull the skin back and we can fuck all night
Just jump in this phat ocean and when you hit bottom you better start licking
It’s all you need so go berzerk but your dick is too weak to do that work
So when my P is flowing and your D is growing you better start fucking cuz I’m not blowing
I don’t know shit about Mother Goose but when I throw my P, I get all the way loose and when you’re on the floor dancing to that beat all you wanna do is throw that P
This makes Anquette the Mother of Sex Rap, or Porn Rap, and the Queen of Miami Bass. She didn’t just kick a sexually explicit verse, she made an entire song about pussy and, as you can see from the verse above, she didn’t shy away from being graphic. You might be surprised to know, however, that Anquette’s claim to fame isn’t songs about sex, but rather politics and social issues. Her single entitled “Janet Reno” is in reference to the former Dade County State Attorney who became notorious for sending deadbeat fathers to prison for failing to pay child support. It was her biggest hit. Other tracks on her album are either about dancing/partying, or issues that affect the African American community.
In Part Three, I’ll be talking about female rappers from the 90s (when the clothes started coming off) up to now. This article started off as a two-parter, but it’s running much longer than I anticipated. If you haven’t read Part One, you can do so here.
