Black female rap has exploded in recent years with brand new faces seemingly every month. New players like Sexxy Red, Sukihana, and Ice Spice have stepped on the scene as some of the new faces of black female rap. However, these same rappers have come under criticism for promoting “rachet” or “ghetto” behavior in their music and personal lives as people fear it has a negative impact on young, impressionable black girls. While this isn’t a new criticism when it comes to black female rap stars like Cardi B, Megan the Stallion, or even Nicki Minaj, it has risen to an all-time high with recent controversies. Former “Love & Hip Hop: Miami” star Sukihana has recently been under scrutiny for her outlandish behavior at the VMA Award Show during her red carpet showing, acting intentionally inappropriate. She was also previously caught under fire six months ago for including children in a music video that included extremely explicit music content while multiple women twerking around the neighborhood.
Rapper Ice Spice faced heavy controversy two months ago for including a minor twerking in her music video for her hit song “Deli”. More recently, the conversation has reached a new high as rapper Sexxy Red recently had explicit videos of her leaked via her own Instagram. Some argue that it’s important to separate the lives of the rich and famous from your own. This is no doubt true and a life lesson. It’s also true that these artists exhibit explicit content in their music and inappropriate behavior exposing it to all young black women alike, a large sum of which don’t know any better. Is it fair to say the mistakes made in their personal lives and oftentimes sensual lyrics are solely to blame for the uptick of bad apples within the community of black women? Probably not. But just because this new age of black female rappers aren’t the ones to introduce it or even normalize it, doesn’t mean that their continued behavior isn’t damaging. As a collective, it’s imperative that we teach our future black women that this behavior isn’t okay. We have to go out and teach young black girls that these rappers are not the role models to follow. And we have to stop rewarding these personalities that have power over our youth.
