Trigger caution: This story contains discussions of assault.When I meet with author and filmmaker dream hampton to talk about hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, she shares that she hasn’t listened to the category in” more than 20 years.”This revelation surprises me, mainly due to the fact that her latest task is the Netflix docuseries Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop. As we chat beside a beautiful hotel pool in Edgartown, Massachusetts, hampton discusses she got bored with the content. She even expresses, strikingly calm and soft-spoken, that she discovers numerous male rap artists of this period to be “snooze fests.”However, the executive manufacturer of Surviving R. Kelly and renowned hip-hop journalist dove back into the genre with a new lens, focusing on females. In fact, her important eye includes a distinct and required viewpoint to Ladies First, which she executive produces along with hip-hop legend MC Lyte and numerous others. More From ELLE play iconThe triangle icon that suggests to play Out today, the four-part series is a dissection and celebration of female rap history, including legends like MC Sha-Rock and Queen Latifah in addition to this present generation of skill
n’t wish to join the job, she ultimately concurred due to the fact that she acknowledges that this is an essential minute for women in hip-hop.”I don’t have to listen to a Cardi album or Megan [Thee Stallion] album to see that they’re the most interesting, and not just them. Young MA is [also] a discovery,”she keeps in mind. Initially from Detroit, hampton is understood by numerous as a well-respected rap critic who began interning at The Source while participating in NYU movie school during the early ’90s. hampton operated at the rap magazine for 18 months and later went on to compose for ambiance and The Village Voice. She likewise had close relationships with artists including The Infamous B.I.G. Yet even with her proximity to artists, she never backed down from writing doubtful and comprehensive profiles and functions. Her works took a lane for Black ladies writers and reporters who followed her who enjoy hip-hop culture and aren’t afraid to critique it . In 1991, after overhearing some staffers at The Source speaking about Dr. Dre’s attack of rap television program host Dee Barnes, she composed an editorial about it. (He was charged with attack and battery in 1991 and pleaded no contest. In 2015, he released a public apology” to the ladies I have actually hurt.”)She informs me that her budding relationship with Black feminist books was guiding her at that time.”I was a little infant feminist reading bell hooks and Paula Marshall and Ntozake Shange, and simply taking in all that great extreme Black feminism from the ’70s and ’80s,”hampton said. MC Lyte, a Brooklyn native born Lana Michele Moorer, is another among hip-hop’s conducting legends. Her golden voice took years to best, she tells me over a call from Los Angeles. She constantly kept composition books where she wrote her rhymes, poems, and narratives. By age 15, she remained in a rap group with a rhyming partner. “We would give a bit of time, perhaps one or two times a week [and] we ‘d get together after school to write,”she explains.”The name of the group was Pure Elegance, and my rap
name was Sparkle, and hers was Dazzle.”Within two years, MC Lyte started her professional music career in 1987 with her launching single” I Cram To Understand U(Sam ).” By the following year she launched her launching album Lyte As A Rock which would become the very first full-length to be launched by a solo female MC. It was largely successful too. MC Lyte(center)and dream hampton (right )speak with Lindsay Peoples Wagner (left )about Ladies First at the Martha’s Vineyard
African American Movie Festival.Bernard A Fairclough She thinks Ladies First is necessary because it will create a minute for ladies who have actually felt unacknowledged for their contributions to hip-hop to finally be seen and heard.
She feels it likewise provides space for the next generation of females rap artists to shine consisting of voices like Coi Leray. These positive messages are mainly seen in the very first episode, titled”Shaping Hip Hop.” In other places, in episode
three,” What Have They Lost, “hampton’s vital viewpoint provides questions grappling with the erasure and abuse females have dealt with in the music industry. This chapter includes artists, producers and authors detailing unpleasant, typically disconcerting, individual stories. Dee Barnes cries as she reflects on Dream’s The Source editorial detailing the violence she sustained by Dr. Dre. The series draws parallels to Megan Thee Stallion’s shooting by Tory Lanez, who was found guilty on all charges this year, and the efforts to deny her trauma. These are examples of hampton’s journalistic rigor and her examining patriarchal class structure. They make the documentary a lot more persuading. Though the series already feels like a must-watch, Culture Home founding partner Raeshem Nijhon states it took a lot of pitching to get Ladies First off the ground. “Individuals didn’t comprehend the power of focusing women,”she shares.”The procedure of pitching this show emboldened us, “she adds. Though the task was merely an idea five years earlier, luckily, Nijhon remembers, Jamila Farwell, director of documentary series at Netflix, instantly resonated with their pitch. All the work settled. Throughout a special screening at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Movie Celebration on Friday, nearly 500 visitors appeared to watch Ladies First. The room appeared with applause and screams when the faces of Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Roxanne Shanté, and many others appeared on the ultra-large screen. At times, some ladies start rapping along to tracks by Shanté and MC Lyte. It felt so great to hear
these rhymes, which are cultural signifiers in their own right, clicking right away with audiences. However, it’s the ending applause that got me. It’s practically as if every single person in the room felt how nuanced and level-headed the documentary is. Ahead of the release of Ladies First, ELLE.com spoke with MC Lyte and dream hampton about Hip-Hop 50, substantial hip-hop minutes that affected them both, and more. Rapsody appears in Ladies First. Thanks to Netflix MC Lyte, when was the very first time you ever heard hip-hop? MC Lyte: There were 2 encounters. One where I was uninformed, and the 2nd where I knew. So I’ll say the second time out was in Far Rockaway, Queens. I was staying at my grandfather’s house in Hammell Projects, and there was something playing on the radio on somebody’s boombox, Supreme Allah, to be precise. It was a group downstairs surrounding this boombox. Although I was on the
third floor, I skated down as rapidly as I could.By the time I got down, they were playing Salt-N-Pepa’s”Showstoppers.” What I heard from the window was Eric B. & Rakim, “Eric B. Is
President,”and that encounter waseverything.I believe prior to
that, I had actually heard Run-DMC’s”Sucker M.C.’s “and “It resembles That,”and just the wave of everything
that they brought in that was void of tune, however far more the boom-bap of all of it, which encounter with Rakim and Salt-N-Pepa was whatever ’cause I seemed like they were speaking with me. Prior to that, I was being rapped to, which was cool, ’cause I loved everything. [Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5’s]”The Message”and [Sugar Hill Gang’s]”Rap artist’s Delight “and all of it sounded truly like, “We’re placing on a program.” However Rakim and Salt-N-Pepa, this new stage seemed like they were right in my ear speaking to me. That was what really spoke to me and what really offered me the idea that I might even be an MC since I was down with talking with individuals and teaching and learning and having a good time and all of it. MC Lyte circa 1989 in New York. Al Pereira// Getty Images dream, additionally, can you inform me what Brooklyn was like around the time you moved there in 1990? dream hampton: It was amazing. New York has buildings that are older than a lot of American cities, but it was wild to see people on the streets and what the style was. Anyway, I could not pay for dorms at NYU, so I wound up in Brooklyn. [I remained in] Bed-Stuy. I lived on Cambridge Location, right around the corner from Big deal on Grand, on the other corner was Daddy-O from Stetsasonic. Chubb Rock survived on St. James Location, which is Biggie
‘s Street, however on another block.
Digable Planets lived nearby. We were all just in this universe of being young and in Brooklyn at a time that was going to later on be called the golden era of hip hop. Big deal utilized to come to some of those classes with me.It’s hard to look back and say, “Oh, it was grimy.” Due to the fact that it didn’t feel filthy. It seemed like itself. And any era you pertain to New York in, individuals are telling you simply missed out on the age. So when I arrived in 1990, individuals resembled, “Oh, the ’80s were fantastic. We simply had Paradise Garage and Jean-Michel Basquiat utilized to be strolling along the streets, and this dining establishment called Kansas where Andy Warhol was. “So it was as if we had actually just missed something. Queen Latifah in Ladies First Courtesy of Netflix What aspects were most important for you to show in Ladies First!.?.!? MC Lyte: It’s truly interesting since it’s taken a very long time for women to have their simply due in any forum. So to have not just this documentary, but others come around at this time, I believe is incredibly important. For me, within any of these documentaries, it is necessary
to have representation from not just MCs however
DJs, manufacturers, and ladies who work behind the scenes. I think for them to all have a voice is really crucial. That’s the great thing about hip-hop– no one can actually have ownership over it, and everyone can get included. [I wish to] motivate the next girl who decides that she wants to MC, or even a girl who decides,” I just like this type of hip-hop,”but then she’s opened and enlightened to some other component within hip-hop, and she didn’t even understand that she wished to be a journalist, or she didn’t even know that she wished to work behind the scenes and be a director up until she saw somebody discuss it. So I think all in all, Ladies First has to do with enlightenment and lastly speaking with the females themselves. I think some females who are showcased in this documentary have never spoken in this type of format, and I think it’s truly essential that we be able to hear the voices of the women that comprise hip-hop. Remy Ma in Ladies First Thanks to Netflix dream hampton: I definitely was the Debbie Downer who [was] like, “Okay, we can commemorate and be victorious, however there’s this other story that’s actually sad.” So my contributions [were] like,”Hey, y’ all, can we look critically at the truth that everyone went to jail? “It hasn’t constantly been a success. This was a women-led, crew; Culture Home built out this group of amazing young women who just entered into this wide-eyed, and so I needed to be that auntie, like”Uh-huh girl. This is some bullshit.”These women have been mistreated, exploited, erased.MC Lyte, do you feellike you all have communicated a total message? MC Lyte: Yeah, that is one for sure. However it’s likewise, even though it’s much like your household, you have actually got numerous cousins, some you’ve never ever satisfied, some you have actually become aware of from afar. You became aware of Auntie Lyte over there from Brooklyn and you found out about little cousin Tierra Whack over in Philly. It’s all of this blood that runs through our veins that hip-hop keeps us associated due to the fact that it’s a hip-hop family, but we are very various. I believe for the important things that all of us share, we likewise have things that make us really various from one another, which is something to be lauded, because that is what comprised hip-hop back then. You understood who everybody was since we were clearly different from one another. I think that’s what we have the ability to see likewise within the boundaries of this documentary. Roxanne Shanté in Ladies First.Netflix How are you both feeling about Hip-Hop 50? MC Lyte: I feel thrilled. I rejoice. I feel grateful. This year is a win for all of us, for those who have actually looked to tell their story, and for those who have not had the opportunity like a great deal of others. The further we get within hip-hop, the more benefits become available to those who are entering the video game versus those who have remained in it permanently, being able to have those opportunities. So I think there are so many outlets [honoring hip-hop] right now, given here today as we discuss Ladies First being a documentary that commemorates ladies in hip-hop, on the mic, and off the mic.Also, you have actually got shows that are taking place that are involving a multi-layered roster that offers an opportunity for those to come see a show and see a multi-generational event of hip-hop, which I believe is very important. I think Hip-Hop 50 represents a lot, however for me, it represents unity because we’re all coming together in particular places throughout the nation in addition to abroad, and we’re able to reveal that we are merged. I think that’s a fantastic thing to smile about, so I’m happy for the culture. Dee Barnes shares her story in
Ladies First. Thanks to Netflix dream hampton: I think [for] Hip-Hop 50, if it’s not asking questions about the 3 significant founders, [the] 3 kind of Mount Rushmore icons, are we talking with Afrika Bambaataa [declared] victims? Are we speaking with Russell Simmons'[ declared] victims? Are we talking to Dr. Dre’s victims? That’s an excellent chance to do that.Obviously, everything’s not doom and gloom. There’s so much to say about this genre of music.
It’s not a culture. Culture has food.
However this genre of music
has persisted. A few of it’s not all excellent. How did we get to a point where this generation, my generation whose major sort of contribution to Black folks’history in this country was to turn away from respectability politics, and how did we then get to policing more youthful artists? This interview has actually been modified and condensed. Robyn Mowatt is a writer and editor. Her work covers the complexities of Black culture, designers of color, music, and home entertainment. Mowatt has composed for Style, Harper’s Fete, Rolling Stone, NPR Music, The Cut, Nylon, Byrdie, Bitch, Essence, Teenager Style, Racked, Ebony, and different other web publications.
SHOPCertified nutritionist with over a decade in health and wellness. Wholesome Horizons believes in a holistic approach, intertwining mind, body, and spirit. She offers advice that's not just educational, but actionable — promoting balanced diets, active living, and the harmony of mental well-being.