How young is too young to talk to your kids about rap? For a Louder co-host, the arrival of a Biggie-loving toddler changed everything about how he hears hip-hop — especially women's place within it.
Rico Nasty and her fans know what it's like to be judged for being themselves. For anyone who feels like an outsider, Nasty Mob is a space to forget that alienation.
Since 2019, Saucy Santana has been a regular presence on the social web, producing several streaming hits. But the very qualities that set him apart threatened to hold him back.
In 2016, a rift between hitmakers showed the limits of rap's tolerance for rule-breakers. As Mark Anthony Neal explains, "authentic" Black masculinity has always been a moving target in hip-hop.
In 2005, Kim Osorio sued The Source for gender discrimination, sexual harassment and hostile work environment, retaliation, defamation. Responses to the case reinforced hip-hop's culture of silence.
Like her idol Trina two decades earlier, Latto saw her creativity open up when she started rapping explicitly about sex. But with her frankness came harsh new standards to live up to.
Rapper Doechii hoped her video "Crazy" would make a statement by presenting her nude body as a vessel of power, not sex. YouTube saw things differently.
Not everyone who was part of rap's ascent gets included in its story. MC Sha-Rock, of the original Funky 4 and the Funky 4 + 1, reaffirms her role in hip-hop's formative years as the first woman MC.
In hip-hop, unwritten rules have forced Black women and queer artists to fight for space. Can the genre's rule-breakers push their way to the center, while pushing the culture forward?
