God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop

by Kathy Iandoli

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop meets Girls to the Front in this essential and long overdue history of hip-hop’s female pioneers and its enduring stars.

Every history of hip-hop previously published, from Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop to Shea Serrano’s The Rap Yearbook, focuses primarily on men, glaringly omitting a thorough and respectful examination of the presence and contribution of the genre’s female artists.  

For far too long, women in hip-hop have been relegated to the shadows, viewed as the designated “First Lady” thrown a contract, a pawn in some beef, or even worse. But as Kathy Iandoli makes clear, the reality is very different. Today, hip-hop is dominated by successful women such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, yet there are scores of female artists whose influence continues to resonate.

God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop—from the early work of Roxanne Shante, to hitmakers like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, to the superstars of today. Exploring issues of gender, money, sexuality, violence, body image, feuds, objectification and more, God Save the Queens is an important and monumental work of music journalism that at last gives these influential female artists the respect they have long deserved.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, History, Hip Hop, Feminism, Womens, Pop Culture

352 pages, ebook

First published October 22, 2019

Reviews

[Maven · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was a 3, the experience I created for myself while reading the book was a 5.

I don't always read other reviewer's reviews before I start reading but for this one I did and there was one reviewer who said that they felt as if they were dropped in the middle of a conversation and you had to know every name to make sense. I mostly agree BUT.....

that gave me an incentive to get the most out of the book as I could. I turned this book into an interactive experience (as I write this I am listening to Lil' Kim's Hard Core) I took notes of artists I was not familiar with and starting listening to their albums, I put the movie Roxanne Roxanne in my Netflix queue, and I now enjoy the music and artistry of The Lady of Rage whom I had never heard before.

It does help if you are already a fan of this music genre because it is easy to get lost as the author does skip around alot and is conversational in her writing style perhaps forgetting who her audience may be. However, reading this opened up a bunch of doors for me musically and filled in some musical gaps and for that I applaud the book.

[Linda McCutcheon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an eye opening surprisingly touching tribute to both the little known and the well known women of hip hop. God Save The Queens is much more than a text book account of the women in hip hop. It is a thorough look at those who pioneered a new genre of music.

Most music historians agree that hip hop originated in the 1970s in Bronx, New York. Sadly, those same historians tend to focus on the men who brought hip hop to the forefront of popular music and forget the women who fought and sacrificed to have the world acknowledge hip hop as the cultural phenomenon it became over time.

I admit I am not the most knowledgeable person about hip hop. I was a teen living on Long Island when I saw LLCoolJ perform at a college campus. I liked the performance and thought he was very cute. He was still a local performer at the time. As the hip hop movement grew I became aware of groups like N.W.A and RunDMC. My kids are big fans of Tu Pac and Biggie Smalls. Not A woman in the bunch.

I became aware of women in hip hop through MTV videos. I thought Salt-N-Pepa were brilliant, Left Eye from TLC was ingenious, but Missy Elliott was truly gifted. When her videos would come on I would stop whatever I was doing to watch and listen to her. It wasn't until I read this book that I became aware of not only all of their struggles to succeed in this music genre but the struggles of the women who shoulders they stand on when they perform.

I never heard of Cindy Campbell, known to some as the founding mother of hip hop in the Bronx, who made flyers and put them all over her neighborhood to get people to come and see her and her male counterparts perform. Sadly, there were times the men left no time for her to come to the stage.

Then there is Kellogg who was one of the first females to actually battle the male rappers. She took no prisoners and instead of being respected for her battle talent the men often ostracized her because of their own insecurities.

If it wasn't for this book bringing these women to our attention, making sure their names appear in a written document on the history of hip hop, they would remain unknown to future generations.

The book has some great stories about the more well known female rappers like Lil Kim and Foxy Brown. There is current dirt on Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. The writer doesn't miss a beat. Besides being extremely informative the book is a fun and fulfilling journey of these creative women conquering a male dominated field.

The author, Kathy Iandoli, writes this book like having a conversation. I never felt I was reading a text book listing facts. It was more like reading a love letter to these remarkable brave women. They had to fight to be heard and taken seriously and often lost the battle but they did win the war.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher DeyStreet Books/Harper Collins for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a reward for stepping into the unknown and trying something you're not sure is your cup of tea.
What a fascinating look at the pioneers of a genre of music that until this book was completely alien to me. After reading about all the triumphs and missteps of all these women brave enough to follow their passion, you can't help but cheer them on and then broaden your horizons and seek out their music.
A special thank you to Dey Street Books, Harper Collins Publishers and the brilliant author of this treasure trove of history, Kathy Iandoli.

[Stuart Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Iandoli does a great job of examining the history and impact of women in hip-hop, through well-researched histories and copious interviews.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a huge music person, but I love reading books about the history of various music genres.

God Save the Queens is about the history of women in hip hop. Women have been there from the very beginnings, often shoved off into the sidelines and always fighting for a seat at the table. The Black women of hip hop face the intersectionality of racism and misogyny (misogynoir), and the awful highlanderism of the idea that there can only be The One.

Anywho, it's a great introductory history with lots of in-depth looks and interviews from Iandoli, who has been a hip hop journalist for decades.

[Jay Gabler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A genre that women helped to invent, but that persistently excludes them from narratives of its history. A genre where women have been standout performers at every juncture, but where they rarely achieve the commercial or critical attention men to. A genre where women are constantly breaking the mold, only to find the industry squeezing them back into stereotypes. A genre where many tracks regarded as classics traffic in rampant misogyny. A genre where female artists are abused and marginalized by peers and producers, and where women of color are particularly vulnerable despite being particularly accomplished.

But enough about rock and roll, let's talk about hip-hop. I reviewed God Save the Queens for The Current.

[LeeTravelGoddess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathy did a great job with this book, so I have to give her her props! There may have been a few things that I did not agree with but there are so many more wonderful things that I would rather focus on here. I loved this housing of the great female Rappers that have come and deemed themselves worthy and I learned about quite a few that I had no knowledge of. This book was so rewarding to me as a student of music + hearing her love and dedication of this book to her mom, that just really made me smile, cause moms are special!!

Overall, if you love music, you should definitely read this book & lastly, I want books like this in the curriculums at secondary & tertiary schools cause there is SO MUCH MORE to learn other than Mozart and Tchaikovsky… expand the foundation please!!! Thank you Kathy for such a thoughtful and beautiful book 💚.

[Rochelle Hickey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this book. I really wanted to like it but I only made it to part one. The writing felt like I walked into the middle of a conversation and was left asking questions because it assumes you know every single name dropped and their associations with hip-hop. It swaps between the narrator’s history with hip-hop (radio stations and record shops) and the beginning of hip-hop. It was a table-side one way conversation that couldn’t hold me. I feel like if it was written by any of the women she talks about it would have been more descriptive and interesting.

Thank you to Harper Collins for giving me an advanced readers copy for my unbiased and honest opinion.

[kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tell me if you've heard this one before: If you're a woman, you can be either beautiful or talented, but not both. If you're a woman who wants to be taken seriously, you have to dress the part (in this case, tape down your boobs, wear baggy clothing, shave your head, hide behind a ball cap, etc.). If you're a woman who wants to express her sexuality, you're either a depraved whore or there's some man in the background pulling all the strings.

This book was truly a loving celebration of the women in hip hop, and an implicit condemnation of hip hop culture (and toxic masculinity in general) itself. Honestly, it's amazing there even are women in hip hop.

[Julie Rowse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one took me a while to finish for two reasons. First, it is deceptively dense in its thoroughness. Second, I wanted to stop after every artist I'd never heard of and listen to their music. The parts that covered artists I knew flew by, but when I'd encounter an artist I didn't (which was MOST of them...I am embarrassed at my ignorance), I'd slow down and really try to digest what I was reading. If you like rap and hip-hop, this is a must.

[Julianna Jimreivat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A retelling from the female perspective of the history hip hop. As a rap fan, I enjoyed the concept of this book and saw so many parallels to the industry I work in compared to the battles women faced in male dominated hip hop industry.
The beginning and end of the is book were great, but I got lost in the middle, which read more like a collection of fact based short essays rather than a critically thought story.

[Pelle "sometimes here" Parrafin]

juicy j give Gangsta Boo and La Chat their money back immediately or else

[timantiheld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das Buch erzählt die längst überfällige Geschichte von Rapperinnen in den USA. Dabei geht die Autorin nicht nur auf die individuellen Geschichten ein, sondern macht auch immer wieder das System zum Gegenstand, durch das die Frauen unterdrückt werden. Ich wünschte mir, etwas in der Form würde es auch für Deutschland geben (obwohl 365 Female MCs bereits hervorragende Arbeit in Form von Portraits leistet).

[Bryony Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loooved this book, particularly the first half, and I’m so sad it’s done. I wanted to keep reading it foreverrrrr

[dirt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, this book is too short because there were few mainstream women rappers. Kathy seamlessly traced women's role in the creation of hip-hop to the present. Most of the book focused on the contributions of Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, and Missy Elliot because that was who you had to choose from.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated that this talked about overarching trends in addition to just profiling the major (and some of the lesser known) players. Very readable and I've got a list of new people to listen to.

[Sarah H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took forever to read because I kept stopping to listen to the music, but that is not a bad thing. Ended up finishing it/reading the section on contemporary women in hip hop while on the plane to a music festival with Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, so perfect timing!

Interesting social history of the women who shaped the hip hop industry. It honestly would have worked better as a podcast. The author uses personal interviews with many of the women involved as her primary source and I would have liked to just hear the interviews in the artists' own voices. And you could put the relevant music right in there.

I learned a lot about how music is produced and the barriers men put up in front of women. (If I hear one more woman being accused of using a male ghost writer, I will scream!) I was also turned on to artists I've never heard of. But I personally could have used much more English teacher/musicology breakdowns of songs. Like, after reading I get why Queen Latifah was so important socially, but still feel like I can't listen to a song and say, "Oh, it is doing this particular thing with beat structure that is typical of this time" or whatever. There was a really good section looking at the use of the word bitch and how it has come in and out of fashion with women artists- I wanted more of that kind of thing.

This book was written as Megan's career was getting started, and Iandoli writes about her with such reverence. Like, "the Avatar will return to save the world" level hope that Megan will be "the one"- the one woman that isn't restrained by the "sex kitten" or "Nubian goddess" or "gangster" boxes put on women in hiphop over the last 50 years. I think the last 3 years since publication have proved her so right! She writes a lot about competitiveness, fighting and diss tracks between women, but Megan works to support and uplift all women and has collaborated with women across the industry. And my devotion to Megan is the reason I read this book. Literally I've already worked out 3 times this week because Megan told me to.

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Hands down a must read. This really dives into the history of battle rapping women who laid the groundwork for our current women in hip hop. Any music lover can appreciate this and with the amount of songs mentioned throughout it makes a great playlist. I can’t stop listening to all these powerful women and I’ve even found some new old stuff. Thank you Kathy for writing about women in hip hop.

[Carla Cherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, comprehensive history of women in hip hop from the 1970s to the present.

[Madeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what God Save the Queens is actually trying to do, and I think this confusion starts with the title. Like, what is going on with that? The content is wide-ranging and pretty shallow. A lot of the book is just lists of names, without any elaboration. There's a half-hearted attempt to investigate objectification and respectability politics, and suggest that both are traps, but it's truly half-hearted! There's very little narrative at all, honestly - you don't finish the book feeling, "now I understand X about the last 50 years of hip-hop."

Worst of all: Iandoli gives you almost no sense of the music.

I haven't read The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop, but I probably will now, and suspect that it does at least as good a job at the thing Iandoli's book does kind of well: give you a list of people to look up on Apple Music or wherever.

[BiblioGeek · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, Kathy Iandoli is pretty thorough here, in terms of including a significant number of female MCs. It's clear that she's done some research here - interviewing MCs and others who were first-hand witnesses to the rise and fall of various artists. I particularly loved her retelling of how Roxanne Shante's career started, and ultimately, how it fizzled out.

But the book seems a bit uneven to me. In that, she seems to place a lot of emphasis on the beefs between the MCs. And while she provides focus and detail on SOME MCs (Shante', Lauryn, Lil' Kim), others are mentioned peripherally (MC Lyte, Latifah, Rapsody).

The book is good, though. I wonder what else is out there that addresses this topic...

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really fun to tell people I was reading this book. It sounds so cool! The cover is so cool! And it was interesting but I wanted so much more. At it's heart this is a chronological history of women in hip hop from the 70s to Megan Thee Stallion. And the sources are mostly the albums themselves and interviews. I wanted more analysis - more lyric content, more consideration of context, more about their lives. Regardless, it's important to see these women centered. Even looking them up today all too often you get the songs by men they feature on or info about the men in their lives and women are so much more than the men that surround them.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding work. It was a comprehensive book that was part well-researched history with names, dates, and places; and, part observation provided by people (including the author) who were there. The author laid out how women have always been a part of hip-hop and connected the line from Cindy Campbell to Megan Thee Stallion.

It could have used a timeline, discography, and/or list of players at the end.

[Jon Allanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent oral history of the women who helped create and transform rap music. I lived through so much of the music discussed in these pages that at times the nostalgia was almost overwhelming, in a very positive way. Great stories retold by someone who was there, with interviews with many music luminaries. Recommended.

[La'Tonya Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fine. Probably more for a new or casual hip hop fan. Like other reviewers, I appreciated the early history concerning the pioneering female emcees. The writing is uneven though and sentences like "She was strumming her own pain with her own fingers" just made me cringe.

[Byron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surface-level overview of the history of female rap with a lot of unfortunate grammatical quirks.

[shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An in-depth look at the women who helped build the hip-hop genre. This book made me realize I should have been a music journalist, what a great career!

[Porscha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening.

[Shercole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfection. I absolutely loved this book! The stories are everything!

[Andrea Klaphake]

Exactly what I wanted to know about women and hip-hop history. Easy read, too.