Rappers like Trina and Remy Ma don’t exactly come a dime a dozen nowadays. Instead, Insta-models and girlfriends or wives of rappers are being given the spotlight (no shade, Jerrika Karlae, but we’re looking at you) making success increasingly more difficult for actual female rappers spitting real talent.

An album is totally different from a freestyle. You get less creative liberties, and it’s not so much an indication of skill as it is an attempt to sound “catchy” or get radio play.

As a diehard feminist, I’ll never cast any judgement on rappers that rap about their bodies or their bedroom skills. All I’m saying is that there seems to be a disproportionate amount of rappers that focus on that subject matter vs other topics. We don’t get too many mainstream women rappers talking on their street cred, the community, and profound life experiences.

While queens like Saweetie and Meg Thee Stallion got famous off catchy bangers, it’s undeniable when you hear their freestyles that the album content pales in comparison. These women have breath control, lyricism, speed, and are dripping swag along with all that. From cyphers to freestyles, they consistently stand taller than their male counterparts, who still manage to reach fame quite easily.

It’s obvious that the quest for success is way harder for the women out there, who face a double standard within the industry. They’re harped on for only boasting about their sexuality in tracks, but there isn’t much of a market to make millions in more authentic content. Rappers with equally fire album tracks and freestyles such as Young M.A don’t come along frequently, though we wish more rappers would follow suit in her strong, complex identity.

Icy girl Saweetie is our favorite anomaly who rides the line between between mainstream popularity and being a genuine artist in both freestyles and albums. Her sidesplitting TikTok and IG videos show her sense of humor and make her more relatable than others that let fame and snobbery get the best of them. As one Youtube commenter of her page puts it “Saweetie gives me popular girl who’s actually nice to you vibes.”

In her “Pretty Bitch Freestyle” she’s wearing a hoodie, loose jeans and band tee, and her controversial red nails that earned many haters online, sending out a message that she doesn’t have to appeal to you to keep thriving.

Still, she recently released “Best Friends”, a non-freestyle single with Doja Cat with a fresh theme of female friendship and empowerment. The lyrics, video, and chemistry between these two hypewomen came in at 10/10. We were pretty excited about this track and can’t wait to see more unique work like this by women in the game.

Megan Thee Stallion, on the other hand, proves that she’s the reigning champ of the industry in her freestyles, while her albums (although commercially successful) seem to be more like a pop-infused ploy to skyrocket in the industry, charts, and on the radio. There’s an unbridgeable gap between some of her freestyles and her post-fame albums. When she dropped her Megan Monday Freestyle, our jaws were on the floor. Still, there was no follow up, leaving fans wanting more. We’d love a full album of Stallion freestyles, but can’t see that happening anytime soon. She’s on the money-making, Beyonce trajectory to reach #1, and you can’t blame her for it.

The music industry needs to create more space for a diverse range of female rappers to be on the scene. Lord knows we have enough Desiigners, Bluefaces, and Tekashi 6ix9ines over-crowding it.

Check out some of our favorite rap queens to put on your radar ASAP.