Who Is The Queen Of Rap?

Many different female rappers were considered Queens Of Rap throughout music history. They won the honorable name through their fame and countless rap songs, influencing numerous rappers. Today, Nicki Minaj is considered the Queen Of Rap with her high stardom in the 2000s.

Who Is Currently The Queen Of Rap?

Today, The Queen Of Rap is considered to be Nicki Minaj, who has been the most famous female rapper for more than a decade. She has won plenty of awards, released countless hit songs, and inspired and still inspires many new artists, making her one of the most famous faces in music.

Born in 1982 in Saint James, a small island in the Caribbean, Nicki Minaj came to the music scene with her debut album Pink Friday in 2010. With immediate success, as her album and songs started topping the Billboard charts, she started breaking records as a female rapper. Having sold over 100 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling artists of all time.

She released 4 studio albums, mainly in Hip-Hop and Pop genres. She has been referred to as The Queen Of Rap, The Queen Of Hip-Hop, and Top Pop Star, as she is the first woman to achieve success in Hip-Hop and Pop genres at the same time.

Today Nicki Minaj is one of the most famous celebrities in the rap and hip-hop world, as well as the pop world. Her discography consists of albums such as Queen (2018), The Pinkprint (2014), Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012), and Pink Friday (2010). Today, she is the rapper with the most Instagram followers, with over 190 million followers.

She won many awards, including the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Hip-Hop Video in 2011, American Music Awards for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist. Furthermore, she has nominations for ten Grammys and twenty-eight BET awards.

She is mainly appreciated for her versatile approaches to music, sharp and direct lyrics, impressive flows in her rapping, and her use of accents and alter egos.

Different Queens Of Rap In Music History

Lil’ Kim

One of the first rappers called The Queen Of Rap was Lil’ Kim, who came to the music scene in the mid-’90s. Besides being a top-selling musician with over 30 million singles sold worldwide, including successful hits like No Time, Big Momma Thang, and Not Tonight, she is also a fashion and social icon.

Lil Kim is one of the first famous female rappers whose music videos were played on MTV. Before her successful solo career, she was in the group Junior M.A.F.I.A., which was pretty famous in the early to mid-90s.

MC Lyte

Another one of the pioneers of female rap was MC Lyte, the first female artist to publish an entire rap solo album, “Lyte as a Rock,” in 1988. The album became a gold-certified album, and MC Lyte topped the charts getting attention and becoming one of the most famous faces of the hip-hop world.

Among her successful hits, there are many high-charted pieces like “Cha Cha Cha,” “Paper Thin,” “10% Dis”, and “Ruffneck”. She was honored with the “I Am Hip Hop” Icon Lifetime Achievement from BET Hip Hop awards for her contribution to hip-hop music. She also works for several charities and has her foundation called Hip Hop Sisters to help women in the hip-hop culture.

Lauryn Hill

American singer and rapper Lauryn Hill is considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, thanks to her efforts of going upstream by popularizing melodic rapping and adding hip-hop and neo-soul genres to the mainstream stage. She contributed largely to hip-hop music and was considered The Queen Of Rap in the late 90s.

Before her solo career, she was part of the hip-hop group The Fugees. Her debut solo album was “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1998. The album reshaped the hip-hop sound with its unique melodies, sound, and themes. The album became a 5 times Grammy winner.

Her new approach influenced many new generation hip hop artists. She broke several Guinness World Records in her career and was the first female rapper to earn a Diamond certification. She also earned NAACP’s President’s Award and was chosen for the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

Cardi B

Coming to the 2010s, the new potential Queen Of Rap after Nicki Minaj is Cardi B. The American rapper and singer first got famous on the social media platform Vine and continued releasing a series of highly successful singles. She is famous for her candid lyrics and her aggressive flow.

Her first studio album, Invasion of Privacy (2018), was a huge success as it received a triple platinum certification by RIAA. Furthermore, it peaked on the chart of Billboard 200 and became the best-sold female rap album of the 2010s. With the album, she became the only woman to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album as a solo artist.

The Queen Of Rap

The Queen Of Rap is an honorable reputation associated with the female rapper who is considered the most famous, influential, and successful rapper in an era. The Queen Of Rap is the artist with the most successful album and songs that wrote her name with golden letters to music history.

There can be different Queens Of Rap in different eras, as music is a rapidly and constantly changing sector. The Queens Of Rap are those great artists who decided the course of rap history with their new approaches, sounds, and the things they gave to hip-hop music and culture in general.

The title is often discussed among the fans on many platforms like social media today, magazines, radio programs, and with friends and fans in the past.

Conclusion

The Queen Of Rap is a great honor given to the most successful, influential, and famous female rapper of the era. While there were many different female artists referred to as The Queen Of Rap throughout the years, such as Lil’ Kim, MC Lyte, and Lauryn Hill, today, Nicki Minaj is the current holder of the title.

New generation female rappers like Cardi B are now strongly rising to be considered the next Queen Of Rap, and the time will tell us how the story will unfold.

Nicki Minaj Featured Image by: MTV International, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons