What About the Women in Hip Hop?

Since hip-hop’s inception, as a subculture and as an art form, there have been “women in hip hop.” B-Girls, DJs, graffiti artists, and emcees have helped shape history right alongside the men who are credited as the genre’s forefathers. The first hip-hop group to perform on national television, the Funky 4 + 1, had MC Sha Rock as their First Lady in residence. Hip-hop’s first major commercial record — Sugarhill Gang’s “Rappers Delight” — was coordinated by none other than record-label executive Sylvia Robinson. Even the acknowledged “birth” of hip-hop on August 11, 1973 — the date that Clive “DJ Kool Herc” Campbell DJ-ed a “Back to School Jam” at famed 1520 Sedgwick Avenue — was coordinated and promoted by his Clive’s sister, Cindy Campbell, a B-Girl and graffiti artist herself.