There’s been an injection of female talent into hip-hop over the last year or so, with Megan Thee Stallion leading the way this summer with her “Hot Girl Summer” brand. That said, the rise of women in hip-hop always comes with a double standard, according to Da Brat and Yo-Yo. Sunday, Da Brat and Yo-Yo broke down their challenges while trying to rise in the industry during their heyday during an appearance on True Hollywood Story.
“Hip hop female artists continuously reinvent themselves,” Yo-Yo says. “You have to constantly stay hot or they move on to someone else.”
In addition to Yo-Yo’s perspective, Da Brat adds in her two cents.
“You’re expected to look a certain way; they want you to be beautiful,” Da Brat says. “You can’t be fat, but men can be fat as hell — look at Biggie and Heavy D. Really, the main thing, you always want to be f*ckable.”
Da Brat adds that it was amazing when women finally received their own Grammys category, though it was only established for two years. Yo-yo says she sat on the board for the Grammys, and that the other board members knew little about women in hip-hop.
Other women have spoken up about the perceived double standard recently, especially after Jermaine Dupri’s comments that explicitly illustrated some of the more sexist attitudes surrounding women’s role in hip-hop. While Cardi B stood up for female rappers‘ right to fit whichever roles work best for them, Megan pointed out how female rappers are often pitted against each other simply because they are women, generating beef where there ordinarily wouldn’t be any.
