Check out our selection of 13 French female rappers who existed before Diam’s!
Diam’s is to French rap what Jesus Christ is to the Gregorian calendar. There’s a before and an after. As a matter of fact, contemporary female rappers are still regularly asked to position themselves in relation to her, and the mainstream media and major labels continue to search for her successor. This theory suggests that no artist worthy of the name has emerged on the French rap scene since, or that there is only room for one female rapper, as women are so jealous and competitive among themselves. Yeah, right.
Another harmful consequence of this allegation is that it tends to make female rappers who came before Diam’s invisible. And yet, by the time Diam’s released her album “Premier Mandat” in 1999, after a first appearance in 1997 on the track “Cocktail Explosif” featuring 13 Or and 16 Ar from the vinyl of the same name produced by Royal Produkshun, many femcees had been active on the rap scene for a decade.
From 1990 to 1998, here’s a non-exhaustive selection of 13 pioneering female rappers, without whom the French rap scene wouldn’t be what it is today.
With:
- Saliha – Enfants du Ghetto (1990)
- Straight Royeur (Virginie Despentes, Cara Zina & Gilles Garrigos) – Fear Of A Female Planet (1990)
- B-Love – Lucy (1992)
- Gwladys – Suprême (1993)
- Sté Strausz – Née Gangsta (1994)
- Melaaz – Je marche en solitaire (1995)
- Princess Aniès – Qui représente… (1996)
- EK Tomb – Piège (1996)
- Lady Laistee – Respecte mon attitude (1996)
- K-Reen (Rootsneg) – Le Biz (1997)
- Casey – La parole est mienne (1997)
- Azé – Tasses (1998)
- Médina Koné & Menelik – Bye Bye (1998)
