The female rap game has always been incredibly well populated, despite the lack of attention the women at the forefront tend to be given. But Cardi B has given us all new reason to shout about what’s going on over at that end of the music industry. Why? Because she’s casually gone and smashed another chart record.
Yes, we said _another/8 one. It was only **in September that Cardi B became the first female rapper to reach number one on the in September that Cardi B became the first female rapper to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 _in 17 years (Lauryn Hill held that accolade beforehand). And now Cardi B is the first female rappe_r t_o reach the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 with all three off her chart entries.
It started with Bodak Yellow, obviously. Next came a collaboration with Migos and Nicki Minaj on MotorSport, followed by a feature with ASAP Rocky on G-Eazy’s No Limit. In the space of four months, all three songs have hit the top 10 which is no minor thing, especially knowing that the charts are notoriously hard to break into.
Nicki Minaj has always been pretty outspoken about the lack of respect and recognition received by female rappers. Most recently though, she sparked a bit of a social media debate about white male rappers dominating the iTunes charts.
In an Instagram post (that she’s now deleted) of a screenshot of the top 10 rap songs on iTunes Nicki wrote: ‘It’s a great time to be a white rapper in America huh? These are the top 10 rap songs on US iTunes. S/O to Em & Post. Two of my faves. Congrats to Em on his new album. #Motorsport put da thing in sport’.
Some people assumed Nicki was throwing major shade, others understood it as just pointing out which music seems to be selling at the moment and of course, people had all the feelings on Twitter. But what's particularly interesting (and a bit depressing) about it all is that we're still muddling through the list of 'female firsts' in music in 2017. Especially when you think back to all of the incredible women - Missy Elliot, Eve, Lil Kim, to name a few - who have lingered on our playlists long before Spotify was even a thing.
Cardi B is clearly smashing it and it goes without saying anthem's that turn up as hard as *Bodak Yellow *does don't just happen by accident. But god knows this particular of accolade was long overdue. Here's hoping women in music continue to rake in those 'first female to..' achievements and start to be better recognised for their influencing HipHop and wider pop culture just as significantly as the men do.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.