THE MOTHERLODE by Clover Hope - NPR 'Tiny Desk Playlist: Women Run The Rap Game'

NPR | February 19, 2021

Contributed by Clover Hope, writer, professor, and author of The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop.

Several bright, young women rappers have owned the Tiny Desk stage in the past few years, and I'm honored to highlight some of my favorites from the archives.

• I love that Chika kept her performance low-key, even with four backup singers behind her. Her set is pure charm, poetry and comedy. At one point, she pulls out a tiny tub of Vaseline and erroneously calls it ChapStick.

• Notice first (as if you couldn't) that Mulatto is sitting in an oversized, tufted, white throne in a studio and not in front of a wall of books per the usual Tiny Desk aesthetic. It's the perfect ambiance for her to suavely rap about riches and insecurity, while a violinist gives the performance an extra air of grandeur.

• Noname raps with a level of clarity and calm that hangs in the air like smoke. It's a treat to watch her perform selections from her album Telefone and talk about how we should "heal the world with vulnerability."

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