The status of female rappers suffered serious setbacks in the early 2000s, but that’s all changed now. As many are quick to point out, the discriminatory views and treatment surrounding them remain a persistent issue, but the number of female rappers has gone back up and their indelible marks are showing up all across the hip hop world, with more and more rappers rising every year amidst this background of change. You’ll find there’s lots of them with both personality and skill if you just look around. Allow me to introduce four female rappers, each with their own unique style, to be on the lookout for in 2022.

First up is KenTheMan, a Houston native with a mainstream hip hop sound. She’s no rookie: She was indie for about eight years until she recently took a massive leap. Her lyrics are daring and astute and her rapping exceptionally tight. What’s My Name, the EP she released last year, received favorable reviews from many music outlets, including Rolling Stone. She’s a breath of fresh air, right down to her name and sense of identity. She’s defined herself as a woman who looks at herself from a man’s point of view. She was influenced by Lil Wayne’s unparalleled use of metaphor and hopes to expand her work to explore pop and R&B later on.

Kari Faux, raised in Little Rock, crosses over several genres with rap. She’s been working since back in 2012 but only recently entered the spotlight. Released last year, her mixtape Lowkey Superstar was a big hit with certain hip hop enthusiasts and media outlets. Skilled at both singing and rapping, Faux has named André 3000 of Outkast as the artist who has influenced her most, which explains why she frequently dismantles different genres and combines them in her music. The mixtape, made in conjunction with producer Danio, presents a brilliant jumble of trap, R&B, future funk and more. It’s hard to say just what direction her music will sprawl out into next.

Beanz, who hails from Pennsylvania, takes on a comparatively traditional hip hop sound. She made a name for herself by appearing on the hip hop competition show Rhythm + Flow, which aired on Netflix in 2019. Although she was eliminated partway through, such solid rapping and aggressive lyrics coming from someone with such a small frame left a strong impression on people. Interest in most of the once-popular other participants slowly faded along with enthusiasm for the show, but Beanz stayed in fans’ line of sight as she kept on releasing new songs. She also wields an impressive lyrical mix of pain from her growing years and showboating her life as a rapper.

Last up is Haviah Mighty, a Canadian rapper who works within the realm of so-called conscious rap. She wraps serious lyrics in rap that range from calm to cutting. In her 2019 song “Thirteen,” for example, she raps about the deceptive prison system and modern trauma stemming from the slave trade of the past. Mighty’s gentle rapping is a search for the roots of racism. The song was included on her first album, 13th Floor, which earned her the Polaris Music Prize in 2019, Canada’s highest award for music. It’s only a matter of time before she finds fame outside of her home country as well.

There have been many twists, turns and advancements in the world of women’s hip hop, beginning with artists like Monie Love, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah, later Da Brat, Lil’ Kim and Eve, and now Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Rapsody. It’s time the baton was passed on to the up-and-coming rappers. If you want to see the kind of outstanding progress the female rappers of today are making, take my word for it and give them a listen; the four rappers discussed above won’t let you down.

TRIVIA

Haviah Mighty’s 2019 Polaris Music Prize win turned heads for a number of reasons. She was the first hip hop artist and the first Black female artist to win in the history of the ceremony. “Thirteen” also won the Prism Prize for best music video, an award presented by a jury of over 100 music and film experts in Canada.