Much props are due to the sisLa Blaxicana for creating the website Piss In The Wind (name sticks out, eh), that highlights a lot of dope female MCs doing it in Hip-Hop from the independent & major label circles.
The Piss In The Wind, Vol. 1 Mixtape is a project from La Blaxicana focusing on some dope independent label female MCs in the biz...grab the free download below and let us know what you think! :) Piss In The Wind, Vol. 1 Mixtape Download Link
Tracklisting:
1. I Spit – RE Double D 2. Interlude – Take Cover 3. Dun Eeze – Adrift Da Belle 4. Interlude – The Fembassy 5. Unstoppable – Emperess 6. Fly With Me – Kin 4 Life 7. Interlude – Lin Que aka Isis 8. Still Dope – Stahhr 9. Understand Me – Lady L.U.S.T. 10. Interlude – Reppin for the Ladies 11. What We Do – Kandi Cole 12. Interlude – Patty Dukes 13. I’m So Lebron, I’m So Kobe – RA the MC 14. Freestyle – Rita J 15. Dreamin’ – Rita J 16. Ain’t Nobody – Luxi 17. Interlude – Middle Finger Champ 18. The City is Mine – Naira 19. Freestyle – Boog Brown 20. Love – Miki Vale 21. Freestyle – Jay Mills 22. Watch It – Jay Mills 23. Encore – Deena Jonez Offiicial Piss in the Wind Blog
We have an interview here with one of the real deal up and coming female Hip-Hop MCs in the game who will hopefully stop this draught of no ladies on the mic (or REALLY wack ones) who can make good music in 2009.
The family here just doesn't co-sign anything and everyone, much less give the airwaves over to underserving audio trash, so definitely give folks a good look and a change to capture your ears.
Check out some of on point insights in our interview with Slip-N-Slide Records own Kaneri Diamond (aka Mz. Superflylistic aka Miss Moe Money aka The Top Model of Hip-Hop) as well as some her music to download and checkout with some other goodies:
DJ Fusion (BlackRadioIsBack.com/FuseBox Radio Broadcast): Peace Sis, thanks for taking out your time to speak with us here at BlackRadioIsBack.com and the syndicated FuseBox Radio Broadcast. Can you tell us first and foremost what and who inspired you to be involved with the entertainment inudustry and to be an MC?
Kaneri Diamond: First I wanted to say thank you for giving me this opportunity to have my voice heard. I fell in love with Hip-Hop, music excites and inspires me to do great things.
For that very reason, I begin creating my own music as a MC. After going to school for business and audio, I decided to get more involved with entertainment. Thanks to Troy [Troy2DaVent], the President of the Slip-N-Slide DJs and my manager, he gave me a chance to learn and work in this music industry.
DJ Fusion: From your personal viewpoint, Kaneri, what's the Florida Hip-Hop scene like? How has it been establishing your place up in it? Kaneri Diamond: To be honest, Florida's Hip-Hop scene is all political. It's all about who you know to get your feet in the game.
Some may say I play by my own rules. I made my own place on the Hip-Hop, I am branding my name by myself in Florida.
I go to the streets and grind my music hard. Everybody is like where did this girl come from, it's like I just appeared from nowhere. * laughs * But it's a long time coming and I am ready to explode!!!
DJ Fusion: No doubt, I can definitely see that from running into a lot of your work this past year. Now, as one of the rare female Hip-Hop MCs in the game as of late (much less one who is actually skilled and talented), what's your viewpoint of the music industry now?
How do folks to you respond to the ladies taking charge on stage, with the music (especially with your work with the mixtape scene and beyond) and with their business?
Kaneri Diamond: This industry that I love is male dominated. It's crazy because some guys will come at you the wrong way but you have to be focus on whats really important - your career.
I know I am talented and can make good music with substance, so I am staying strong to what I believe. I know I do not need to sleep around to try to get a deal. I have never done that and I will never sell out like that.
Some male Hip-Hop artists are real cool and will embrace a female that got skills behind the microphone. Also, some just want to know your breast size. * laughs *
This is the one thing that I have learned in doing this business if you do good work all the time then you will earn men respect. I have earned my respect and my position.
I want to send this message to all the little girls reading this that want a career in the music industry; you do not need to sell your self short by having sex to move up the corporate ladder, you can just do your job to the best of your ability all the time and you will earn your respect and your title.
DJ Fusion: I definitely appreciate you for putting all of that out there. Being that we talked about how the fellas look at you in the biz, how have your fellow female MCs and industry folks responded to you from personal experience?
There's the big stereotype about how females can't work together on anything, are mad petty, etc. True, false, in between, we're curious about what you've been through.
Kaneri Diamond: You would think we should all be able to get along since its not that many of us. However, its not like that. It has been times where I been cool with a female MC but as soon as I got a lil' more attention or fame then them they stop speaking or hitting me up on my MySpace.
Also, it's been times where I have reached out to female MCs to do a track and never even got a response. * laughs *
I think that is so crazy, just plan crazy. I could reach out to bigger male Hip-Hop artists and got responses and we done real work together but never got the same response when I reached out to a female MC.
I wish one day we can be better than that as Female MCs and do some real work together. So I will leave them with this: I'M SO FLY FRESH TO DEAF DON'T HATE ME cause I HATE MYSELF!!! * laughs *
DJ Fusion: * laughs * You're definitely putting out there for folks to know where you're coming from. Tell me, how did you come up with your stage name?
Kaneri Diamond: Everybody in my hood call me Kaneri because they can not pronounce my real name, which is Canieria. Ya know all females like diamonds, so I decided to tag my last name with Diamonds because I am a flashy person. * laughs * So thats how I came up with Florida Finest Kaneri Diamond.
DJ Fusion: True indeed. So far, what have been your most memorable experiences in the music industry, both good and bad?
Kaneri Diamond: Oh man...my most good memorable experience is when I opened up for Plies in front of a crowd of ten thousand. It was a great show; I killed it. By the end of the show ,I was all on top of the speakers, jumping off the stage, it was great. * laughs *
My most memorable bad experience was when I went to a award show and my folks checked in for me and got my ticket. The only thing is they went inside to their seats without giving me my ticket.
So when I tried to make my red carpet walk in, I couldn't 'cause I did not have my ticket and I had to wait by the door like a duck. IT'S FUNNY NOW, but its was not funny then. I was just standing there looking crazy like everybody trying to get in without a ticket and I actually had a ticket. * laughs *
DJ Fusion: Who are some of the music artists you would like to collaborate with in the future? Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul, Rock, whatever is good.
Kaneri Diamond: I want to link up with a few people on a track. One would be Wyclef, Nas, Kanye, Michael Jackson, Neyo, Ciara, Outkast and Gwen Stephani.
DJ Fusion: True, that's what's up with the list Kaneri - I can feel you on that group of talented folks right there. What are some upcoming plans and projects we should expect from you in the future?
Kaneri Diamond: I got a mixtape dropping with DJ Mami Fresh called "Top Model of Hip Hop", a mixtape called "I'm The Future" with DJ 5053 and another mixtape called "Worldwide" which I got DJs from around the world on this project. It's going to be big. I am also writing and recording my album for 2009.
I also started a company called the IAA that where Indy Artists help each other worldwide. Be on the lookout for the "Moe Money" video.
DJ Fusion: That's what's up. You got a lot on your plate and I'm sure the people want to be able to reach out to you to give props, build in some way and so forth. Where can people go to check out what's going on with Kaneri Diamond as well as reach out for any collaborations, booking and things?
Kaneri Diamond: To contact me, Kaneri Diamond, for Booking, Hosting, Interviews, or Features call 212-545-4154. You also can hit me up on Myspace or FaceBook here are the links:
DJ Fusion: This was a dope interview Kaneri, thanks a lot for taking out your time to do this. :) Do you have any folks you would like to shout out?
Kaneri Diamond: Yes, once again I want to thank you for giving me the chance to do this interview with you and your companies. I wanted to shout out my family for standing by me through everything, Troy, Ernest, Next Level, Meech Wells, DJ Mami Fresh, DJ Fusion, all Slip N Slide DJs and any DJs that support and break my records!
Thanks and much appreciation to Ernest Jackson at MNS Media for arranging this interview.
Classic New York area Female MCs doing it up on the real on some early 1990s ish!
Lin Que is best known for rolling with the X-Clan and has been doing solo projects for a minute. She has a new LP out called GODSpeed.
MC Lyte is still doing it up all over the place and has an album of new material coming out soon in 2008.
Lord Knows that female MCs have gotten the pretty wack end of the stick in the mud this year, so hopefully, these sistas are a part of trying to get things back to being respectable again.
Lin Que featuring MC Lyte - Let It Fall
Bonus Video - New!: Lin Que - Breath Spit (The Ayatollah RMX)
Hip-Hop MCs who are blantantly from the Washington, DC Metro area just seem to get a bad hand in things on the music business end and/or end up having skirt on the independent circut for abnormally long periods of time no matter how quality the music is (Asheru, Wale, etc.).
When this joint dropped back in the day, folks from the "ur-ee-a" (area for non-southern accented folks) were kind of amped to not just see a female MC, but a sis on top of that (this period of the 1990s was starting the decline of female MCs who were on that garbage in the mainstream Hip-Hop scene) doing her thing.
The bass on this joint will still rattle the whip kind of hard, the beat was cool and the song had a message on top of things that didn't get to preachy or pedantic - all good, I say.
As far as I know, Nonchalant didn't do another album after her first one, the Until the Day LP, but hip me to it if y'all know something.
How SCARY this joint was made during my last year of high school (class of 1996, Oxon Hill H.S., yeah)...
This "What I Miss In Black Radio?" segments are just pretty much my rambling about stuff that I feel isn't really on the air like that anymore in Black Radio (or not like it should).
These posts are going to probably be relatively sporadic, just coming through when something comes to mind.
I miss female MCs.
Now, there have never been a whole LOT of female MCs in Hip-Hop, especially in the mainstream.
I'm not talking about some chick who coos the hook on the chorus, or makes sexy noises (well, if that's all they do) or stuff like that - I'm talking about ladies who kill it via rhymes, hooks and bars on a song.
But lately, doesn't it seem like you would have better luck winning the lottery or Busta Rhymes bringing Leaders of the New School on a reunion tour than seeing a prominent, dope female MC on a MTV, BET VH1, your local video show, etc.?
** NOTE: We're not talking about channels like BET Jazz, VH1 Classic, MTV Jams or VH1 Soul, where you have to pay extra money for those joints, but the regular one folks get bundled on that mid-grade cable package - we all don't have "Gold/Platinum" package loot. **
It seems that most of the time now, when you hear about female MCs either being kicked off/walking out on collectives for various reasons (Rah Digga, Shawnna), becoming a bit off mentally (Lauryn Hill) or being busted by the police for foolishness going to jail or trial (Foxy Brown, Remy Ma) - if you hear about them at all.
Is it a matter of female talent not being exposed and nurtured or just mediocrity being put out there being set up to fail?
Personally, I think its a mix of both.
We're definitely in the age where definition of "Old School" is - to be very kind - flawed (too not be so kind, f***ed up) in general for music. Some of the best female MCs were popular between the mid-1980s and late-1990s - a period of time that for some reason, mainstream radio and television don't seem to want to touch unless its a tribute show or the "old school/throwback" joint or mix of the day. This happens even if an "old school" female MC put out something new that's hot.
So folks have to look at the fact that lack of exposure to female MCs isn't going to help out the overall female MC cause. There is a generation of teenagers (we got to remember, there are 17 year olds that were born in 1990) that simply just won't know what's up unless they have people around them to expose them to such things.
I also feel that some female MCs are just treated like tax write offs for some labels - they serve a purpose, but won't be taken seriously at the end of the day. Think of all of the projects that are never promoted properly, if at all. Ladies with pretty faces but wack flows (or vice versa, depending on someone's definition of beauty for the day/era). That one female in the game who you wondered why and how in the hell did they get on after hearing a single that contributed to audio pollution and later found out via some form of media that they were "f***in' for tracks" with a higher up in the business, as Bossip would say.
And sometimes, just sometimes, there would even be a GREAT project by a female MC that just dropped at the wrong time or simply folks just moving on to other and hopefully greener pastures (Queen Latifah - "Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Cover Girl/Actress/Mogul; Eve doing her acting in the movies and sitcoms; Roxanne Shante becoming Dr. Roxanne Shante - can't hate on that at all, etc.).
There are still plenty of talent that is out there on the female MC end from both the old school and the future - it just really needs to get pushed out there properly and hopefully without getting pushed back on some Dr. Dre Detox status.
Here's just a small sample of videos (viva YouTube) of female MCs who I think are on point with some website links and whatnot that I could fine.
Might do a Part 2 of this with the videos in the future....
I'm DJ Fusion, a short (5 feet tall), above average looking Black-American female DJ, writer and photographer in my early 30s.
I'm originally from the Prince Georges County, MD, now going back and forth between New Jersey and the DMV (DC/MD/VA).
Since 1998, I've been doing my syndicated radio show, The FuseBox Radio Broadcast, bringing the best of Black Music from all over the world along with news, interviews and commentary.
Check out what's happening with the syndicated FuseBox Radio Broadcast at our official website, http://www.FuseBoxRadioOnline.com!
PLEASE feel free to donate any amount you can to maintain the upkeep of the BlackRadioIsBack.com website, the syndicated FuseBox Radio Broadcast and both media outlets' various hosting fees, etc. for to be spread to the world if you can...any amount helps!
We're very thankful for your support! :)
Hire the FuseBox Radio's DJs for Your Next Event!
Feel free to reach out to the FuseBox Radio Broadcast DJ family to provide music for your next upcoming event via Thumbtack.com - whether it's as intimate family gathering (such as wedding receptions & reunions), a mid-sized corporate or networking event (whether at a lounge, art gallery, performance hall, etc.), parties of all kinds, large community happening and more!
We travel all over the U.S., Canada and other countries.
The FuseBox Radio Broadcast staff will work together to make up a reasonable budget for a great time!
