'Hip-Hop Evolution': "Ladies First"

I have wanted do a Hip-Hop Evolution deep dive for so long. I think the documentary was absolutely stellar and I’ve watched it several times now. I thought it was only right to start with Queen Latifah and Monie Love’s “Ladies First.”

First, “Ladies First” is a fitting title for the first women’s anthem in hip-hop history. Monie Love and Queen Latifah take their places as two women who are defying the gender roles that the men of the genre have created for them. And they proved that they were 100 percent correct about their role. After all, both Latifah and Love turned out to be incredibly important figures in music and all of pop culture.

The Song

Monie Love and Queen Latifah are a match made in heaven on this track and play off of each other incredibly well. Queen Latifah is one of the godmothers of the “female rap” scene and sets the stage for Monie on this track. Latifah provides the wordplay for this track and makes the lyrics something that people want to analyze. During the track Monie Love asks to begin her first verse and Queen Latifah gives her permission to begin her second. This seems to act as a sort of passing the torch from one MC to the next. And Monie Love does not disappoint as she is the princess of flow. She makes the track so fun to listen to and her flows still slap to this day.

The Music Video

In the music video, Queen Latifah and Monie Love are dressed in faux military garb that is accented with African print, making it apparent that they are addressing all women, but especially black women. They also display women of different sizes and colors in the video as they sing the chorus. In Queen Latifah’s solo shots, she stands over a world map and destroys the statues that represent world leaders. She replaces these statues with that of a unity fist. This is similar to Chance the Rapper’s line on “Blessings.”

Don’t believe in kingsBelieve in the kingdom

Latifah’s faith is not in the power, but in the people.

The Legacy of "Ladies First"

Lil' Kim’s “Ladies Night” is the only song in rap that seems to have come close to the imprint that “Ladies First” left on the genre. “Ladies Night” (featuring Left Eye, Missy Elliot, Angie Martinez, and Da Brat) not only put women on the forefront in the song, but they had every popular female artist of the time period in the video itself.

However, as I’m sure we all know, the scope of music has changed. There is not an air of camaraderie in black music anymore, especially in the female sector. For some reason, there is this attitude that no more than two female rappers can thrive at one time. This mentality means that most female rappers will remain underground. Even worse, it means that there is no real camaraderie and we wont be getting any tracks like “Ladies First” or “Ladies Night” any time soon.

While rap beef usually means that some decent “diss” tracks will be released, these tracks have nothing on collaborations that can be created when more than one rapper teams up against a political, social and even hypothetical position.

However, women are looked at differently with rappers like Young M.A. that defy the very gender roles that Monie Love and Queen Latifah sought to destroy.