Women rappers shatter glass ceiling with their high-pitched voices to claim their due

In the world of rap music, where stereotypes speak louder than your talent and where it is vocally considered to be owned by men, now it’s about time for the queens of rap to make their voices heard and claim their due.

Talent has been pouring in for the last few years with young women coming into the limelight and rapping their way up the ladder of success. Still, making a mark in the so-called man's world is no cakewalk even if it means you are a woman who can rap.

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Thanks to the easy access to internet and social media platforms, where uploading one's talent without leaving it to Lady Luck help you find an opportunity, many women rappers have been identified and lauded for their impeccable contribution to music.

Rapper Cardi B gestures to the media during an event.

Women were prominent players in rap's formative years -- the fierce list includes Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim, Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah – and set the stage for future generations, leaving an indelible mark on hip-hop's DNA.

But if the 1990s saw women carve out room to shine, the 2000s saw them pushed aside, with labels fumbling to survive as illegal music downloads began upending standard procedure.

"The industry took a nosedive – when it came to cutting the costs of everything, of course women were the ones who felt it the hardest," said Kathy Landoli, whose recent book "God Save The Queens" details the trajectory of women in rap.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, dozens of women rappers were signed to major labels at any given time, but by 2010, the number hovered at around three, according to the documentary "My Mic Sounds Nice: The Truth About Women in Hip Hop."

Rapper Nicki Minaj poses for the media.

Major Minaj

Still, there was no shortage of innovation coming from artists even if labels weren't supporting them.

"Napster made record companies lose their minds, but it created a very strong underground," Landoli said of the pioneering music-sharing service.

"It set up the ability to create a career in a way that had never been done before, because people weren't so hellbent on getting a label."

Nicki Minaj, a provocative walking work of art with a lightning-speed flow, burst onto the scene in 2010 and began changing the game.

"She was the first female hip-hop artist to really break through during that lull," Landoli said of the Trinidadian-born artist from Queens.

Minaj – who announced her retirement from rap last year, though fans are sceptical – herself has claimed credit for "reintroducing the successful female rapper back to pop culture."

Thanks to the Internet

The post-Minaj world features a growing pantheon including, but not limited to,America's sassy brash sweetheart Cardi B, hardcore hottie Megan Thee Stallion, punk head-banger Rico Nasty, the fast-rising duo City Girls and surrealist auteur Tierra Whack.

Queens rapper Dai Burger said platforms like the video-streaming service YouTube and the DIY discovery site SoundCloud – not to mention Instagram's self-promotion powers – opened a wealth of possibilities for women shunned by mainstream labels.

"Back in the 90s and the early 2000s, to be an artist, you had to have a big major label pushing for your video to be on TV," she told AFP at her recording studio in Brooklyn.

"The internet... gave us an unfiltered chance to do what we wanted," said the statuesque artist with sparkling nail extensions, luxurious scarlet hair and leather overalls.