The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop

by Clover Hope, Rachelle Baker (Illustrator)

An illustrated highlight reel of more than 100 women in rap who have helped shape the genre and eschewed gender norms in the process  The Motherlode highlights more than 100 women who have shaped the power, scope, and reach of rap music, including pioneers like Roxanne Shanté, game changers like Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott, and current reigning queens like Nicki Minaj,  Cardi B, and Lizzo—as well as everyone who came before, after, and in between. Some of these women were respected but not widely celebrated. Some are impossible not to know. Some of these women have stood on their own; others were forced into templates, compelled to stand beside men in big rap crews. Some have been trapped in a strange critical space between respected MC and object. They are characters, caricatures, lyricists, at times both feminine and explicit. This book profiles each of these women, their musical and career breakthroughs, and the ways in which they each helped change the culture of rap.  

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Hip Hop, Womens, Gender, Coffee Table Books

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2021

Reviews

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read! I loved the organization of the content and all of the illustrations. I felt cooler as I was reading it. :)

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

the definitive book on women rappers. a must read!!!

[Liz Derrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of women in the world of Hip-Hop, spanning more than four decades. I appreciate the collage-like structure, which enables Hope to cover a lot of ground in a relatively brief book. The downside of the breadth was that sometimes I wanted more depth, but still, this is a great place to start!

[Sara Hodorowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with great art, and about great music. Big thanks to my local library for supporting Hoopla though, because I couldn’t get my hands on a physical copy anywhere.

[Sara Ostrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, empowering, informative book about female rappers. How they came to be and the history behind women’s success in the rap industry. It starts in the 1960s and transitions into present day.

[Petty Lisbon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot about different rappers, both new ones and ones that I already know and listen to. This book covers a lot about the performers and their biographies but also the context of their careers. I didn't realize a lot of older hip hop artists were prolific performers but had a limited recorded discography because that's what the hip hop world was like in the very early 80's. If you are someone like me who tries to compare artists to each other using the one semi-viral tweet format "folklore is stranger in the alps for girls whose euphoria is skins. it's basically lana del rey for the girls who listen to ariana grande the same way amy adams is the angelina jolie for girls whose perks of being a wallflower was ladybird its not very hard to understand tbh", this book is for you as you'll realize how a lot of people are connected to each other.
Whenever I read a music book, I'm someone who will nitpick and look for 1 missing artist as a "gotcha" moment but I'm very pleased to say that the exclusions were minimal. Clover has a tone that is academic and critical (lots of debates are had about topics like sex positivity) but also casual and funny. This book has beautiful artwork as well. Each piece has well researched quotes and interviews that are from when the artist was around as well as how they are viewed today. Even when I would start a chapter for someone who I am not a big fan of, I would walk away with a new appreciation of them. I would recommend this book for any music lover.

[Alice Korngold · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a stunning and important book! This quote in the author's Introduction makes it crystal clear.

"History is what the dominant group decides is fact. There are always conflicting versions when no one is keeping score, and the passage of time so easily erodes relevance. As hip-hop made platinum and gold out of an art form born from racism and poverty--and gave power to black men to run a culture they could finally call their own--the women within it battled twice as hard to even be recognized."

[Jay Gabler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nearly a half-century after the invention of hip-hop, women are still sadly far from getting their due recognition. Google “hip-hop artists” and the entire line of artists stretching across the top of your screen will be male - despite the fact that women are ruling the game right now.

As Clover Hope notes in the final chapter of The Motherlode, 2020 marked the first time three Black women occupied the top three slots on Billboard’s Hot 100: Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, and Megan Thee Stallion. They’re all rappers, and that doesn’t even include chart forces including Lizzo and Cardi B, one of the biggest stars to emerge in American entertainment in the 2010s.

The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop lands just a year after Kathy Iandoli's God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop, but there could be a new history of women in hip-hop every year for the next half-century and we’d still be making up for lost time.

I wrote about The Motherlode for The Current.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was beyond informative and it was great to be apprised of these women's origins. There are several more than 100 women profiled or specified here and it is done in a largely creative way, with more coverage going to women who have "made it" while also being up front about how and why so many women didn't - often by their own male-driven range of choices. I would have liked to know where every woman with her own profile (some are ranked, listed, or just issued smaller details) is today or at the time of the book's printing which is quite recent - considering WAP is included in Cardi B's profile. This is rarely done and it could be because these women could not be or were not directly reached. However, some profiles drop off somewhat abruptly. Yes, this runs parallel to may of these women's rap careers, but it need not do so. Even knowing "last know whereabouts" would be ideal. Still, what other fields or interests some of the women pursued were noted - it'd just be ideal to know (as much as one can) across the board.

[Karim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive and entertaining trip down memory lane! Most hip hop heads’ knowledge (me included) of female rappers starts with Roxanne Shante, Queen Latifah or Salt N Pepa. But what about Pebblepoo or MC ShaRock which predated both by 4 and 9 yrs respectively?

This book thankfully spends a lot of time on the industry’s treatment of women and shows countless examples of how Men controlling a female artists image and narrative held a lot of female artists back. Not to mention showed that Men didn’t know what they were talking about.

My main takeaway is that the industry still treats HipHop and black women as ‘garnish’, accessories. Take this years Grammy’s for example. Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé have dropped massive smash hits but seem to only win the niche categories like R&B Album or HipHop Song of the Year. Taylor Swift by comparison has won the majors (Song, Album and Artist) multiple times.

[Aisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - I think it was a well researched, Chronicle. Overall, I liked how the author balanced different forms of receipts - flyers, recordings, interviews, and much more with the occasional chime in of their own opinion. What I didn’t like was if you read the book straight through, it felt extremely repetitive, a master class in sexism and classism, and what happens when you try to build a new work career on unstable foundations essentially. I think that would be a better book to pop in and out of, although it is really cool to see the overarching history, an impact the different women had, and getting to see women make their own choices about how long to stay in the game was also very empowering.

This work fulfills SPL’s summer book bingo prompt - “Hip-Hop.”

[Jessica McDonough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to do the audio book version of this on audible and there are not only musical clips but female rappers that read the book and rap lyrics alongside what they're talking about. This history is really cool and it's always something I ponder kind of regularly what happened to these female rappers how did it start where is it going? It tells about why the longevity of some of these ladies isn't as long as their male counterparts and the male bias of the industry. I love these women I love the music from the time. We're talking about and I continue to love new rap female artists. Although I'd love to just call them rap artists. What a lovely feminist anthem.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely appreciate the way this book is structured. Oftentimes, if I am unfamiliar with a subject, I can't just do a straight deep-dive into one long narrative. So I was pleased with the way the information is presented- sometimes in paragraphs, sometimes in small anecdotes, sometimes as just random pop-ups.
Lots of creators to research!

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an anthology it works. It helps you delve into careers you never even knew existed and seek out some really unheard tracks that are good. If you're looking for more depth then this is more of a reference point so you can eventually do further digging in the future. I honestly had no idea some of these artists existed and am grateful that now I do. A good read for any true music fan.

[Jak Krumholtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were a few jokes completely out of place but overall a great read that had me finding all kinds of new artists on spotify and looking up more info on others.

Just prior to starting this it broke my heart to hear my daughter (7) surprised to hear a woman rapping. (Fat Nwigwe) She's a bit young for a lot of these but looking forward to exposing her to more the next road trip.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK this book was the bomb! A great collection of the women who influenced and built hip-hop. The book is wonderfully illustrated with pictures and lists. Many of the artists I knew, but some of them I didn’t. Each artist has information on things to never forget, who she is, and what you should listen to. The only thing that could’ve made this book better was if it had an accompanying mix tape.

[Frantisek Formanek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read paired with gorgeous illustrations! Hope has a rare gift to transform her extensive knowledge about hip hop into concise and captiviting stories that form a complex narrative. Every hip-hop fan should read The Motherlode!

[Shant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this would be more coffee table, but this is probably the best reference source for women rappers until websites like TV Tropes step their game up. I appreciate how the start began with the dispute about who was the first female rapper in the days of Rapper's Delight (With literal receipts in the forms of old posters). I liked how it seemed like she conducted actual interviews/research for everyone and the rappers were all able to remember why they left the industry instead of generic 'fizzled out and moved on'. (Most obscure rapper featured that I knew- Nonchalant- thanks to MTV Classic)
The author handled the 'sexy vs unsexy' issue the best for the Lil Kim and on, explaining time and time again that it was empowering and reclaiming, even though it would bite some of the women back, due to men and the industry, not because of sexuality itself. I also like how Lauryn Hill's chapter featured discourse for if her lyrics were 'woke' or unfortunate implications. I feel like the Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks chapters slightly sanitized them, but I give the book a pass because the book is supposed to be celebratory (Also I wouldn't want to see my social media mentions turn into a mess, either).
I liked how rappers who couldn't get a full chapter were still mentioned in mini-featurettes, and how for Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, they/their fandoms' use of the internet was given legitimacy. I liked the featurette for new and upcoming rappers to keep up with in the future. Also, the little jokes the author had were probably the funniest I've seen when reference books try to have humor.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was fun to listen to as an audiobook! the author narrates a portion of the book, and there are a few clips from various performances/interviews. 3 stars bc i was hoping we’d get more hip hop/rap history

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this as a free listen on audible. It was fun to hear the history of hip hop and rap from the very early days to the road that brought us to the current day. To how Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, Cardi B, and many others shaped a genre to be uplifting and empowering to many.

[Sweetice]

#femalerapper #Sweetice check out my music everywhere just type in #Sweetice .I just read all the reviews waiting on my book

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the untold story of so many women critical in the history of hip-hop. Very meaningful read and great wit wielded by the author

[Whitney Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! Super informative and fun graphically so it makes reading it very enjoyable.

[Penélope Ponce · Rating 4 out of 5]

me encantaron las ilustraciones

[Tauwan Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grateful this book exists. Wonderfully researched, expertly detailed and sequenced. A Hip-Hop and books on music essential. Much love.

[Andleeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a whole research paper on female rappers. I love it!

[Sarah Ensor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been waiting to read book like this for years. It was better than I’d even hoped. Well researched and well told. Highly recommend listening to the audiobook.

[Rich Gibbons · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of women in hip-hop, who are so often overlooked.

Really digs into the history and gives a comprehensive chronology.

[Maysaben · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my vibe