Chickaboo: Where are all the female MCs?
Photo by @bencookphoto
A lot of MCs hate being categorized as ‘female’. As Little Simz recently put it, it’s so frustrating ‘when you feel like you’re doing something greater than life, but you’re always just a female rapper’.
And it’s true! Separation often does reinforce the problem. But on the flipside, who’s challenging why there aren't enough female MCs? Even though there is some progress, we can’t let small victories make us complacent.
So what better person to give insight into the female MC shortage and offer some practical solutions than MC Chickaboo? Not only is she the first EVER female Jungle MC. Her 28 year MC career spans House, Hip Hop, Soul, D&B and Jungle: working with legends like Goldie, Afrika Bambaata, DJ Craze and Soul II Soul to name a few. Oh, and she’s a lovely human too!
Eazy Chickaboo! What’s your thoughts on what it means to be categorized as a ‘female’ MC - as opposed to just an MC?
Eazy! Yeah, it’s hard to be defined by your gender. But at the same time if we don't differentiate on the female MCs, how do we give the exposure? It’s a double edged sword.
Does it ever get frustrating?
A little bit sometimes, but I don’t really have a girly voice. So I don’t feel like I’m in the same category as that typical “female” MC. I’m lucky because I’ve had a long career in different genres of music as well. So I feel a bit different about it in my experience.
For sure - you are fully established! Back in the 90s, you were one of the only female MCs in Jungle right?
“i was the first ever female jungle MC!”
And then Lady MC came a couple of years after that.
Photo by @mono.chrome.soul
Now that’s a sick claim to fame! How did you rise to success in a male dominated industry?
I’ve always had mentors and DJs who wanted me to work with them. So 60% of the hard work is done, because I’m there with a DJ. Me and G E Real used to do Dreamscape and Fantasia back in the 90s, he used to do this four deck show thing, and all the MCs wanted to be on it because he was so fresh.
“I had to fight a little bit, but once you said “give me the mic” they were surprised that a girl was asking for it in the first place”.
And they’d give it to you, like “go on then” - probably so they could watch you fall. And I’d take it and the crowd would go mad. So I got where I am from just doing my job well!
All credit to you - I love the fact you just said gimme the mic!
You’ve just gotta go for it. What’s the worst that could happen if they say no! The best thing that could happen is they say yes and you smash the crowd. I was so hungry that I didn't care about the other stuff.
Me and my DJ worked really hard and we just went for it. Travelling anywhere, we’d do 4 or 5 different raves in a weekend! Sadly, he got really ill.
So apart from Jungle, you do house, hip hop, soul... How do the attitudes compare towards female MCs in different scenes?
When I moved to London to be a massive gay, (but also because I didn’t really feel accepted where I was), I started MCing in 94 in the black gay scene - Hip Hop, Dancehall, venturing off into different communities.
The House world is very different. They’re used to house vocalists and more women DJs. What’s different is female MCs, because they’re not used to MCing over House in the first place.
So the crowd were like “what the fuck is this”, but they got down with it! But with that kind of music, I try to keep my vocals in tune with the record. I don’t chat over stuff in the same way.
With Breakbeat, there was no MCing at the time, so when I went on it was new and novel. And to be honest it's been interesting, because I worked with white people playing black music. And in my dreadlocks, jumping around I validated what they're doing. So the aesthetics of it looked very cool, when they're playing Breakbeat and Hip Hop samples.
It lets them get away with it, the appropriation gets toned down. Luckily for me that helped my career in a positive way! But I was very aware of that happening. I didn’t want to be a puppet.
Photo by @bencookphoto
I’ve noticed so much of that! Especially with live reggae and jazz bands and stuff, but I’ve never actually spoken about it. It’s an important topic in itself.
Oh don’t get me started on that, you’ll set me off and we’ll be here all night, ahaha!
OK - that needs its own discussion! But to get back to female MCs - why do you think there aren’t enough of them?
From a Jungle perspective, I personally think that a lot of women’s tone registers at a higher frequency. And the sound that's triggered in the frequency that Jungle D&B is made at, doesn’t fit that high voice. A high voice doesn't fit how the genre is even made.
So when I get on the mic everyone’s alright with me, cos I’ve got a deeper voice. And so it worked to my advantage. I just get more gigs than a lot of other female MCs with higher voices. But women could be so successful if they worked on the tone of their delivery.
“I just want the girls to just drop their voice down to their ovaries a little bit!”
That's a golden bit of advice right there!
That's me being kind and looking at it from a technical perspective, but obviously we’re living in a misogynistic society where men don’t wanna be shown up. Because women have to work harder, try harder. So we’re better and that’s a threat! And obviously because it's a very sexist male dominated industry, many girls only get gigs if you're pretty. But to give the guys who aren't sexist a break, I can look at it technically too.
Chickaboo is one of the organisers of @EQ50dnb : a women and non binary collective addressing the gender issue in D&B
Let’s dig deeper into female MC aesthetics. Do you think there’s different expectations for female rappers?
We know that hyper-feminised women get a lot of opportunities, because males have been hard wired in this part of the world to respond to those images. Any woman who conforms to that will have advantages. But at the same time, she doesn't have any validation in her product.
So she might get in the door but unless she really smashes it it’s only one gig for each promoter. So the women who don't look like that have probably worked their arse off. And they’re the women that have longer careers, and more respect.
“You can have fame or respect, but it’s hard to get both”.
Ooo another great sound bite!
Get in!
Photo by @amyb_dnb
Ahaha, do you think that female MCs are supportive of each other?
Yeah I think so, we are supportive of each other but because the men control the scene they encourage us to be competitive, so they can only let one of us in at a time. But actually when we’re all around each other it's genuinely fine.
How has female to female mentoring played a part in elevating other women to become MCs?
“My experience as a mentor confirms that the illusion of competition between women isn't real”.
I message women saying “I just listened to your mix and I really liked it”, because it's important for us older generations to encourage the next. Because by coming together, we make more space for everyone to come through - instead of hoping that one woman gets through!
Amen to that. OK to round it off: any words of wisdom or tips for budding MCs?
I would say practise over as many different instrumental genres as you can. If you wanna do Jungle D&B, practice over Dub because that’s the foundation of it - Dub and Hip Hop. I practise over Dub because jungle is just that, but sped up. Practise practise, don't be shy and don't be scared. The worst can happen is you'll be told no, the best thing is you'll rock the crowd.