For Your Ears Only is a weekly music column here on FEMME MAG exploring the different sounds, range and depth from women across the continent and the world. Check back here every Wednesday for our curated 5-track list of what we’ve specially picked for you!
This Women’s History Month, we’re teaming up with tastemakers and pacesetters in the music industry to guest edit this column with a curated selection of their own tracks! This week, we have Managing Editor and HBIC at The NATIVE Damilola Animashaun.
I think it’s really important for women to listen to what other women have to say. For as long as I’ve known myself, I’ve had women around me who essentially inspire the current version of myself, in addition to whatever the next version I’m working towards is. And by women around me, I don’t only mean the ones who were there physically; I also mean the women I listened to on the radio, the ones I watched on TV and the ones I saw in between the pages of my favourite magazines. As a 90s baby, growing up in the 2000s, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and such were the main girls we saw and heard all the time, however, as a young, Black, African girl, I never saw or felt myself in them. The closest proximity I ever felt to someone who wasn’t like me, but looked and felt like me was through music, and for some reason, even until today, I’m still specifically drawn to the Black women who rap.
The other day on Twitter, I saw some bozos talking about how all women do is rap about their pussy and like.. ew. Beyond the ew-ness of it all, it’s just such a lazy take, because women have a lot more to say on their songs (including the details of their WAP), and they do it with so much finesse all the time. Much like the women, male rappers also talk about a woman’s sexuality, and hardly ever (if ever) get backlash for doing so. Considering that it’s women’s history month, and the women who have been breaking free of society’s obsession with women’s subjugation are history makers, I’m honouring the ones who have paved the way.
As a woman who tries to live life on her own terms and is often shut down when I ‘step out’ of the line that has been drawn for me, I can relate a lot to these women. The world needs our magic but doesn’t want it when it comes directly from us whether it’s brainpower, sexuality, skill or anything. This music often makes me feel like we can all fight the system much like they have, and eventually, also pave the janky road ahead of all of us.
“The Jump Off” – Lil Kim
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The other day, I was watching Notorious, and there was a scene where Biggie realises that Kim can rap for the first time. As she was spitting, he told her to be a bit more sensual and not be so thuggish, and that no one wants to listen to a girl talking about hitting licks. Listening to her with that context in mind, it’s clear she found a sweet spot between those two things. On a song like “The Jump Off”, we see her move from rapping about going 7x platinum and dumping opps in the graveyard to talking about her ‘lil deep throat’ and leaving in somebody’s Ferrari. When I was younger, for some reason, I listened to this song every day and I still remember all the words because I heard it so often. Obviously at 8 years old, half of what was being said was lost upon me, but now when I’m rapping along it’s like ‘damn sis is spitting!’. I love that she raps three full verses, every single bar hits, her flow is measured and sticks to the beat at all times.
“Sick Ah” – Le Ru
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There’s no way this song wasn’t made for me. She took my brain, and put everything I think about men in words I am 100% sure. Le Ru is a sick rapper from Kenya, who drew me in instantly with this song. We discovered her last year at NATIVE during our monthly search for new talent all over Africa, and this song really stuck out to me. The introduction goes ‘yo let me tell you something, these niggas, they ain’t shit I am so fucking sick of these bitch ass niggas’, and I don’t even think I need to say any more about why this song is important. I love to see African women pushing boundaries, and the fact that openly calling men out is considered as pushing boundaries shows how long we have to go. I’m rooting for Le Ru and you should check her out!
“Satisfaction” – Eve
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Eve is one of my favourite rappers cause she’s a bad bitch and you can tell that she knows, and she’s not even trying to convince you that she is, she just is. “Satisfaction” is one of my favourite songs, cause it’s fun and catchy, and she’s basically giving an inspirational speech in all the verses. The verse talks about how satisfying it is for you to do what you want to do and succeeding at it, and that’s what her motivation is, while on the verse, Eve reminds us why she’s that girl. The first verse is the hardest in my opinion, where she says ‘now Imma do this thing like it ain’t done before, never leave the game stranded I had to give more… make the music that the people can’t ignore’, and let’s be real, Eve was HOT when we were growing up. I’ve been listening to her podcast, Constantly Evolving recently, and she always speaks about how being vulnerable has made her feel strong, and listening back to this track, and her songs in general, you can actually hear the strength through her vulnerability. It’s hard to explain using words, which is weird cause my job is to literally do that, but if you listen back to this song, I think it’s just something you can feel.
“Don’t Play” – Dess Dior
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I remember seeing this song for the first time cause the caption read ‘Future’s Girlfriend Dess Dior drops…’ and it made me so upset, so I went to listen to the song to add to her numbers, and boy did I love what I heard. First of all, I have an unhealthy obsession with Future’s love life, and I become very invested when he’s in a relationship because I feel like he makes the best music when he’s experiencing love. So when I saw that his girlfriend ALSO made bomb music I can’t explain how happy it made me. But this isn’t about Future, this is about Dess, who ate on this song. I think in rap, one of the most important markers of ability is the way you’re able to make the words you’re rapping flow, and she manages to switch up very smoothly, several times. It’s one of the songs I play to get myself amped up for the day, and remind yourself not to let anyone play me today.
“Shots Fired” – Megan Thee Stallion
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Megan is very important to me, when I listen to her, I feel like she is narrating my innermost feelings – both good and bad. This is why last year when she had that incident, I was very upset, but once she said she was okay, I knew it was about to translate into fire music. As a whole, I wasn’t amazed by Good News, there were more middling songs than good songs, but “Shots Fired” as an intro was an elite move and the song itself is perfect. I love recognising samples of songs I love on other songs I love, and immediately I heard the interpolation of Biggie’s ‘Who Shot Ya’, my heart leapt for joy. This isn’t the first time Megan has interpolated a rapper from back in the day, she did it with “B.I.T.C.H” and “Girls In The Hood”, however, this one felt a lot more poetic than others. This was the first song we heard from her after getting shot and it was special, mainly because it was nice to see that she was back on 10. With so many quotables, the song felt more like a statement than a song and I think she made her message very clear. I literally listen to this song when a bitch tries me, cause ‘who you taking shots at? Shut up wicho scary ass!’.
