Many have chosen to regard 2025 as the year of the pop princess with artists like Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish at the center of the music industry. But it’s not just pop girls—it’s rap girls too. This was made clear when Doechii won Best Rap Album at the 2025 Grammy awards for her mixtape “Alligator Bites Never Heal.” Doechii is the third woman to ever win the award, joining Cardi B and Lauryn Hill. Despite the Grammys’ historic failure to recognize female artists in this category, women have been the backbone of the music industry since its development.
Rap is rooted in hip-hop music, which evolved during the 1970s as a combination of the repetitive beat of house music and a unique lyrical style. Older generations and music labels discounted the genre and refused to sign up-and-coming artists. Sharon Green, better known as MC Sha-Rock, hoped to change this. She joined the group The Funky 4+1 in the 1970s. After gaining popularity, the group became the first hip-hop group to have a record deal, bringing hip-hop into mainstream culture.
Rap’s commercial success was also led by a woman. Sylvia Robinson, MC and entrepreneur, founded Sugar Hill Records in New York in 1979. From there, she released “Rapper’s Delight” which was the first rap song to chart on the Billboard Top 40. At the time, there was a lack of opportunity for rappers to be signed to record labels, which then barred them from a traditional music release. Robinson actively combatted this by making strides in the industry.
However, it wasn’t until 1988 that a woman rapper released her own full-length solo album when MC Lyte released “Lyte as a Rock” to critical acclaim. Lyte broke down barriers in the industry but not without gendered prejudice. “What I do remember is being told that promoters didn’t wanna pay us what we were owed. I was told by management that this rapper didn’t wanna go on before me, although I had had many songs out,” Lyte said in an interview with Rolling Stone.
Lyte’s album wasn’t eligible for a Grammy, excluding her from the category Best Rap Album’s debut in 1996.
In 1997, Lauryn Hill became the first woman to win the category, being a part of the trio the Fugees, which released the album “The Score.” Two years later, Hill went on to break barriers for all rappers when her 1999 debut solo album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” became the first rap album to win Album of the Year. The album is regarded by Rolling Stone as one of the top ten greatest albums of all time. Despite Hill’s various accolades, she was still discriminated against. “This is a very sexist industry,” Hill told Essence magazine in a 1998 interview. “They’ll never throw the genius title to a sister.”
Despite early progress with female Grammy wins, it took 22 years before another woman won Best Rap Album at the Grammys. Cardi B won the category with her debut album “Invasion of Privacy” in 2019. Cardi B is one of many female rappers dominating the modern industry, consistently charting on the Billboard Hot 100 with songs like “Bodak Yellow” and “Be Careful.”
Progress is still being made by Doechii and hundreds of other rising female stars in the rap industry. “I know that there is some Black girl out there, so many Black women out there, that are watching me right now, and I want to tell you, you can do it. Anything is possible,” Doechii said in her Grammy acceptance speech.
