Just to make it clear, I don’t care for the term female rap. Hip hop is hip hop. Good music is good music. However, FEMALE rap has taken an interesting turn and in some positive aspects it remains to dominate the mainstream charts and still maintain presence. The downside is that it’s pretty much done by one woman: Nicki Minaj.

As an artist, I feel like there is a glass ceiling between the many female rappers that remain underground and the very few, if not just one that remains in mainstream. We now have two. Joining Nicki on the charts is Iggy Azalea. And yet upon arrival into mainstream, there is alleged tension that arises amongst the two, accusations of ghost writing and if Iggy is really the rapper she aspires to be.

Outside of our preferences and what we think of them or any female rapper for that matter, please note this one fact: female rappers CAN NOT AFFORD to be divided. Being the only female rapper is a win but loss in my opinion. You can excel in being the “go to” person for hits and flourish in the limelight. By all means, go and win!

But the downside is the public may depend on you or hold you responsible to meet their definition of what hip hop is and if you fail to meet their standards, you are given backlash because you are the person in the limelight. In addition, competition is virtually absent.

What both female rappers AND listeners should do is not hear the next female rapper and assume they are out to take the next rapper’s place. What they SHOULD do is assume that both are out to win. Yes hip hop is a competitive sport and there will be much back and forth, but even though we’re in different lanes, we’re in the SAME race.

There are many blogs that promote and aspire to give upcoming and current female rappers a piece of the limelight in order to give exposure but competition. The idea of hip hop is to never be the only one, but to be the BEST one. We can argue all day if Biggie or Pac was better or if DMX or Jay Z was better. And that list continues to go on and on.

Unfortunately this generation has yet to be given the privilege to list their best female MCs in mainstream. And by list I mean more than two.

Instead of writing disses of past feuds and accusations of authenticity, embrace and edge the competition on or remain an endangered breed of artists.