By shelz.

If you checked out the  piece on releases by female artists in 2011 we recently posted, you are aware of my awe with some of the great work women have been churning out this year.  Many of their albums have been stellar and deserve all the year end recognition that they have been receiving.  You are also aware of the horror I experienced when attempting to find some rap albums to throw into the mix. Female emcees were dormant this year.  Some mixtapes, some features, but no noteworthy releases for purchase except one; Lil Kim’s Black Friday.

I have to admit, the league of fans who say respect the grind and the sales regardless of the music really annoy me. When art is totally absorbed by trade it’s normally lacking merit outside of its ability to part you from your money. But I find Kim in an odd predicament where Black Friday is not only representative of the grind, it also stands as our lone contender from the fairer sex.  It’s a statement about how far women have been displaced from everyday Hip-Hop as artists and it shows how little we care.

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Black Friday isn’t great and we let her know it, but it’s all we have.

As we teeter on the precipice of a female free genre, if the few who keep us from falling into the abyss are chastised for even bothering to make music, we stand in a dangerous place.  Should we support simply because she’s a woman? I don’t know; probably not.  I do know that in a year when memories of what once was or could have been kept most female emcees in our thoughts, Lil Kim took a step that no one else took.  She presented a release in a market that seems to have found an icy indifference towards women. (I would say women not named Nicki but this chick has been relegated to dancing around with a rubber d*ck to keep our attention.  In light of that, I think its safe to say we’re not huge fans of her music either.  We just haven’t admitted it yet.) Kim also reported a million in sales which for the first time, I really hope is true. She deserves our respect.  That mixtape with all its flaws has now been raised to a historic level.

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We talk so much about this young crop of up and coming male emcees.  The J. Cole’s and Kendrick Lamars of the community and they deserve the praise they receive.  But when the tide is turned and Psalm One or Audra the Rapper is mentioned, the praise for the most part turns to crickets.  Plenty of women have important roles in the business and promotions end of the music and women comprise a large percentage of the fan base.  That makes it even more curious; especially as PJ Harvey, Adele, Florence Welch, Lykke Li, Feist, Wild Flag and many other women collect year end kudos for their releases in other genres.

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So add another to the list.  During a time when a good portion of Lil Kim’s community attempted to brow beat her into sitting down somewhere and hanging up her career, she ignored the rhetoric and released the only pay for play offering from a female rapper all year.  That still doesn’t say much for the quality of Black Friday, but it says even less about the community for which it was released.

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