These Rising Artists And Creatives Are Envisioning A Women-Led Future In Music

By Stephanie Smith-Strickland

From taking a seat at the proverbial table to the pop-culture phenom that was Hot Girl Summer, a new generation of girls in hip-hop are exploring what it means to exist with joy and truth in a global that has historically tried to define the parameters of their freedom. Whether they're performers like Kelela, who perfectly experiment with left-of-center soundscapes, or those who engage in radical modes of efficiency that center body positivity, self-love and autonomy like CupcakKe, Lizzo, and Megan Thee Stallion, ladies are redefining their place in a music industry that has often been characterized as a boys’ club.

Not only are they taking up space, they’re earning more than ever before while also defining popular culture. This June, Forbes named Rihanna — who has built an incomparable style, aesthetics, and lifestyle empire — the wealthiest female musician in the world; her estimated net worth is $600 million. The style powerhouse also sparked an industry-wide move toward inclusivity with the launch of Fenty Aesthetics, if she intentionally believed the deeper skin tones heritage aesthetics brands routinely ignored.

But ladies have habitually been present and instrumental in bringing hip-hop to a world stage, often providing perspectives and experiences their male counterparts had never been challenged to imagine. Pioneers like Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, and several, several more helped pave the way for au courant names like Cardi B and City Females to group up their accolades. Despite a generational gap, a haunting dissonance remains between the experiences of ladies artists and their male counterparts.

Pay inequity, labor inequality, and imbalanced possibilities still plague the music industry. A study conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative revealed that over 40 percent of girls working in music felt their skills were discounted by their male colleagues, while 39 percent had experienced stereotyping or sexualization in some form. The numbers are pretty abysmal where possibilities in creative roles are concerned, also. Of the 700 popular songs released between 2012 and 2018 the study profiled, only 21.7 percent were credited to girls, 12.3 percent of the songwriters were females, and only 2.1 percent of females were producers.

So what does it truly mean to center girls and to cultivate infrastructures that encourage equality across the board? MTV caught up with six females musicians at Red Bull Music Festival Atlanta last month to hear their thoughts.

Kiya Lacey

Provided

Who she is: Singer/songwriter and founder of Not My First Rodeo event production

Who inspires her: "Amber Grimes is an enormous inspiration to me. She is someone who habitually passionately advocated to put girls in positions of power. Fadia Kader is another person I really admire because she’s so open on social media about her journey. Watching her go from doing the Broke & Boujee parties in Atlanta to being at Instagram in Los Angeles just makes me such a fan of her resilience. Any time As soon as I first got to Atlanta, Bosco was a big inspiration to me because she really widened her arms to me and brought me into the community. She’s so multifaceted and such a well-rounded artist so it’s been such a joy to watch her get her creative company, SLUG, off the ground."

How she creates space for other women: "My event series Not My First Rodeo celebrates ladies in culture and art. Our entire ethos is to prepare ensure that we’re building a safe space, not just for females, although for anyone to feel comfortable and free. I’ve gotten so several messages from females telling me how safe they felt being themselves there, and that feels really good. Any time I’m on the mic I habitually ensure to reiterate verbal consent and tell each person attending they require to ask permission to dance on someone or to touch them."

How the music industry can better protect girls artists: "I think it comes down to accountability. Boys have to hold other males accountable and the culture has to stop brushing things under the carpet. Once there’s celebrity or visibility involved I think some days folks are afraid to hold people accountable and set a regular that makes sure we all feel protected."

DJ Ohso

Brian Hall

Who she is: DJ, founder of Homegirl creative company and the Bounce Dat Party monthly event

Who inspires her: "Growing up, I didn’t have also much access to the world wide web. While I was able to explore music on my own I was listening to Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, and Trina, and thinking to myself, I wish that I may feel that free. I didn’t feel like I might because it wasn’t something that was accepted however. Every time you were hearing about these females there was something negative attached to it, or you’d have your parents or your grandparents telling you that you couldn’t watch them because it was inappropriate. There really wasn’t anything inappropriate, it was just a woman expressing herself in the way she wanted. I don’t believe in projecting my values and ideas onto anyone else. I want each person have the ability to pick what they want for themselves without having to feel negative implications for being who they hope to be."

What a woman-led future looks like to her: "I think that now there’s a super big spotlight on girls. There’s this younger generation of ladies who feel a lot more uninhibited by societal rules that were programmed into the older generation. I think that’s helping, especially with so much access to The world wide web. I was one of these females who, growing up, didn’t necessarily visualize that kind of representation I visualize right now, so I didn’t know it existed. This new generation has a lot more role models, and I think they are what our future looks like."

What resources she wishes females had: "There needs to be a chart or a table of some order — even if it’s just amongst the ladies — where we share what we should be charging. We need separate ones for different elements of the industry as well. As a DJ, I began to be more transparent with other DJs about how much I charge. People make you feel so cliché about talking about how much you make nevertheless I’m like, wait a second, I need to tell people how much I make because where is their beginning point? I think there’s room for each person to eat, so we need to de-program that part that makes us feel like this is mine or I can’t share this statistics in case I lose a possibility for myself."

Tygapaw

Brian Hall

Who she is: DJ, producer and founder of the Fake Accent nightclub and record label

What a women-led future looks like to her: "Pay equality is really the primary concern for me. I think being paid identically to male counterparts is still an enormous problem and it’s really appalling at this point that it’s even still an allocate. Also, sexism — misogyny still reigns very predominantly in the music industry and no one tends to call it out. I imagine a future that feels safer for girls all around. I'd like to be able to see more females in engineering and production positions; the removal of any misogyny is a really key aspect in all of this. For Black ladies specifically, I’d like to be able to see us not have to work 10 times as hard just to be in the same position as a mediocre white male artist."

What resources she wishes ladies had: "I would mention just having tools and gear to practice on. For producing, that’s a very big road block because in case you don’t have the finances, the software is very expensive. Generally you need to share software and that’s how you begin off. Companions will also share skill sets and teach each other — it’s interesting because, you’ll visualize with boys, they’re really happy to tell each other how to do certain things, however I certainly wasn’t taught how to create music. I had to learn everything myself by watching a bunch of tutorials. I feel that if I’d had more of a crowd or support system and may even skill share and share plug-ins, it probably would have been easier to learn. Even with tutorials on YouTube, the majority are done by gentlemen. That’s another provide right there — in case you don’t visualize yourself or someone like you, you tend to think it’s a position that you can’t hold or aspire to."

Diamond and Princess

Brian Hall

Who they are: Members of Atlanta hip-hop categorize Crime Mob

How music's boys'-club mentality can be overcome: "We began out in a crowd with guys, so that sort of made people naturally take us a little bit more seriously. Even once you think of Eve or Lil' Kim, people have habitually really loved seeing ladies being able to hold their own with male rappers and producers. We had those double-time unapologetic rhymes and that confidence and sassiness that is way more acceptable today than it was back then. Know, you may desire to get upset if a girl steps on your shoes. You may aspire to have an attitude or feel fierce or sexy, however as a substitute we’re being told, you must act like a female. Whichever that indicates. For us have the ability to embrace who we are and for that to be so accepted today is really a blessing because we had to tone it down a lot back in the day." —Diamond

"It’s such a blessing because we were just being ourselves and to know that being ourselves 15 years later is relatable to so several different girls is just special because we’ve never attempted to be anything other than who we are. We’re in the era of girls right now. There’s habitually been a collection of females artists, although right now we’re getting to be able to see all of those different personalities and looks and styles being successful." —Princess

How brands and labels can be more consistent allies to women: "I think it begins with people like Princess and I because we’re right in the middle of a generational gap. We have this new generation and then we have the generation before us that raised us. Even something like Solange having us perform for her Met Gala event — it’s crazy to be able to see how a mega superstar grew up being impacted by us. I think that just means we need to reach out and figure out how to bridge the gap between the generations and be mentors. There really is a blueprint that we got from the Queen Latifahs, Da Brats, and MC Lytes and thus forth. This new generation needs a blueprint so that they can visualize that, although it could be a little bit tougher navigating this thing as a woman, it’s completely possible." —Diamond

Yung Baby Tate

Jose Govea

Who she is: Songwriter, singer, rapper, producer

Who inspires her: "Kari Faux is an inspiration to me because I just think she’s so creative and talented. Wondagurl was an enormous inspiration because I produce my own music and there weren’t that several girls producers to look up to. Overall, I just believe it’s really critical for there to be more females producers and engineers in this industry."

How music's boys'-club mentality can be overcome: "I think I was able to bypass a lot of that because I do everything myself. I write, I produce, I do my own creative direction. I know that may not be possible for each person, although I’d mention learning about how to do as much as you could by yourself, and also you don’t have to rely on anyone to get it done for you, is a good way to get past that."

What resources she wishes ladies had more of: "Mentorship is a big one. I think having someone who can sort of point you in the correct direction is really crucial. And probably some sort of corporation classes, just because there really are a lot of technicalities that come up that a lot of artists don’t even know how to deal with because they didn’t get into music to think about all of that."