Women in Early Hip-Hop & Rap

This is a short reading assignment for students learning about hip-hop, rap, music history, women’s history, and American pop culture focusing on the role women played in the development of early hip-hop and rap. It focuses on a number of artists, including Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Sha-Rock, Roxanne Shante, and Salt-N-Pepa. Following the reading is a series of reflection questions created with Costa’s Levels of Questioning for students to better engage with their learning. These questions can be assigned as individual writing assignments or can be used to lead small group or full class discussions.

Educators should be aware that this assignment has a few brief references to sexuality, self harm, and the death of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in a car accident in 2002.