A strong, historically astute compilation from the ever-dependable Soul Jazz...

by Janne Oinonen
Tuesday, February 03, 2009

log in to vote With numb-skulled, chest-beating thug escapism and a slavish dedication to unearthing impossibly rare vinyl in search of that elusive killer beat at the opposite ends of the genre’s stylistic spectrum, it’s easy to assume hip hop’s very much a boys’ own terrain. Chuck in the casual misogyny that disfigures numerous top-ranking rhymers’ output, and you’d be forgiven for ranking hip hop up there with metal when it comes to musical neighbourhoods women aren’t traditionally willing to roam.

To labour under such misconceptions amounts to pure ignorance, as this typically strong, historically astute double-CD compilation from the ever-dependable Soul Jazz’s sets out to prove. They may not always have had the highest profiles or the steepest of sales figures, but female MCs have made a valuable contribution to the genre’s development from the proto-rap poetry of the 1960’s and the 1970’s – represented here by the genuinely far-out steam-of-consciousness flow of Nikki Giovanni’s Last Poets-esque ‘Ego Tripping’ – to its contemporary forays into aural abstraction, as essayed by Missy Elliott’s still-fresh 1997 masterpiece ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’.

The majority of ‘Fly Girls’, however, is happy to draw its wares from what to many remains – creatively speaking – the golden age of hip hop, early to late 1980’s, with the mic-hogging talent ranging from the relatively well-known (MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, latterly more renowned for a string of Hollywood hits than busting rhymes) to the deeply obscure. A less stingy supply of more recent cuts would undoubtedly have been welcome. The least aged offering here, the aforementioned Missy Elliott track, is also easily the most stunningly innovative selection included, due not least to its elastic bounce announcing the arrival of a female hip hop artist doing something genuinely groundbreaking, rather than sticking with templates similar to those tested by male MCs of the same vintage.

That said, the ladies featured here easily equal to their male counterparts when it comes to delivering more or less playful disses – JJ Fad’s witty and deliciously nasty ‘You’re Going Down’ is especially cutting – or trumpeting their own, inimitable skills on the mic, a tireless staple diet of old school hip hop indulged in with great aplomb by Sweet Tea on the deeply funky ‘I Got Da Feelin’. Any whingeing about the abundance of elderly wares, meanwhile, should stop by the time we get to Sequence’s ‘Simon Says’, an irresistibly energetic blast of the kind of early B-Boy (girl?) tomfoolery Beastie Boys have relied on since the glory days of ‘Paul’s Boutique’.

http://www.souljazzrecord.../?id=14230 ....sample