European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 16, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse All Hail the Queens of rap women rappers Send positive messages by Dana Kennedy associated press of Long ago Yolanda Whitaker was just another kid growing up among gangs and drugs in sout Central los Angeles. When she walked Home from school crips gang members threw rocks at her because she lived in a bloods neighbourhood. Fast Forward five is now known As Yoyo one of the leading female rappers to emerge from the decade Long male dominated rap revolution she s Only 19 and she has just one album to her name. But she s made enough Money to buy her own apartment in Hawthorne a quiet los Angeles suburb Light years away from Watts. She also gives women a voice in the Macho often misogynistic rap Industry. With such songs As put a lid on it she sends a message to the kind of teen age girls she grew up with urging them not to have sex and babies so freely. Quot i address most of my rhymes to the ladies Quot. She said during an interview in new York. Quot the ladies Are struggling. I try to inspire them to go after what they want and work on their self esteem Quot. D a a a a y a y. Payoyo a protege of former Nwa member ice cube is one of about a dozen leading female rappers to break out in the last few years their journey from anonymity to Fame and Fortune a they can make up to $30,000 and More per week on tour a came astonishingly fast for most of an Industry in which rap superstar . Hammer whose age varies from 27 to 35 in published reports might be considered almost ancient leading women rappers such As Yoyo Queen Latifah . Lyte Salt n Pepa Monie love Nikki a Shelly Thunder Oaktown 3-5-7, tarrieb., snazzy and is. Melodie Are Between the Ages of 18 and 25. Despite their youth Many Are preternaturally Wise and self confident. Yoyo Queen Latifah and Nikki d Are All barely out of High school but hold Forth in interviews and on stage like aged Street sages. Y. A. A a Quot v Quot you have to be said Nikki d. Quot people will pull you Back in a a 22, sports a Gold front tooth and grew up As Nichele Strong in a Middle class. Los Angeles neighbourhood. But she went la school Quot with All the rough Guys from the she began Small time rapping in roller rinks and Small clubs. She met rapper ice to who asked her to perform with him. When she was 18, she and a Friend took a bus to new York City arriving with Only 35 cents. A year later Nikki d was the first female rapper signed to def Jam records. Some of the swagger of female rappers is As much part of the act As the attire. Many female rappers Wear Whattley Cairn a Girr for Quot beat Quot a clothes baggy sweatshirts jeans High tops and baseball Caps. Queen Latifah has made regal afrocentric clothing her trademark. They Are the descendants of the few women such As Funky four plus one More who began in the Early Days of rap in the late t &70s, and others like Roxanne Shante and sait n Pepa who Rode the wave of the first. / commercially successful female rappers beginning in 1985. Some such As Yoyo grew up on mean streets with the Quot gangstas Quot that have become part of rap legend. Others lived near the fringe of Tough neighbourhoods in new York City and North Jersey or from gang Ridden areas like Compton and Watts in los Angeles. Most write their own include 20-year-od Queen Latifah the pre eminent female rapper who was raised in. Newark and East Orange ., and led the Irvington High school women a basketball team to two consecutive championships before abandoning sports for the Mike. Quot i think rap brings reality to people who Aren t from the inner City Quot said Latifah Quot whether you consider it positive or negative we re teaching . A a a a a a a. D a a Latifah born Dana Owens began rapping in High school where she was a human beat Box for two girlfriends known As ladies fresh she started making demos with the help of friends she met in the rap Industry and finally scored with Princess of the posse which was shown on yol mtg raps and led to a contract with Tommy boy records. Her debut was titled All Hail the a Green. Members of her posse usually Wear jackets labelled Quot the Queen s More than any of her Peers Latifah epitomizes the proud regal take no prisoners attitude of female rappers. In contrast to the lyrics of male rap groups a 2 live Crew Nwa Public enemy and others a Many female rappers write rhymes to raise the consciousness and self esteem of women. Yoyo recently started the Ibec intelligent Black women a coalition which she said is Yolanda Whitaker alias Yoyo 1$ one of the leading female rappers to emerge from the male dominated rap revolution. Aimed at increasing the status and self esteem a of All women. ,. Though women Are often referred to As. Quot bitches Quot and Quot hos Quot whores and portrayed negatively by male rappers the majority of women rappers say they do not take offence. Quot none of it bothers me Quot said Nikki d. Quot it s like our own language and not everyone understands that. And the thing i there Are a Jot of women like d s lyrics Are More Macho than some including the singles Lettin off steam and up the Ante for the women said they believe Many male rappers put Down women because of the number of groupies who surround rap stars. Quot there Are a set of women who Are. A Gold diggers who will do anything for a Guy sleep with him one night and never see him again and that s of Quot said Nikki a whose own Boyfriend. Fellow rapper Apache accompanies her on tour. Latifah concurred. Quot the girls they talk about have no respect for themselves and they re materialistic Quot she said. Quot in a not like Iglesias y starry night there was a time when Julio Iglesias aware that America was the Only major Market in which he was not a major Star tried desperately to seem hip. But the fact is Iglesias is a hopeless Square an unrepentant crooner Yuho likes nothing better than to Wallow in a sentimental Melody. Which May be Why his latest Effort the breath ily. Romantic starry night finds him sounding More at Home . Though the. Songs Mona Lisa Cyin time when i need you a tend toward the maudlin a Iglesiasz renditions Are artful appropriate and disarmingly sincere. After All. Hipness Isnit everything. I various a explicit rap nobody will Ever accuse explicit rap of deceptive packaging. Not Only does this 10-tune compilation deliver precisely what the title promises it does so Wilh an awesome sense of completeness. We get sex raps. Awesome Dre s sex fiends exist raps 2 live. Crew s me so Horn male chauvinism Nwa s a Bitch in a. Bitch female chauvinism Choice s payback comedy Bobby Jimmy s Winnie Whistler violence ice cube s the products and politics the geto boys no set out. At its bests it makes an excellent lesson in what Freedom of speech demands at its worst it s just further proof that it takes More than cuss words to make a scary rap record. We a to swill to Power a journey Home if you really want to know what killed disco you need Only look at the sort of cheesy exploitation acts that used a dance beat to peddle the worst schlock imaginable. So far House music has / ,. Avoided the worst of such excesses but with acts like will to Power. It s Only a matter of time. Listen to the group s journey Home and be amazed at its a ability to trash a a respectable oldies like. 1occ�?Ts i m not in love hat s not record or heatwaves Boogie nights. Add in the Quot live free or you rant of. Kiyaani Scatsi and journey Home is definitely a trip to avoid a ,. I kill Page 16 a a a the stars and stripes Peter Gabriel a shaking the tree there s Between a greatest hits collection and a Best of compilation and few albums make that Point More clearly Jhan Peter Gabriel a shaking the tree. A sure it has tiits a Solsbury Hill Shock the Monkey and sledgehammer a but the album s greatest strength is. Wednesday january 16,1991 that its 16 selections go beyond the expected to show just what makes Gabriel a work so special and though his songs Are often demanding whether ethnic experiments like the wondrously hypnotic title tune or haunting ballads like the remade Here comes the flood they Reward the listener in ways More accessible pop never manages. A amp a music factory a Gonna make you sweat a a a a a it s hard to say Why dance music combines Are so eager to embrace the Industrial when naming themselves a do they really see their recordings As just so much product but the Only thing that a mechanical about a amp a music factory is the name the music generated by producers David Cole and Robert Clivilles on Gonna. Make you sweat is strikingly soulful and absolutely infectious. Of course it does no to Hurt that Many of these songs Are powered by a voice As incendiary As Zelma Davis but the real Hook Here is the originality of the writing. Which is not to say that a amp care above borrowing a bit a sampling after All is the sincerest form of flattery a but even the most obvious quotes never Compromise the music s muscular Groove. A. A . Considine Baltimore Sun
