the rise, downfall, rise again, and current downfall of female rap (and also a little bit of social media)

im like HELLA hyperfixated on this rn i need to talk about it

so i was listening to music and i noticed how alot of the female rappers of today talk about the same shit in their discography, like ice spice for example. theres no versatility and its hard to find female rappers today that arent industry plants like sexyy red or ice n shit. so lil old me was like "wow i wonder how we fuckin got here" so i started looking at video essays and now im gonna type about it because i have an urge to yap

so hip hop was founded in the 80s and was popular in the 90s and with that came some super cool mcs such as mc lyte, queen latifah, salt n peppa, and a bunch more. then lauryn hill came out with that BOMB ASS ALBUM the miseducation of lauryn hill and got a bunch of acclaim from it. one thing i noticed was that alot of the female rappers in this era dressed and acted like the men in hip hop at the time with baggy clothes n shit like that and rarely talked about sexual topics which is like the complete opposite of female rap today. then around the late 90s we had lil kim and foxy brown who are like the pioneers of sexuality in female rap. they werent afraid to talk about it and it showed alot more diversity and there was also missy elliot who wasnt as sexual but was still a very major role in hip hop and then i feel like lil kims arrest was like the downfall of female rap because it wasnt popular anymore in the 2000s

BUT THEN nicki minaj became popular in the 2010s. my bitch like emerged from the ashes of female rap and js started spitting her shit. she was definitely influenced by kim and foxy and it showed. she was also VERY versatile in genres and topics doing shit like pop and r&b with her rapping and also talking about sexuality and sadness in songs. but looking at the state of female rap today it shows that they were definitely taking influence from her more popular songs (most of which were sexual) and then came cardi b (which i feel like started the downfall of female rap) because she didnt write her raps and she got to the top of the charts with a song that wasnt really that good?? and this made way for alot of female rappers. aside from megan and doja there werent alot of mainstream female rappers that had talent or quality to them, and most of the people who could actually rap were overlooked in favor of more sexually attractive rappers. due to the lack of artistic diversity and everything being about sex at the time and still today, female rap is overlooked and made fun of because all the female rappers popular today are popular because they either got into a beef w someone or are affected by pretty privilege. only 3 female rap albums have sold more than 100k units in first week sales (good news by megan, planet her by doja, and pink friday 2 by nicki) and the other female rappers arent selling above 50k because its not about the music anymore its js about how u look and it really sucks

so comparing back then to today it feels like talent was appreciated alot more in the earlier ages of music (probably becauce social media didnt influence shit) and this goes for basically every genre not just rap. now because of social media there are artists who put out mediocre music and only get attention because of how they look and when the music is ACTUALLY good the artist is just famous for a month and people move on and its sad that talent doesnt matter anymore in the music industry ESPECIALLY in female rap

im very hungry rn i want wingstop