The Women of Sisterhood of Hip-Hop -The Toast

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Sisterhood of Hip-Hop is anti-ratchet reality TV. The Oxygen reality show produced by T.I. follows five female MC’s as they hustle their way to stardom. Sisterhood, attempting to be an alternative to Love and Hip-Hop, tries to portray the rappers in a three-dimensional way that makes you root for them to succeed.

The show begins by focusing on Siya, a New York rapper who wants to be “the first openly gay rapper,” in her words.  She is a butch lesbian rapper and wants to depend on her lyrics, not her looks, to get ahead in the hip-hop industry. On the show, she spoke out against the pressure on female rappers to be oversexualized. “There’s one thing I hate about the industry like you have to be naked to sell…Like no, you don’t!” 

Siya is being mentored by Murder Inc. founder Irv Gotti and R & B singer Tank. (All the rappers are mentored by a big-name urban artist throughout the show.) While she’s trying to build her name in New York, she is dealing with the personal issue of her homesick girlfriend, Renaye. The most refreshing part of the premiere was that their relationship was presented as an unremarkable part of their lives. Siya’s sexuality (so far) is presented as a part of her life, but not the totality of who she is. As she stated on the show, “My sexuality, to me, has never affected my career…It just so happened that I’m gay, but I’m a dope rapper.” 

While Siya wants hip-hop fans to focus on her bars, Diamond has had fans focus on her personal life. She has had high-profile relationships with Lil Scrappy and Soulja Boy. She admitted that her former boyfriends have put her career on the back burner. “My relationships have overshadowed my talent,” she revealed in a preview of Sisterhood. When Soulja Boy appears at an industry party for her in episode five, she seems to be distracted by his complimenting her “purple passion’’ hair.

Now the Atlanta MC hopes a move to New York will jumpstart her profile. Her mentor Eve encourages her to focus on her music. “Eve always stressed to me to never be comfortable,’’ she said in a recent interview. “I’m always competing with myself.”

Another rapper comfortable with showing her curves is Nyemiah Supreme. The New York MC is being mentored by Timbaland. She was only briefly featured in the premiere of Sisterhood, but is already being featured on the blogs for her “beef” with co-star Diamond in an upcoming episode. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bWhE3igW9E

“What was said wasn’t that I didn’t hear of her,” said Nyemiah. “During that conversation I was asking her what did she [Diamond] do in hip hop, what did she change?” 

Even though she threw shade at the former Crime Mob member, the show doesn’t devolve into the knock-down drag-out fights on other reality shows.

‘’Our show is going to offer something different. We are women with jobs and even if we have a disagreement it’s about our work, not gossip,” Nyemiah promised in an interview. Even though she admitted she had trouble making female friends, she opened up in episode five by admitting she had trust issues with women.

After the other women reassured her that they would support her and Bia gave her a much-needed hug, Nyemiah realized that it’s important for female rappers to stick together and, in her words, “strong arm’’ their way into the hip-hop industry.

Bia is a Boston MC who leaves her family to relocate to Miami in the premiere of Sisterhood. She is mentored by Pharrell, who encourages her to step out on faith in her career. She noted that the superproducer gave her a big chance when she was starting out. 

In the premiere episode, Bia said that it’s important to take advantage of any opportunity given in the music business. “You’re always given a moment, you’ve got to take a hold of your moment and make it your moment. That was my moment, and here I am,” said Bia. 

Brianna Perry is a Miami-based rapper who counts Rick Ross as a mentor. The college graduate is adjusting to moving away from her controlling “momager’’, whom she fires in episode four of Sisterhood. Though she is an aspiring hip-hop superstar, she’s still dealing with the typical worries of any University of Miami graduate. 

“I feel like I have been going through a transition of really becoming a young woman, making more decision and really ‘bossing up.’ I don’t really regret anything from the past…it all got me to this point right now.” Perry said in a recent interview. 

Sisterhood of Hip-Hop shows that the hip-hop world is not all fun and games, dealing with the struggles female rappers face in the industry. However, the show also demonstrates how tough these women are. The highly-rated and highly-Tweeted premiere show that there’s an audience that wants to see the whole lives of “femcees.” With their individual ambition and united sisterhood together, these women will prove that they’re not just great female rappers, but great rappers, period. 

Ella Vincent is a Chicago-based freelance writer for Apartments.com, Statecolumn.com, and Gossipandgab.com. Follow her @bookgirlchicago on Twitter.

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