Peter Rosenberg Picks His Top 25 Tracks From Female Rappers

Just because he doesn’t like Starships, doesn’t mean he hates female rappers and their music! In fact, Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg has tons of songs he loves from the opposite sex, and lists them with Complex. There’s even a Nicki song in there!

Marisa Mendez

25. N-Tyce “Hush Hush Tip” (1993)
“That was on Wild Pitch Records, and it was when Wu-Tang was super [popular]. It was produced 4th Disciple, and Meth was on it. It was just this random moment, where this chick comes out of nowhere, has a Wu-Tang affiliated record, and then you never really hear much from her again.

“The song is kind of sexy, but it’s super dark and Wu-Tang-like. It sounds like a totally authentic Wu-Tang kind of song. And Meth was so hot at the time, and chicks were so in love with Meth at the time. I remember I had it on a cassette single, and I put it on a mixtape, dubbed from the cassette single. Do you know how real that is?

“I don’t know what happened to N-Tyce, but I get a special feeling when I hear that song.”

24. The Lady of Rage “Some Shit” (1997)
“This song is ill not only because Lady of Rage is dope and was in a great zone at the time. This was a slept on album cut. I remember hearing that Preemo had done a couple of songs on the album, so I bought it. She’s dope on it, Preemo’s dope on it, and of course, it’s legendary because it has her [doing the famous DJ Premier drop], ‘Premier, DJ P-P-P-Premier.’ It comes from that. So there is a legendary piece of hip-hop history in that song, and then you have the fact that it’s Preemo and Rage. It’s kind of a forgotten about album cut.”

23. Jean Grae “Love Thirst” (2008)
“‘Love Thirst’ is a dope, funky, soulful, sexy record from Jean Grae, who easily could have ended up higher on the list if she had more notable songs that blew up. But that’s not who Jean is. She’s a happy performing/writing/recording artist who has never really been about the rap life, and just makes dope music. But if you really break it down in terms of skill and live performance and charisma, she really could be one of the best female MCs ever. She’s so special, and charming. Without even trying, Jean Grae will make a straight woman fall in love with her.”

22. Bahamadia f/ K-Swift & Mecca Star “3 The Hard Way” (1996)
“This easily could have been ‘Uknowhowwedu.’ Some would argue that it should be ‘Uknowhowwedu.’ I think ‘3 The Hard Way’ is just a really mean Preemo track, which is a common thread amongst several songs on this list, as it would be for all lists of favorite songs [of mine] over the last twenty years. I never knew much about Bahamadia other than that she was from Philly and she was really nice. She had a really different voice that was really low, and she would sometimes go into that whispery style, and sometimes go a little bit harder, which was the case on ‘3 The Hard Way.’”

21. Invincible & Waajeed “Detroit Summer” (2010)
“Invincible is amazing because she was the first white girl rapper that I was familiar with, and certainly the first one I ever thought was ill. And on top of that, she’s openly gay. She’s sick as an MC. She’s a 5’2’’ totally demure white girl, yet she has that Detroit shit about her that all really great Detroit MCs have. I’ve had this conversation with Royce da 5’9’’ about her, and other MCs from Detroit. She’s from the lineage of incredibly dope MCs, except her package is different. She’s very political, and really big on the justice for Palestine movement, but she’s Jewish and Israeli. And a lesbian. And white.

“But most importantly, other than pointing out what makes her up demographically, is she’s one of the sickest MCs you’ll ever hear. You could go see Invincible, and I’ve done this before, at a live show where no one knows her, and she will get a standing ovation by the end because she is that dominant of an MC. She’s incredible, and again, could be higher on this list if she had a more notable song that people really knew.”

Continue reading his list over at Complex