Nastier As They Wanna Be: Dirty Rap’s New Generation

This piece originally appeared on August 10, 2023 in Sound Signal, our biweekly newsletter that identifies emerging artists, scenes, and trending tracks, crafted by the world's best writers and curators. Sign up here to never miss our take on what's next in music.

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Fifty years after hip-hop’s inception, sex remains an enduring tradition—but those leading the conversation have changed. Miami bass rap group 2 Live Crew made dirty rap mainstream, marrying bass-heavy beats with crude sexual humor. In the wake of their popularity, prominent male rappers followed suit, building successful careers about their sexual conquests and often objectifying women. As women transitioned from the background to center stage, bedroom banter was told from their perspectives.

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From Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown’s brazen, explicit rhymes to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s boasts on sexuality and pleasure in their hit 2020 collaboration, “WAP,” female rappers' exploration of eroticism is not only a means of selling records. For many, it is an act of resistance to patriarchal attitudes upheld in hip-hop and society at large.

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A new raunchy crop of female emcees are carrying the torch, blending profane freestyles over catchy trap beats, subverting a history in hip-hop that was largely reserved for men—and St. Louis provocateur Sexyy Red is leading the pack.

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Thanks to her cheeky, unfiltered style and TikTok engagement, Sexyy Red’s meteoric rise is owed to the down-right lewd lyricism of her Tay Keith-produced breakout hit, "Pound Town.” In May, she enlisted Nicki Minaj for the equally bawdy remix, "Pound Town 2," only widening her reach. Its meme-friendly, sex-positive lyrics caused a stir across social media, helping the remix secure 17.93M Spotify streams and 3.1M additional monthly listeners. Both the song and video are viral sensations on social media, especially on TikTok with over 88K posts on the platform since July.

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Still, she’s far from a one-hit wonder. In June, the rapper released “SkeeYee” and “Looking For The Hoes (Ain’t My Fault)” in June. Amassing 7.71M streams on Spotify already, the former is seeing an uptick in engagement among TikTok users with 216K posts globally. The latter is building high momentum on Spotify and TikTok with 2.5M streams and 263.7M views respectively.

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Sexyy Red’s success represents a shift in rap; what was once only profitable for men is no longer a lane they thrive in.

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