Hip-hop celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and there is no denying the irrepressible role women had at its inception. A new Netflix docuseries, “Ladies First. A Story of Women in Hip-Hop” contextualizes its history through a female lens. Carri Twigg executive-produced the series and joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” to take her through the evolution of the female influence on hip-hop.
Twigg explained how hip-hop went from a casual past-time to a multi-billion-dollar industry.
“For so long, it was a closed loop. It was just girls hanging out with their friends and young people on street corners doing the same things that young people have done from time immemorial — inventing games, finding ways to entertain themselves. Then you start having young emcees like M.C. Lyte and Sha-Rock and Shanté, who then get catapulted to the forefront of this youth culture and of this musical culture that is burgeoning and growing,” Twigg said.
Queen Latifah, who is known for her music as well as acting and activism, was an early pioneer in hip-hop.
“When you look at videos that she was putting together, they were incredibly forward-thinking about how she could influence the world around her, through culture, through the arts. We have a lot of discussions about that now. But at the time, it was kind of a new concept and a new idea… She’s talking about apartheid, she’s talking about domestic violence. She’s talking about what it means to be independent, to be free, to take care of yourself and take care of your family, your friends, your sisters, what it means to collaborate and to win together,” Twigg explained.
Although women became stars in the early days of hip-hop, they had to contend with sexism in the industry that artists still deal with today. Twigg shared how her series to show the through-line from hip-hop’s pioneers to today’s icons.
“One of the things that we really wanted to talk about with this doc is the same forces that these women are up against. We’re all up against. Every system that they exist within, we exist within. And so the same thing is true for Cardi B and Nicki Minaj as it is… for all of us. By connecting it to these cultural icons that we think have it all figured out, they have all the money, they have all the fame, they’ve all the prestige by showing the fact that they are also subject to pressure and to forces that are not always rooting for them,” Twigg said.
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