500 Females page | Hip-Hop and Politics

Diva aka Keldamuzik is from the San Francisco bay Area where she describes herself as someone the ‘entertainment industry has been waiting for’. According to her bio,

she is bringing a dynamic look and sound to a game that has been watered-down as of late. She’s a vibrant Hip Hop artist whose talent will not be denied. Aside from obvious reasons Diva plans to set herself apart from the run-of-the-mill acts that come and go. Her lyrical ability puts her on a plateau most established artists only wish for or try to purchase. .

In January of 2005 Keldamuzik signed a production deal with Squad Music Group and started recording her first album entitled “Shut Up, Listen!” that was released in summer 2005.

In summer of 2006 Keldamuzik started her own imprint, Golddigga Entertainment and began recording her second album entitled “Diva“, released in 2007.

Keldamuzik created and hosted her own reality TV series called “Diva TV” as a promotion vehicle for all of her releases and videos. Diva TV aired on over 25 public access stations across the San Francisco Bay Area, and received 100,000 viewers weekly. The program showcased the life of Diva aka Keldamuzik and her weekly exploits through Bay Area Hip Hop culture, special features and interviews include celebrities such as T.I., Diddy, Young Jeezy, Keenan Thompson, DJ Kid Capri, Biz Markie, Ice T and many more.

In 2009 Keldamuzik had her first taste of Hollywood after having her song “Weight Up” placed in Sony Pictures “Please Give” starring Catherine Keener and Amanda Peete, which was released in theaters nationwide later that year. Going forward Keldamuzik’s “Squash it” an anti-violence song was also licensed in MTV’s Real World San Diego, episode 8 and in Oxygen Channel’s, “Bad Girls Club“.

In 2010 Diva released her third album “Diva TV – The Album” and her hit single “Thirsty” spent 5 weeks on Australia’s Kiss FM’s top 10 chart. Thinking “outside the box” Diva networked and created “The Bay Meets Barbados” tour where she opened for Reggae artist Kirk Brown for several shows on the island of Barbados. Later, she headlined “The Bay Meet St. Maarten” tour for a string of shows; all of the above doing wonders for her Caribbean and International fanbase. In 2011 Keldamuzik started “The Cultural Exchange Tour” in which she opened for Jah Cure at the Heroes Music Festival and appeared on Good Morning Antigua twice.

In 2012 Diva performed and toured with R&B sensation Lloyd in Tokyo Japan for the Summer Music Festival which also featured rappers such as YC, J-lie and Kid Ink. In 2013 Diva’s music was entered into Pandora and to follow up she has performed at Yoshi’s in San Francisco and Las Vegas’s Hard Rock Hotel.

Aside from many of the major success she’s had, a special feature of Diva was published in the Examiner.com. She is now an unofficial spokesperson for Oakland’s very own clothing line Skylier Wear and has modeled for start up jewelry company by Bracelet Bizar.

DIVA (Keldamuzik) ft. Eddi Projex – I Don’t Care

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igJd8Ft-50w

DIVA (Keldamuzik) – Queen For A Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbwIBlLSucY

DIVA (Keldamuzik) – Power Trip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M414H7gm_mc

Below is a list of 500 Female Emcees and the first thing that everyone reading this should know is that the list is not complete. To be honest there’s more than 500 names, much more, but still the list is not complete nor will it ever be. There are too many places and spaces that I have never been nor have the incredible artists like Aisha Fukashima the Raptivist, Mad-lines, Aima the Dreamer, Raw G, Ximbo, Invincible and D’Labrie who over the past year contributed greatly to this list.

The list is not complete even as we have other wonderful lists like; the Illest Female Rappers, Women of Hip Hop, Female Rappers Tumblir, The Female Rappers Network or more recently Patrick McNease‘s Ultimate Female Emcee List. If we really think about it, we don’t want this or any list to be complete. There will always be more emcees to add as long as this culture call Hip Hop is alive, well and is global. If the list stops growing Hip Hop stops growing..

With that being said, the reason why the list came about in the first place was out of frustration and a realization that many within this industry , in particular my male brethren needed to be enlightened.

It was a frustration that many of my women friends within Hip Hop were having when they would hear some pompous music critic or ‘industry expert’ say some ignorant crap like; ‘all women sound the same‘ or ‘these women need to put out hit songs‘, women need to grind harder and promote themselves better or ‘there aren’t a lot of quality women emcees out there‘. All those statements are gross generalizations and reflect a laziness on the part of those making the claim or extreme bias.

The frustration many were feeling was one that would come after hearing announcement after announcement for some huge mega-Cochella-Sumer-Jam-Rock-the-Bells-Spring-Bling type concert that would feature 20 plus acts and only one woman would be on the bill. It was frustration that was felt after pointing out such egregious oversights only to be ignored and ridiculed.

It was the frustration of hearing promoters doing smaller shows claiming that women won’t attract an audience and hence would not be a sound business move even to have one open up a show.

It was frustration of going to a club featuring a popular deejay lauded for being a Hip Hop icon with a reputation for ‘digging in the crates’ and turning audiences onto new music from far off lands and forgotten times only to discover that they rarely dig in crates and ‘discover’ a dope female emcee…

And don’t get it twisted, this refusal to share space has been going on a for a while and many women have expressed frustration the ones I know have not been sitting around waiting for miracles to occur. Many have started doing their own shows and put on vibrant events..From Invincible out of Detroit who I saw do several all women showcases at SXSW and have them packed with lines out the door to Aisha the Raptivist who has traveled the world and and done her own tours to Raw G who promotes here in the Bay Area locally and always brings out incredible women emcees like Alika from Argentina Dunay Surez from Cuba or Ximbo from Mexico, folks are steady grinding and making moves

Where I think folks are getting short changed are in male dominated spaces where female voices, POV and approaches toward Hip Hop are not readily present. Its a cipher that’s incomplete and that has got to change.
The list below was ideally to serve as a guide of sorts to anyone who had this female emcee blind spot.

Its a guide for started yapping about there ain’t no good female emcees hence they couldn’t rock any during a deejay set or mixshow.. Out of all the emcees featured on this list there are are some hard hitters out there they can not and will not be denied.

The list below is guide for promoters who say there’s no market out there for women emcees. A quick look at some of the folks on this list crushes that assertion down to its very last compound. No matter what city. No matter what country, there are emcees listed for you to check out.. From Brooklyn to Oakland to Russia to new Zealand to Pakistan and beyond..

The list is a guide for academic types who can speak at length about male artists over various eras in Hip Hop but when it comes time to referencing women, they only know MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Nicki Minaj.. This list is for them to check out and help exapnd their hip hop vocabulary. Try referencing dynamic artists like; Sa-Roc, Stahhr, Rocky Rivera, Shadia Mansour, Keny Arkana, Cihuatl Ce, Kellee Maize or Farrah Burns. Rock their songs, play their videos, examine their lyrics

The way the list works is each name is linked to a video and in a few cases to a sound cloud page.. Some of the names are linked to 3 Dope Song series page or a 500 Female Emcee page. In putting this list together it was noted that one song or video often didn’t do artists justice. They are much more complex. As you will note I included in the list some singers who and spoke word artists whose presence and influence in Hip Hop can not be denied. They can’t be easily categorized.

It’s hoped that folks will peep the music, read about the artists click on the links associated with them and start digitally digging in the crates. Not everyone is gonna be great. Not everyone is gonna have a masterpiece of a song or album, but many will and as lovers and protectors of this culture we all should be pushing ourselves to do a better job bringing forth ‘new finds’ vs having it be dictated to us by corporate interests and their mouth pieces.

-Davey D-

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