Provocative piece that rightfully puts the spotlight on the development of women MCs from the mere beginnings of rap music in the late 70s early 80s. It was the revelations of how much of an afterthought that having a woman share the limelight within the male driven music industry was a mere novelty or afterthought. Sparky D shining on the Funky Four Plus one where she was simply the plus one. How even 15 years later it still persisted in groups such as the Fugees and Busta Rhymes Flipmode Squad where they featured one woman out of a legion of men. The creators rightfully gave the spotlight to pioneers such as MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Roxanne Shante, Monie Love, Missy Elliot, and a host of others their important contributions leading to current superstars. I was perplexed the film generally ignoring the significance of the groundbreaking Salt N Pepa two female MCs that deserved an entire episode versus a mere mention. Not only did they burst on the scene as the first breakthrough by gender they did it by dissing a male MC! This was unheard of at the time. Then to become the first multi platinum selling female rap group who hit a long range of social issues while remaining humble, and classy paving the way for many of the MCs popular afterwards. The deletion of their contributions seemed deliberate unfortunately. And I understand being supportive of the current crop of women hit makers but giving a pass to the general downgraded hit content seemed like a push from the 4080 record executives that want to keep fans dumb downed and ignorant. I'm sorry but for every Lil Kim we had in the 90s we had a Queen Latifah or Lauryn Hill. There was a balance which today seems pushed by the elite to push ratchet music and messages. Positive rappers such as Rhapsody (who was thankfully included) arent pushed to the masses. Where was Sa Roc or African artist Sampa the Great? It's not empowerment to be able to hug a strip pole and twerk. It's exploitation. It's sad that this behavior is applauded and endorsed and this documentary missed the boat on this. Probably why they skipped Salt N Pepa. Time to Push Back.
