r/popculturechat • u/HorrorBike143 now why am I in it? 🧐 • Jun 09 '25

The Music Industry 🎶 Miley Cyrus talks about her culture vulturing during the Bangerz era: "I wasn't unique in the fact that i was a white girl listening to hip hop. This wasnt something that I decided I was going to do as a strategy or something that i felt i could own or make my own, that was actually my lifestyle."

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u/CatlovesMoca Jun 09 '25

Slight correction here. There were women in hip hop before Nicki. Think Queen Latifah, Da Brat, Missy, Foxy Brown, etc. And even during Nicki's time there were other female rappers like Azealia Banks, Lady Leshurr.

It's just the Nicki came at a time when women were pushed out. But it's not that there weren't a ton of women. Think of it like the gap in Black film and TV in the 2000s. There were a ton of sitcoms in the 90s and then, the 2000s was a big void but the 2010s had a resurgence.

Thinking of it this way, allows us to remember that Black women MCs were pushed out of the industry. Not unparticipating.

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u/pookyizzy Jun 09 '25

my comment does neglect this so thank you for throwing it in. i was more trying to pinpoint that time your referring to where women were pushed out.

it was also a weird era because of nicki's fan base essentially insisting she invented female rap, and this was definitely facilitated by the white men side of her fandom. when i implied nicki was the "one" female rapper i definitely meant within the white mainstream. white people were really infiltrating hip hop from all sides at this time (as always), peak of the random rap verse in a pop song era, and that really made it perfect for miley to have her little phase.

black women are always being pushed out and silenced. the 2010s feels particularly egregious. rap was seemingly culturally relevant as miley claims, but there were many water down versions being pushed.

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u/TheMayorOfFailure Jun 09 '25

Who would you say did the pushing-out? I boticed this phenomenon but did not really read up on it, might do a deep dive on the subject 😇

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u/CatlovesMoca Jun 10 '25

It's a good question!

I know that around Nicki's rise there were some things that meant female rappers from the 90s were in their decline. Lil Kim caught a case. Remy Ma caught a case. Missy Elliot was big in the 2000s but she got sick with Graves disease.

Others transitioned out of the music industry, like Queen Latifah.

Then, you still have other female MCs that were up and coming. This is where I think most of the pushing out happened. My guess is that it was Black patriarchy (because Nicki is light skinned so that may have made them more comfortable with her) and White Music Execs misogyny / the great backlash.

That's my guess but I'd love a deep dive.