Hip-hop is one big sausagefest. It always will be but things have progressed since the dark old days with successful women and, gasp, even gay and transgender rappers now on the scene. Some purists may be crying in their cheap beers but it means more women at hip-hop shows, which can’t possibly be a bad thing. The term ‘femcee’ sounds like an extinct bird so let’s stick with female rapper.

As a tight knit culture in the early days it was almost a privilege for females to even be allowed into the inner circle. The first wave of female rap artists such as The Sequence (featuring a pre-neo soul Angie Stone) and Sha Rock of the group Funky Four Plus One mostly tried to keep pace with the fellas, with only occasional mentions of their gender and sexuality. Deborah Harry of new wave band Blondie unknowingly did her part to kick the door down, which is probably hard to do in stilettos. Her charming yet simplistic rhymes in a way laid the path for the white female rappers of today.

As rap traded its disco sequins for leather, female rappers such as Roxanne Shante adapted. Like a female Napoleon, the short statured rapper beefed with seemingly every female on the scene including Sparky D and a legion of imitators such as The Real Roxanne, setting out to prove that she was the one and only queen of rap. While you had a wave of novelty acts like Wee Papa Girl Rappers and Betty Boo, things continued to take a serious tone with a new conscious female movement, including Queen Latifah and Monie Love. The cause was later picked up by highly underrated artists like Ladybug Mecca of Digable Planets and Mystic. Alongside the conscious movement was the gangsta rap movement which gave birth to the tomboy rap of Yo Yo, Conscious Daughters and Da Brat. These were the women Apache was talking about on Gangsta Bitch, the kind that could drink a 40 ounce and wore baggy shorts to obscure their vaginas.

Then there were others that wanted to flaunt theirs in some twisted form of female empowerment. This movement could be called designer rap and was pioneered by Lil Kim and Foxy Brown, and later mutated into the stripper rap of Khia, Trina and others. While it became the dominant approach there were others such as Missy Elliott, Rah Digga and Bahamadia who wanted to highlight their talent rather than their bodies. Today female rappers have a lengthy history to draw from and incorporate many elements. You have Barbie rap (Nicki Minaj, Lola Monroe), female Brit rap (Speech Debelle, Estelle) and other new schoolers who like to play several sides, including Kellee Maize and Melodee. Female rap is pretty hot right now so it’s the perfect time for savvy artists to strike, hint hint Iggy Azalea (drop your album already).

Here we look at women who have stamped out their own unique identities and those that have suffered identity confusion or were musically misguided. Miss anybody? Let us know!