top of page

FEMALE RAPPERS: 

 

I thought that it was interesting to see how male rappers rap, what they rap about and how they present themselves. I have also done research on female rappers to see how differently the genders are represented these days. I decided to do research on different races as wel which is why I chose to talk about Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea and talk abou their past and how they became so famous. 

 

 

Onika Tanya Maraj: Early life:

 

  • Born in 1984 in St.James, Trinidad and Tebago at the age of 5 she moved to Queens New York with her mother: it was a year she attended high school where she specialised in arts which caused her to fall in love with music.

  • When she started rapping with local rappers, she soon caught the attention of Lil Wayne and he signed her to his label: Young Money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • She released several mixed tapes including 2007: playtime is over, 2008: suck free and 2009: Beam me up Scotty.

  • As the underground music scenes started to take notice of Minaj, she continued to develop her freestyling techniques that would set her apart from her fellow rappers.

  • Minaj would land on the music charts on several occasions during 2010.

  • First half of the year, she was featured as a guest on songs such as Ludacris: My Chick Bad, Trey Songz, Bottoms Up and Jay Sean: 2012.

  • The release of her solo single: Your Love, brought her to the top of the charts and made her the first unaccompanied female artist to reach that position in 8 years.

  • In October of that same year, Minaj had another chart record: became the first artist to have 7 songs on the billboard hot 100.

  • A month later her first solo effort: Pink Friday: debuted no2 on the US billboard 200.

  • Declared the Queen of Hip Hop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

  • Nicki Minaj came back harder than ever after Pink Friday album with Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded in April 2012- Hits such as ‘Stupid Hoe’ and ‘Starships’ went platinum.

  • This showed that she’s more than just a musical artist, Minaj took to the silver screen in 2014 ‘The other woman’ (20th Century Fox). Starring alongside with Cameron Dias, Lesley Moor and Kate Upton.

  • 2014 also saw Minaj come back with some chart topping hits and internet music videos to accompany them.

  • Titled the Pinkprint with Jay Z’s Blueprint

  • Minaj’s lead single ‘Pills and Potions’ showed her music portfolio was brighter than her rapping style she’s known for.

  • Re-working the music from Sir Mix-a-Lot ‘Baby got Back’- Minaj released Anaconda in summer 2014.

  • The track was well received from fans: it was the video that really got people talking: due to sexual performances.

  • 2015: Minaj was announced one of the co-owners of Tidal- a high fidelity music and video streaming site co-owned by the liked of Jay Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Madonna, Arcade Fire and many high profile artists.

  • After engaged to Mick Mill and bringing the Pinkprint toward the world in 2015: becoming the face of Roberto Cavalli and much more.

  • Nicki Minaj’s star has officially risen and can only climb higher from here.  

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

NICKI MINAJ: 

 

  • 2010: Nicki was the first female solo artist to have 7 singles on the billboard hot 100 at the same time thanks to artists such as Kanye West and Sean Kingston including more releasing singles such as Roman’s revenge with Eminem.

  • Nominated for 2 grammy awards and now stands as the biggest female rapper in the game.

  • Hip Hop recording artist who has worked with Didi, Mariah Carrey, Lil Wayne.

'Your Love' by 

Nicki Minaj 

85,959,513 views

 

The Pinkprint Movie by 

Nicki Minaj 
10,210,455 views

 

'Anaconda' by 

Nicki Minaj 

553,286,505 views

 

 

'Pills and Potions' by 

Nicki Minaj 

143,377,187 views

 

 

These two videos show how different Nicki Minaj can be (having different styes and no matter what Nicki Minaj does or will do, she will always be loved by her fans and she will always stay on top. However, the prove is, is that when Nicki Minaj is much more explicit and much more sexual, she grabs a lot more attention from the audeince to when she's being delicate and soft. This is a perfect example from 'Anaconda' with 553,286,505 views, which is huge due to the sexual style she shows compared to where she's much more delicate which is shown in 'Pills and Potions' with 143,377,187 views which is still a lot bot not as much as 'Anaconda'. 

IGGY AZALEA

 

  • Model 

  • Song writer

  • Hip Hop artist

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

EARLY LIFE:

 

  • Born in Sydney (Australia)

  • Her parents moved to Mullumbimby, New South Wales when she was a baby

  • Iggy’s mother was a hotel cleaner and father was a painter and a comic artist

  • Iggy hated school except her art classes and would usually skip her classes, she had no friends and was always teased, which is when she wanted to move to another country as she felt like a foreigner in her own country.

  • Iggy visited Los Angeles during her 13 years, she met a hip hop artist for the first time and realised who she was going to become- a rapper.

  • She started listening to Tupac and Missy Elliot: her fame artists

  • At 14, Iggy started to rap and even introduced a female hip hop band but other girls didn’t take her serious and disbanded the idea

  • She decided to go to the heat of hip hop- USA

  • She started to work with her mother to save money for her flight to USA which is when she dropped out of high school and didn’t attend any lessons due to the work.

  • At 16, she had the money for her ticket, however she didn’t have any friends there or any extra money to live in USA but this wasn’t stopping Iggy, she was more worried about the fact that she might be unhappy there or misunderstood as before she didn’t have many friends and was teased by many.

  • When Iggy landed in USA, she only had one friend that she met online who picked her up from the airport and that one friend introduced her to more of his friend that helped her with her musical career.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

UPDATE:

 

  • When she moved, Iggy absorbed the Southern-style drawl of her surroundings and released a trap-inspired mixed tape titled ‘Ignorant Art’ in 2011.

  • A video for her song ‘PU$$Y’ was uploaded to the internet and became a YouTube favourite due to its explicit nature.

  • Her relationship with A$AP Rocky earned her some headlines but her recording career stalled when plans to work with T.I.

  • 2012: signed to Wilhellimina Models International and perused modelling fulltime.

  • XXL Magazine put her on the career

  • First female non-American rapper to make the list: hip hop fans took notice including Diplo who hooked up with Azalea for her fellow-up mix tape.

  • Released many albums

  • Iggy became very criticised by many people due to her explicit videos such as ‘PU$$Y’, rumours of racism returns, critics about being on XXL’s cove, arguments with Nicki Minaj etc.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

This video was very criticised 'PU$$Y' as it was way too explicit and inappropriate that within such an explicit video with such words, Iggy Azalea dances around a little child which many people started hating her for as people found that completely wrong.

  • September 2011:  releases her debut mixtape ‘Ignorant Art’

  • January 2012: signs a management deal with Interscope Records

  • February 2012: lands a spot on XXL’s cover

  • May 2012: appears on the track ‘Beat Down’ by Steve Aoki and Angger Dimas

  • July 2012: releases the Glory EP executive produced by T.I.

  • October 2012: Iggy makes her American television debut as a part of the Grand Hustle cypher at the BET hip hop Awards

  • March 2013: releases music video for ‘work’ that had over 172 million views on YouTube   

  • September 2013:  Iggy is on the cover of complex

  • February 2014: ‘Fancy’ with Charli XCX is released to radio and shoots right to the top of the charts

  • March 2014: ‘Fancy’ is released with 560 million views

  • April 2014: releases her debut album ‘The New Classic’ number 3 on the billboard 200

  • May 2014: ‘Fancy’ makes it to no.1. ‘Problem’ lands at number 2 wand joins the Beatles

  • July 2014: releases ‘Black Widow’ debuting number 3 on Hot 100

  • December 2014: receives Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop/Duo Performance, Best Rap album

  • May 2015: wins big at the Billboard Music Awards, including Top Rap Song, Streaming Artist and Top Rap Artist.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

'Fancy' by 

Iggy Azalea

675,306,933 views

 

'Probem' by 

Iggy Azalea

735,829,988 views

 

LADY LESHURR

 

When doing research, I have come across to many people and came across to Lady Leshurr who my friends suggested to do research on. This is when I started to look at songs to use for my music video since my friends know her and may get a confirmation letter saying that I can use her music video.

ABOUT:

 

Lady Leshurr was born in Birmingham which is very close by locally, she is a female rapper/singer, producer who is currently succeeding and rising at a fast pace. From the start- since the age 6- Lady Leshurr was always creating something new putting her own style into it making it unique and original. Her unique sounds have instant likability of her melodic singing and harmonies, her commercial style is backed-up by fast-paced and at times fierce lyrical display. Many people all over the UK even the world love her music and her style. She also makes very powerful, live performances that many go to see her, she has also risen so high that she shares performances with artists such as Yungen.

 

Lady Leshurr’s music is so original and unique as she blends her sounds with different genres such as: house, hip hop, dancehall and pop. Her key influence is Lil Wayne, Eminem and Ms Dynamite who she constantly looks up to and relates her music to theirs whenever creating it. Leshurr constantly experiments with music by using different sounds, combining different notes to create something completely unique and take music to a whole new level.

 

The success of Lady Leshurr has become huge as she has featured on tracks with Tine Tempah, Wiley, Lethal B and Dot Rotten and since she has signed a publishing deal with EMI, she worked with many producers such as: R1, Noisa, Loco and Wizzy Wow. She was a part of the Female Takeover alongside Lioness and Baby Blue and was also invited by DJ Cameo to feature on his collaboration track, “Who’s Dat”. Leshurr was involved in many experiences such as supporting Willey on his nationwide tour and also toured with Lethal B and Ghetts.

 

Right now, Lady Leshurr has the support of the UK’s premiere hip hop DJ’s such as Tim Westwood, Mista Jam, Target and Cameo and she is now beginning to grab the attention of Radio One and Galaxy Networks. The most recent song she made was a cover of Chris Brown and Busta Rhymes ‘Look At Me Now’ got 100,000 hits in half a day. Lady Leshurr’s music videos and freestyle uploads have received millions of views which proves how loved she is by her fans and how many of them she has to support her.

 

In June 2011, Lady Leshurr launched her own record label, Gutter Strut Recordings in partnership with her manager. To compliment the music releases, she has designed a range of merchandise which is low on sale.

Chris Brown - Look At Me Now ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes

 

Lady Leshurr - Look At Me Now Freestyle (Murders Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now")

 

bottom of page