MY MIC SOUNDS NICE???

So... I Know you all have probably seen the BET documentary "my mic sounds nice" about female mcs, well i came across an interesting post. Just some guy explaining his thoughts about the show, and his feelings on females in the Hip hop industry, and i agree with a lot of what he is saying!!!

Here is what he had to say:

{Frumdamentalz}
I thought the beginning of the documentary was great, but then towards the middle, I thought it completely fell apart because it was all very contradictory.

It seemed like a lot of blame was placed on the industry in an attempt to explain why there was such a lack of originality and authenticity from female MCs in the 90's up until today (aside from the few artists they spotlighted like Lauryn Hill and Missy). They were trying to explain how the industry is all about record sales, and if you didn't follow the gimmicks and image of a Lil Kim or a Foxy Brown, not only will you not sell records, but no major record label would sign you. This is all true.

But at the same time, why did everyone in this documentary place so much emphasis on record sales and being on a major label? They were more concerned with who sold the most records instead of who was the most skilled. If that's the case, then they have the same mentality as the industry they're trying to blame for the lack of originality and creativity where sex and image is more important than skills. They claimed Trina has been the only female MC holding it down over the past 12 years because of the fact that she's on a major record label and sells records. She also uses sex to sell records, maybe more so than any other female MC ever. Why was she given so much praise and credit, and such a huge spotlight in this documentary if she's exactly what's wrong with today's female MCs? Meanwhile, there have been much more original and talented female MC's other than Trina, but the fact that Trina sold more records than they did, she was placed on a pedestal while a whole slew of much more talented female MCs who are underground and don't use sex to sell were all quickly mentioned towards the end and not given the same recognition as Trina or anyone else. They literally mentioned 20 female MCs in 20 seconds (and I was surprised they didn't mention Apani B and Helixx C. Armageddon, especially since they mentioned other female MCs from Polyrhythm Addicts and The Anomolies, but that's neither here nor there).

Trina said, "they don't really wanna see you in the baggy jeans. They wanna see you sexy because you're a female, I'm a dude, I'm not learning nothing from you, I just wanna see you so whatever you're talking about I probably don't really care I just wanna look at you and whatever you're saying it all sounds good to me." Wow, that's exactly what's wrong with music today and shows the influence that the industry has on its artists. So if Trina is a product of everything that's wrong with the industry, why did they praise her in the documentary for being the most consistent sellout over the past 12 years? None of that made sense to me.

Aside from my issues with that part of the documentary, I'm surprised Bahamadia was one of the few who were quickly mentioned towards the end. Jean Grae too. I mean Jean Grae was there commenting on other female MCs, so I guess they just decided she wasn't worth mentioning with the likes of Trina, Eve, Da Brat, etc. I don't know if you're familiar with Jean Grae's work as a rapper, but what many people don't know about Jean Grae is that she worked under many different aliases over the course of her career. One of her aliases was Run Run Shaw. Under this alias, she produced a majority of the music that was released by the Makin' Records label in the 90s, including all of their biggest hits. There are little to no female producers in the history of Hip Hop. To have one who can an MC and produce, and do both very well, is rare and I think she deserved to have her own spotlight, especially since they had her there commenting on other female MCs who only got in the game because they agreed to strip for money and rode the coattails of established male MCs. Here is Jean Grae, a woman who didn't come in the game on anyone's coattails, never used sex to sell, can rap circles around any female MC before and after her (in my opinion), and most male MCs for that matter, and she's not worth talking about? Why, because she didn't sell as many records as Trina?

I'm sure you get the gist of my rant, so I'll stop here. I just wanted to comment on one last thing. The part where Eve and Salt tried to explain that the lack of quality female MCs over the past 15 years is because females are more emotional than men so they're unable to be on tour for a long time because they miss their friends and families, and because a female requires too many accessories to get by on tour while living out of a suitcase was such a cop out. They should be ashamed of themselves for making those comments. And I like both of them, but their comments upset me even more than the Trina spotlight.

With that being said, I agree with what you said in your post. Nowadays, it's all about image. Just look at Nicki Minaj. She shows more and more skin and dumbs down her lyrics by the day, and it's making her more money and more popular. She's not stupid, and she's more talented than what she's giving us nowadays. But like Trina, she understands what it takes to be a success in this industry and she's willing to compromise the integrity and quality of her music to make money. There is something seriously wrong with that, and until artists (both male and female) stop pimping themselves out for money, the major record labels will continue to make a fortune off of them while artists like them come and go everyday. The reason why MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Monie Love were able to come out and show their pure talent where they actually had messages in their music and were still making hits was because the radio, BET, MTV, etc. was much different in the 80's and early 90's. It's not because there aren't any talented female MCs anymore. And as long as the Nicki Minaj's and Trina's are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful, there isn't any room for the ones who still have a message and aren't willing to take their clothes off to sell records.

And here is Rah Digga's Take on the show, I also agree with what she is saying...