This list is a tribute to the women pioneers who broke through the extremely dude-centered genre of rap. The range is impressive: At one end, we have Queen Latifah, who I hope will be my best friend in my next life. She just radiates positive energy, and she probably has a lot of hot gay friends she would be happy to fix you up with. At the other end, MC Lyte scares the **** out of me.
Hip-Hop/Rap
Public Enemy
Because I am a shameless name-dropper, I will let everyone know that in my sophomore year of college, I lived across the hall from Alison Stewart, who later became a news correspondent for MTV and MSNBC, among others. She once gave me a tour of MTV Studios in New York, and also hosted an MTV event at a warehouse in Oakland—back when we had real warehouses, before they all got converted into lofts going for $2,000+ per month. When I walked into the party in this almost pitch-black, cavernous space, the DJ was blasting “Welcome to the Terrordome.” In that moment I honestly felt for the first time that music could bring about profound—if not necessarily peaceful— social change.
OutKast
Max used to play baseball with a kid named Chris. Chris is a big bruiser (think post-anger Incredible Hulk, minus the green skin) who has the sweetest personality and the cutest laugh you’ve ever come across. Chris once told me that he loved OutKast because they are weird. He is correct.
Notorious B.I.G.
Well, he was certainly big, and I would say that getting shot makes a good case for being notorious. Bonus points for sampling Diana Ross’s unintentional gay anthem “I’m Coming Out” in his biggest (no pun intended) hit.
Native Tongues
They started out all peace-n-love, but pretty soon De La Soul decided they were thugs and Q-Tip did a video that was basically four minutes of watching a woman’s a** shake. Oh, and they all fought and decided they weren’t friends anymore. How did we get from “Potholes on My Lawn” to all that?
Nas
I am among a large majority who thinks that Illmatic is the best rap album of all time. I am in a much smaller minority (one, maybe?) who thinks pretty much everything Nas has done after that has been … ehhh. I am sure that he cares a lot about that as he is lighting cigars with $100 bills.
Mos Def/Talib Kweli/Black Star
As musch as I will admit that Mos Def and Talib Kweli are mad talented, I would really appreciate it if they could explain how using “b***h” and homophobic slurs qualifies as “conscious rap.”
LL Cool J
I know he went from bad boy to pop faster than you can say “sellout,” but I could still look at LL Cool J all day. Listen to. I mean, listen to.
Jay-Z
Not a fan. When one of your themes is, “My father left when I was 12, so you can’t blame me for becoming a drug dealer …” Look: Between the two of them, my kids lived in a total of 11 homes by the time the oldest was seven. They have never met—or even know who are—their biological parents. And neither, last time I checked, had yet to commit a misdemeanor, let alone a felony. Just saying.
Hieroglyphics/Del the Funky Homosapien
OAKLAND IN THE HOUSE! Besides just genuinely being awesome, props to the Hieros for regularly putting on a free outdoor music festival downtown. And bigger props to Del for using a line from Liberace (!) as one of his album titles.
Playlist of the Day 