If you asked a rap fan in 2010 who their favorite
female rapper was, chances are that list would begin
and end at “Nicki Minaj.” While the 90s and early
2000s brought lots of talent to the table for female
rap with trailblazers like Lil’ Kim and Missy Elliot,
the decline of their careers in mainstream rap left a
hole in the industry that only Minaj seemed to be able
to fill. However, in recent years, several new female
rappers have emerged, making a name for themselves
in the rap game. Stars like Megan Thee Stallion and
Cardi B have climbed the charts to be at the forefront
of the genre. From conscious rap to party anthems,
these women’s distinct styles and flows command
the attention of hip-hop heads who otherwise may
not have explored past their favorite male rappers.
After taking a deep dive into female rap myself, I’ve
found a plethora of female emcees, or “femcees” as I
like to call them, that have empowered me through
song, whether that be through providing intellectual
stimulation or just giving me a song to dance to in the
mirror while doing my makeup. Because of this, I’d
like to spread my love for lady rappers by sharing a
few of my personal favorite tracks as an introduction
to their wildly diverse sounds.
1. “Countin’ Up” – Rico Nasty
“Countin’ Up” was the very first track I thought
of when creating this list because it was the song
that really got me into listening to female rappers.
Rico Nasty is a rapper based in the DMV area. She
stepped into the limelight after making the 2019
Freshman XXL Class, which has helped launch
the careers of other rappers like Lil Uzi Vert,
21 Savage and the late Juice Wrld. When I first
listened to this song, I was immediately impressed
by Rico’s effortless flow. My favorite lyrics from
this song are “Who you frontin’ on? Come on girl,
I know you a rookie / You got some followers, so
what? Do you want you a cookie?” As seen in her
performance, her sense of humor shines through
her lyricism and lively tone. What I really love and
find truly innovative about Rico is her ability to
incorporate elements of punk rock into a lot of her
music. Her confident, carefree lyrics and unique
song production make her discography one of my
favorites to keep diving back into.
2. “Saggy Denim” – Princess Nokia ft. Wiki
Princess Nokia, most known for her 2020 hit
single “I Like Him,” is a rapper who has only kept
ascending into the limelight in recent months.
“Saggy Denim” is my personal favorite track by
Nokia, from her sophomore album 1992 Deluxe.
The New York rapper effortlessly glides over this
90s-inspired instrumental, rapping about her
home city and Puerto Rican heritage. She even
incorporates a bit of Spanglish into her verses,
rapping “I speak that ‘mira, mira,’ that ‘mira, oye
linda’ / That ‘ven aqui mi’jita, tu eres mi chiquita.’”
This verse translates to “ I speak that ‘Look, look,’
that ‘look, hey pretty girl’ / That ‘Come here, my
little daughter, you are my little girl.’” I’ve always
interpreted these lines as a reference to words
spoken by her Puerto Rican grandmother, who she
lived with throughout her teen years. As a whole,
his song encompasses New York City as Princess
Nokia sees it, and her love for her hometown and
culture is clear in every verse.
3. “Roaring 20s” – Flo Milli
Flo Milli first blew up with her viral hit “Beef Flo
Mix”, which gained lots of popularity on the social
media app TikTok. She is well known for her boastful
lyrics and animated rap style. For me, listening to a
Flo Milli song is the quickest way to get an instant
confidence boost. “Roaring 20s” is the rapper’s latest
single, released in January 2021. The song, produced
by Kenny Beats (who has also produced much of Rico
Nasty’s discography), samples classic song “If I Were
A Rich Man” by placing the distinguishable melody
over a trap instrumental. The music video also
incorporates outfits and visuals that are reminiscent
of the historical Roaring 20’s. At only 21, Flo Milli is
already en route to being a consistent hitmaker.
4. “Rainforest” – Noname
Noname, another Chicago native, first entered
the mainstream rap world when she was featured
on Chance The Rapper’s song “Lost” from his 2013
mixtape Acid Rap. Today, she is most known for
her 2016 mixtape Telefone and is closely associated
with other Chicago-based rappers like Smino and
Saba. On “Rainforest,” Noname calls out the irony
of glorifying billionaires and capitalism with lines
like, “How you make excuses for billionaires, you
broke on the bus?” Noname falls more heavily into
the category of conscious rap than other rappers.
She typically uses her songs to address social
issues and share her own self-criticisms. This song
is particularly exciting to me because it’s the first
track she has released since her diss track from last
summer, “Song 33,” where she addressed criticism
from rapper J. Cole about the tone of her activism.
In addition to dropping “Rainforest,” she also
announced that she’ll be releasing another studio
album called Factory Baby later this year. Long-term
Noname fans like myself will be eagerly waiting for
this drop.
Hopefully these songs allow for a small glimpse
into the vast, everexanding world of female rap. You
can find these tracks and more on my Spotify playlist
called “femcees”.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
8 — Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Hope within borders: The impending movement of the North Korean People
Content warning: This piece discusses
North Korea, and subsequently details of (at
times graphic) physical violence and trauma.
“Freedom,” to Joseph Kim, a 31-year-old
human rights activist and North Korean
defector, “is like air. You can’t touch it or see
it. We don’t think about it or appreciate it
when we have it. But we notice it when we
don’t have it, just like we notice when we
don’t have oxygen.”
When the Western world thinks of North
Korea, people’s minds often go to Kim Jong
Un and his nuclear missiles or propaganda
images of vast military parades rather than
the diverse groups of individuals who call it
home. This is why LiNK’s mission is to stress
“people over politics” and thereby fight for
the rights of average North Korean civilians.
On April 1, Joseph, author of “Under the
Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea
to Salvation in America,” and Hannah Song,
president and CEO of Liberty in North
Korea, spoke over Zoom with students
at the University of Michigan. Liberty
in North Korea, or LiNK, is a non-profit
organization dedicated to aiding North
Korean people in the struggle against their
totalitarian government and to rescuing and
rehabilitating North Korean refugees who
have crossed the border into China.
However, these defectors’ journeys, once
they’ve arrived in China, are still harrowing.
Unlike the rest of the international council,
the Chinese government does not recognize
North Korean defectors as refugees; in
fact, it has a longstanding agreement with
North Korea to send any caught defectors
back to their home country. If deported
back to the country, the defectors often face
harsh punishments such as beatings, forced
labor, torture and internment. Additionally,
it is estimated that 60% of North Korean
women who escape to China are trafficked,
sold as brides by their brokers to the highest
bidder. To avoid such persecution, LiNK
guides defectors through a rescue route
that stretches the roughly 3,000-mile span
from the North Korean border in China to
Southeast Asia. To put that into perspective,
it is nearly 300 miles longer than the distance
from New York to Los Angeles. Eventually,
refugees are rehabilitated through job
training, stipends, resources and housing.
LiNK has thus far rescued 1,201 North
Korean refugees. Since his ascent to power
in 2011, Kim Jong Un’s harsh crackdowns
on border security have cut the amount
of North Korean refugees who manage to
escape to South Korea in half.
But four years preceding the Supreme
Leader’s rise, Joseph arrived in the United
States of America, at 17 years old. He and
Hannah, whom he calls “noona” (meaning
older sister in Korean), are powerful,
commanding presences, even through
Zoom. Hannah is extremely charismatic
and her voice brims with passion. I get the
impression that nearly everything she says
to the U-M students she has said many,
many times before — not in a performatively
rehearsed way, but out of her dedication to
sharing these stories as often as she can,
with whoever will listen to her. In colloquial
conversation, Hannah is vibrant and fun —
she refers to Joseph as “Jo Bro” and calls
him her “brother from another mother” —
and when she is speaking about the plight
of the North Korean people, her vigor
seems inexhaustible. Joseph, on the other
hand, possesses an air of quiet dignity. His
voice is soft and gentle, but some quality
about him commands respect — perhaps
it’s his pensiveness and apparent careful
consideration of his words as he gathers
his thoughts to speak. His and Hannah’s
collaboration feels natural and moving, and
despite the heavy subject matter they have to
impart, the two try to joke around whenever
they can. At one point, Joseph commends
Hannah for her dedication to LiNK and she
tells him to keep complimenting her. Later,
Joseph also jokingly accuses Hannah of
embarrassing him for putting him on the
spot with a question. In response, she simply
smiles and says, “Then my job is done.”
***
Hannah and Joseph have dedicated their
lives to providing aid to the North Korean
people until the people can eventually
free themselves from their regime. The
suffering
which
millions
of
average
North Korean citizens endure today, as
a result of Draconian rule, is entirely too
vast to summarize in a single article. In
2014, the United Nations Commission of
Inquiry conducted an investigation into
human rights violations in North Korea
and concluded that “in many instances,
the violations of human rights found by
the commission constitute crimes against
humanity. … The gravity, scale and nature
of these violations reveal a State that does
not have any parallel in the contemporary
world.”
To combat these issues, activist and then-
student Adrian Hong and comedian Paul
“PK” Kim co-founded the organization
Liberty in North Korea, at Yale University
in March of 2004, originally under the
name “Liberation in North Korea.” (The
two co-founders eventually moved on to
different projects.)
Hannah said she has not always been
cognizant of the suffering which plagues
North Koreans: She claims that before the
advent of Google, very few Americans knew
about the human rights violations by the
regime. It wasn’t until she read defector
Kang Chol-Hwan’s memoir, co-authored by
historian Pierre Rigoulot, “The Aquariums
of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North
Korean Gulag,” that she started to grow
educated about the humanitarian crisis. In
2006, she quit her corporate advertising job
to devote herself full-time to aiding North
Korean refugees, and two years later Hong
selected her for the position of LiNK’s CEO.
Today, LiNK, whose headquarters are
now based in Long Beach, Calif. (with an
office in Seoul), has more than 100 global
chapters, and its U-M chapter was founded
in 2009.
LSA junior Joyce Jeong was recently
announced to be the next president of the U-M
chapter for the 2021-2022 academic year.
“One of my biggest frustrations (about life
under the regime) is there’s just no access to
be intellectually curious,” Jeong said. “If
you have the smallest curiosity, you have
no outlet to explore that… No music, no
media and … North Korea has so many fear-
mongering tactics where it’s like you can’t
even think about things without having
some sort of consequence.”
As
an
underclassman,
Jeong
had
deliberated over whether or not to
fully devote herself to LiNK.
One reason she ultimately
committed to the cause,
in her words, is that
“you don’t hear about
North Korea in the
news because … they
don’t have the right
to join assembly, they
don’t have the right to
religion, they don’t have
the right to media… The
fact that we know so little about
(North Korea) should raise a sense of
urgency.”
Pre-pandemic, LiNK at the University
could be seen periodically at Mason Hall,
a plastic table set up adjacent to one of the
wood-paneled walls, and on it, a poster
with “Liberty in North Korea” spelled out
in large, red letters, alongside the various
snacks they were selling to raise funds. In
this past academic year, the U-M chapter has
had to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic by
taking its meetings to Zoom and drumming
up innovative new fundraising ideas, like
a talent auction and virtual dating game
show. The LiNK headquarters requires
roughly $3,000 to rescue and rehabilitate
one North Korean refugee, and Jeong
states that, despite the challenges that the
two virtual semesters presented, the U-M
chapter has managed to raise an impressive
$6,000 in the past year alone.
***
Despite the U-M chapter’s fundraising
success, the COVID-19 pandemic has
effectively severed communication and
financial support between many defectors
and their family members who remain
in the country. The pandemic has also
severely hurt North Koreans’ chances of
defecting from the country and resettling
in South Korea because the regime
quickly capitalized on the threat of the
novel coronavirus by enforcing tighter
controls at the state’s borders. According
to Hannah, the most recent people whom
LiNK was able to help to defect from the
country escaped North Korea over a
year ago, in January 2020. Even
in China and Southeast
Asia, with heightened
movement
controls
and
checkpoints,
the
underground
pathway that leads
to asylum in South
Korea is much more
difficult to navigate
than it was in pre-
pandemic times.
Despite
these
challenges — whose effects,
according to Hannah, may linger for
the next decade — it is as vital as ever that
North Korean defectors continue to reach
safety in other nations because if discovered,
their attempted escapes often have dire
consequences. In Hannah’s talk at the
University, she recounts one woman’s failed
effort to escape to China: After she and her
5-year-old daughter were apprehended for
attempting to cross the river, she was beaten
by a guard and then forced to watch as her
own child was beaten and kicked until blood
spilled from her mouth. Hannah shared
another woman’s story of defecting from
North Korea and attempting to meet with
LiNK for aid in crossing into Southeast Asia:
The woman’s husband and elder child were
found by Chinese plainclothes officers and
eventually repatriated. While she tried to
hide with her two-year-old child to avoid
capture, she covered her baby’s mouth
to conceal any cries, and after she finally
emerged, she realized she had accidentally
suffocated her baby. The woman had to dig
a shallow grave for her child and eventually
make her way into Southeast Asia, alone.
In honor of Black Maternal Health Week
My mother often describes the
births of my siblings and I with an
unmatched sense of happiness. Her
testimony of how she was able to
bring new life into the world four
different times quickly turns into a
sentimental recount of what it felt
like to hold each of her babies for the
first time, all while in the presence
of loved ones. When it comes to my
birth specifically, she says it was an
“easy birth” with minimal pain. As
far as her experiences with my three
siblings, it was not as smooth sailing
and pain-free (as you can see, I am the
good child). However, she never fails
to mention that whatever physical
and emotional pain she experienced
was soon overshadowed by an
overwhelming sense of joy. Those
days go down as arguably the best
days of her — and my father’s — life.
As standard as this may sound, this
isn’t every mother’s birth story. For
some mothers, the tears cried on this
day aren’t tears of joy, but of pain and
loss. And this day, which is supposed
to be the best day of their lives, ends
up being their last.
Given that the United States
is riddled with over-medicalized
births and an inequitable health care
system, it is not surprising that we
have the highest rates of maternal
mortality amongst developed nations.
This is a problem that is endured by
women of all backgrounds. However,
in a society that is still characterized
by institutionalized racism, it would
be naive not to acknowledge that
minority
women
—
specifically
Black women — bear the brunt of
this burden. In fact, Black women
are more than three to four times
more likely to experience pregnancy-
related mortality or morbidity in
comparison to white women, as
well as more than twice as likely
to experience maternal mortality
compared to non-Black women of
color. To make matters worse, the
onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has
widened this gap. Continued racial
discrimination, as well as a lack of
space in Black hospitals to service
both COVID-19 patients and laboring
mothers, has worsened the state of
Black maternal health.
While others used to try and
explain away this disparity by
blaming it on a lack of education
and financial stability in Black
communities, the discovery that
a wealthy, college-educated Black
woman is more likely to experience a
pregnancy-related death than a poor
white woman who did not graduate
high school has since disproved
this. There are many theories that
explain racial differences in maternal
mortality, one of the most prominent
being Arline Geronimus’s Weathering
Hypothesis. This theory states that
biological consequences of the stress
resulting from racism that Black
women face can be linked to negative
maternal health outcomes. Racism,
which is inherently stress-inducing,
can cause cells to divide and die at an
abnormally rapid rate, resulting in the
body’s premature aging. This can then
cause an increased risk of chronic
conditions such as diabetes and high
blood pressure, both of which can
lead to pregnancy complications and
maternal mortality. Essentially, the
body lacks the ability to promote
a healthy pregnancy when the
mother is faced with chronic stress,
such as that from racism and other
unquantifiable systems. While this
theory can be applied to all stress
regardless of cause, the ways in
which anti-Black racism is embedded
into the very structure of the U.S.
makes stress a much more chronic
issue for Black women than anyone
else. This theory, paired with the
history of unnecessarily high rates
of cesarean sections done on Black
women and lack of health care
access in predominantly Black areas
provides ample explanation for this
maternal health disparity. With
this plethora of information, it has
become increasingly clear over time
that Black women’s right to life is
under attack.
This ongoing threat to Black
motherhood presents an undeniable
threat to the quality of life that
is available to Black women and
families.
Black
women
—
like
everyone else — should never have to
fear that their delivery bed will also
be their deathbed. The ability to leave
the delivery room alive and with the
physical and emotional capacity to
care for their newborn child should
be a reality that women of all races
can be guaranteed to experience.
Currently, this is not the case.
Not only is the disparity in
maternal mortality severe in its
magnitude, but it is also two-tiered
in its nature. The Black maternal
health crisis is undeniably a result of
the racism experienced both in the
health care system and in everyday
life. The physiological stress that
is produced, as well as the lack of
medical support in urgent medical
situations
experienced
by
Black
people, has detrimental impacts to all
aspects of health. However, given the
lack of agency and autonomy during
childbirth among women of all races,
disparities in maternal mortality
and mortality are also perpetuated
by
gender-based
discrimination.
Ultimately,
the
ways
in
which
medical racism and gender-based
discrimination work intersectionally
to harm Black mothers at a disparate
rate shows the double jeopardy that
Black women experience due to the
consequences of both. Because of
this, the eradication of this disparity
will require initiatives that cater to
the specific needs of Black women.
This is why Black Maternal Health
Week exists. Created by the Black
Mamas Matter Alliance, it is a week
in April (every April 11-17 to be exact)
devoted to advocating for solutions to
the Black maternal health crisis. The
initiative also provides a platform for
Black mothers’ and families’ stories
to be heard in a space where they
will be valued. Additionally, Black
Maternal Health Week takes place
during National Minority Health
Month in April and contributes to
the larger conversation of making
health experiences and outcomes
equitable for people of color. For the
past three years, the Black Mamas
Matter Alliance has hosted the
Black Maternal Health Conference,
in which participants are able to
build their capacity in shaping Black
maternal health policy, programs and
advocacy, while also learning how to
address maternal health disparities in
different career sectors and building
community among Black women.
Through these events and the other
resources they offer, Black Maternal
Health week has created room for the
issue of Black maternal health and
mortality, as well as possible solutions
for the Black women and families
who will benefit from it the most.
Another victory of the Black
Mamas Matter Alliance is its success
of getting maternal health inequities
prioritized by those with the political
power
to
enact
progress.
The
Congressional Black Maternal Health
Caucus, established by U.S. Rep. Alma
Adams, N.C.-12, and U.S. Rep. Lauren
Underwood, D-Ill., in April 2019, is
a manifestation of the political and
societal change that Black Maternal
Health Week has been advocating
for. Just like the Black Mamas Matter
Alliance, the Congressional Black
Maternal Health Caucus aims to
diminish the disparities in maternal
mortality rates between Black women
and white women. In June 2019, the
caucus approved multiple priority
initiatives including funding for
research on maternal health disparity,
the promotion of breastfeeding in
hospitals (another maternal health
disparity), funding for more midwife
education in order to diversify the
field, funding for community-based
organizations that are dedicated to
improving Black maternal health, the
provision of support for incarcerated
mothers (given that Black women
make up a majority of the female
prison population) and more.
Your introduction to lady rap
UDOKA NWANSI
MiC Columnist
Design by Grace Aretakis
JESSICA KWON
Senior MiC Editor
KAYLA THOMAS
MiC Columnist
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