Beverly McIver’s portraits are haunting. The faces that stare from the canvas and paper are quiet and weighty, layered with emotions and an ongoing internal dialogue that speaks from each stroke of paint or pencil. Filled with the sort of insight into the conflicted heart and chattering mind of the human subject that makes art essential to our existence, McIver’s portraits speak volumes in the most subtle and quiet tones.
WARNING: Parental Advisory! Some tracks contain explicit lyrics!
Where are all the really dope female emcees? was the sparking question that ignited this Spring 2012 edition of TRIBES Magazine. While it became apparent immediately that some purveyors of pop music and commercial hip hop may want us to believe that there aren’t many worthwhile women out there rapping today, make no mistake! Women have not fled the Hip Hop game. They are out there rapping for their lives and, if the eager response to TRIBES Magazine’s search for the most talented female rappers on the indie scene is any indication, they are steady on the grind and very much a part of Hip Hop’s future. Nearly two-dozen artist submissions and fifty tracks later, TRIBES has compiled a Top 5 from the nominations. From shoe fetishes to paper stacking, loving their children to sexing their men, being independent and maintaining their faith in a higher power, these women rap about life, their dreams and the communities that gave rhythm to their flows and taught them about love. Not marginalized figures or victims raging against the power machine, these ladies are perfectly confident in their right to rap and cleat about their place in a seat at the Hip Hop table. Step outside of the mainstream box and meet 5 Female Emcees beating the heart of Hip Hop from the underground. Featuring the hot new single, “On My Diva” by NC’s Queen of Hip Hop, SHELLY B.,; KRISTEN B. and KARINA LOPEZ bring the New York flavor; southern raps’ LADY CAM from Texas, ACE REIGN representing Chocolate City, and Greensboro’s own TREZURE are also featured! DOWNLOAD FREE!
An emotive and dynamic emcee seasoned in the Tar Heel state, TreZure growls when she raps to announce the coming of a new Hip Hop movement.
Engaging the dungeon sound as a rebel “…rapper with a cause…,” TreZure is on a mission to create something exciting and fresh to reinvigorate fans bored with a genre stagnating in the mainstream. A pillar of the Greensboro Hip Hop and NC Indie Hip Hop scene, where she has more than paid her dues and diligently studied her craft, TreZure, aka Widow, seems ready to explode onto the main stage and give us something that will make fans genuinely want to get up and raise their hands. trezureakawidow.com
If you consider yourself a rap purest, you’ll love the NY flavor of Manhattan-native Karina Lopez.
True to her roots, Lopez’s sound is fresh, a little gritty and channeling an era before rap and pop music were bosom buddies. Taking on the legacy of artists like Rah Digga, Lopez is a pure lyricist, mixing short hooks and tight samples from the old skool with new jack truisms. An author, poet, writer and lyricist, Lopez has been creating since age 11 and, today, she’s on a mission, making a name for female emcees while challenging her peers to step up their rap game.
Equal parts emcee, philosopher, and storyteller, ACE REIGN is an artist from Washington D.C. who is unafraid to speak to and from the real world.
Earnest with a passion for tackling life’s tough questions, ACE REIGN is an urban griot reaching out to the lonely, the angry, the desperate, with a salve for their struggles; and in her own practice of personal reflection and catharsis.
Disinterested in the trappings of the material world, ACE REIGN’s lyrics deal more with humanity, communicating identity, experiences, and the pursuit of spirituality and nobler states of being. “Making music is a way to vent my thoughts and emotions…” she explains and freed from the tethers of champagne dreams, ACE REIGN’s distinctive voice
and perspective, readiness to collaborate with like-minded emcees, and depth of artistry and production in her music, will continue to generate music that connects with fans and promises to set ACE REIGN apart from the pack. REVERBNATION.COM/ACEREIGN
Where are all the really dope female emcees? was the sparking question that ignited this Spring 2012 edition of TRIBES Magazine. While it became apparent immediately that some purveyors of pop music and commercial hip hop may want us to believe that there aren’t many worthwhile women out there rapping today, make no mistake! Women have not fled the Hip Hop game. They are out there rapping for their lives and, if the eager response to TRIBES Magazine’s search for the most talented female rappers on the indie scene is any indication, they are steady on the grind and very much a part of Hip Hop’s future. Nearly two-dozen artist submissions and fifty tracks later, TRIBES has compiled a Top 5 from the nominations. From shoe fetishes to paper stacking, loving their children to sexing their men, being independent and maintaining their faith in a higher power, these women rap about life, their dreams and the communities that gave rhythm to their flows and taught them about love. Not marginalized figures or victims raging against the power machine, these ladies are perfectly confident in their right to rap and cleat about their place in a seat at the Hip Hop table.
Step outside of the mainstream box and meet 5 Female Emcees beating the heart of Hip Hop from the underground. Featuring the hot new single, “On My Diva” by NC’s Queen of Hip Hop, SHELLY B.,; KRISTEN B. and KARINA LOPEZ bring the New York flavor; southern raps’ LADY CAM from Texas, ACE REIGN representing Chocolate City, and Greensboro’s own TREZURE are also featured!
Don’t let the petit frame fool you. LADY CAM’s got huge rapping chops and she is not afraid to flaunt them.Hailing from Dallas, Texas, where everything is BIG, especially the bravado, LADY CAM’s southern rap style is cocky, yet girlish and when LADY CAM spits, you’ve got to bounce. Her use of words as instrument and precise percussion is as infectious as Kanye’s or Busta’s with a country twang. A hidden treasure in the rolling wave of Southern rap, she is definitely an emcee to watch in 2012. Sure, she’ll remind you she’s a lady. Then she’ll destroy the competition in any cypher while holding her own in the male-saturated rap industry. Visit ILOVELADYCAM.COM
The votes are in! Lauryn Hill is your all-time favorite female rapper, with Missy Elliott coming in 2nd and Nicki Minaj rolling in at no 3.
The poll results were mixed with old and new school favorites, along with popular independent artists, like Kin4Life, being shown some love in the TRIBES poll.
Get the full survey breakdown in the SPRING 2012 WOMEN IN HIP HOP ISSUE coming soon! Check out the results!
She’s sexy, stylish and stacking paper on the regular!
An eighties baby from Queens, NY, Kristen B. was heavily influenced by the music and major movements in Hip Hop born in her city. A natural on the mic, Kristen B. uses her smooth raps to talk about the good life, purveying that perfect mix of penthouse and street emblematic of the NY sound, to stand as good as the best of them at cataloging the essentials of Hip Hop extravagance in the VIP room at the nightclub and the shops on Madison Avenue. Kristen B. exemplifies the glamourous days of rap’s golden age, ruled by the queens like Lil Kim and Foxy Brown. In 2012, she is more than just high-end, new-millennium, eye-candy. She brings a sleek and sexy lyricism back to Hip Hop that’s still uniquely her own and with the support of her cadre of loyal fans, this delicious sound and glitter are so ready for the video countdown, they’re sure to carry Kristen B. on to major mainstream success. Visit KRISTENBMUSIC.COM.
I was seven years old when I met Salt and Pepa. My mom bought me an apple-red My First Sony and a cassette copy of their 1988 album, A Salt with A Deadly Pepa, for the sixteen-hour road trip to Georgia with my Aunt Carolyn and a bucket of cold fried chicken. That car ride with two princess pioneers of the Hip Hop movement and the hours I’ve spent in the years since, chanting their rhymes and living the word of female emcees like our winner, Lauryn Hill, and others like Lil Kim (the baddest b’ on Mobb Deep’s “Quiet Storm”), Queen Latifah (“Who you callin’ a bitch!?”), and my personal all-time favorite, Rah Digga, gave me something very special that carried me through the insecurities of adolescence, the difficult teenage years and on into the present.
As purposeful as everything my mother did for me then, that gift of audacious role models, speaking boldly from the margins was invaluable. Salt and Pepa and the women that picked up the mantle of Hip Hop and helped carry it onto worldwide popularity were in their very being progressive, political, feminist, and committed to opening doors not only closed for women in the music industry but for women and marginalized people in society-at-large.
We honor these iconic women and the artists that carry on their legacy in the Spring 2012: Women in Hip Hop edition of TRIBES Magazine, featuring SHELLY B and TRIBES Top 5 FEMALE EMCEES to Watch,because they were groundbreakers that did things never before done (like talking about sex on MTV in frank terms to curb the epic scourge of AIDS on the nineties). They found transcendence over sexism, racism, homophobia, and social disenfranchisement through Hip Hop, not in spite of it, and, contrary to popular notions about misogyny and rap music, they teach us that Hip Hop was never a boys club and assert that the Hip Hop community has always welcomed them and supported their art. I hope you will too.
WARNING: Parental Advisory! Some tracks contain explicit lyrics!
In celebration of our coming SPRING 2012 Issue (available March 2012), TRIBES Magazinepresents the2012 ALL FEMALE HIP HOP MIXTAPE, featuring some of the hottest female rappers on the scene today.
Where are all the really dope female emcees? was the sparking question that ignited this Spring 2012 edition of TRIBES Magazine. While it became apparent immediately that some purveyors of pop music and commercial hip hop may want us to believe that there aren’t many worthwhile women out there rapping today, make no mistake! Women have not fled the Hip Hop game. They are out there rapping for their lives and, if the eager response to TRIBES Magazine’s search for the most talented female rappers on the indie scene is any indication, they are steady on the grind and very much a part of Hip Hop’s future. Nearly two-dozen artist submissions and fifty tracks later, TRIBES has compiled a Top 5 from the nominations. From shoe fetishes to paper stacking, loving their children to sexing their men, being independent and maintaining their faith in a higher power, these women rap about life, their dreams and the communities that gave rhythm to their flows and taught them about love. Not marginalized figures or victims raging against the power machine, these ladies are perfectly confident in their right to rap and cleat about their place in a seat at the Hip Hop table.
Step outside of the mainstream box and meet 5 Female Emcees beating the heart of Hip Hop from the underground. Featuring the hot new single, “On My Diva” by NC’s Queen of Hip Hop, SHELLY B.,; KRISTEN B. and KARINA LOPEZ bring the New York flavor; southern raps’ LADY CAM from Texas, ACE REIGN representing Chocolate City, and Greensboro’s own TREZURE are also featured!
WATCH THE QUEEN OF NORTH CAROLINA HIP HOP,SHELLY B.! Get the exclusive interview and photo shoot with TRIBES MAGAZINE for the coming SPRING 2012 issue in celebration of Women’s History Month and WOMEN IN HIP HOP! Watch for more details to the HOTTEST TRIBES issue yet – Spring 2012 TRIBES Magazine, the WOMEN IN HIP HOP ISSUE – coming March 2012.
The votes are in! Lauryn Hill is your all-time favorite female rapper, with Missy Elliott coming in 2nd and Nicki Minaj rolling in at no 3.
The poll results were mixed with old and new school favorites, along with popular independent artists, like Kin4Life, being shown some love in the TRIBES poll.
Get the full survey breakdown in the SPRING 2012 WOMEN IN HIP HOP ISSUE coming soon! Check out the results!
I sat at the kitchen table with my spouse, ears glued to Democracy Now on 90.7 WNCU. “Just five nations in the world are responsible for 90% of all executions- China, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.” The phone rings. It’s my mother calling simply to call out. “We’re so busy trying to keep our heads above water, we can’t focus our attention on social change.” (“Some would say that’s the point,” is my only response).
Amy Goodman continues her broadcast of the vigil and sorrowful countdown outside of the Georgia Diagnostic Prison where Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled for execution tonight, Wednesday September 21 at 7 pm while NAACP banners and Rev. Al shout “Too much doubt!” and the anti-death penalty activists cry at the horror of state-sponsored murder,death-on-schedule by lethal injection, and pockets in the crowd begging us all to “give peace a chance.” I cry too, listening to the fear and sorrow in the voices of the family, the citizens, activists, mentors, ministers, and neighbors that have become a part of the Davis family community, and all of the world citizens listening to the broadcast and praying for our collective soul. Read More Now…
I sat at the kitchen table with my spouse, ears glued to Democracy Now on 90.7 WNCU. “Just five nations in the world are responsible for 90% of all executions- China, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.” The phone rings. It’s my mother calling simply to call out. “We’re so busy trying to keep our heads above water, we can’t focus our attention on social change.” (“Some would say that’s the point,” is my only response).
Amy Goodman continues her broadcast of the vigil and sorrowful countdown outside of the Georgia Diagnostic Prison where Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled for execution tonight, Wednesday September 21 at 7 pm while NAACP banners and Rev. Al shout “Too much doubt!” and the anti-death penalty activists cry at the horror of state-sponsored murder,death-on-schedule by lethal injection, and pockets in the crowd begging us all to “give peace a chance.” I cry too, listening to the fear and sorrow in the voices of the family, the citizens, activists, mentors, ministers, and neighbors that have become a part of the Davis family community, and all of the world citizens listening to the broadcast and praying for our collective soul. Read More Now…
TRIBES Magazine jams with Ryan “RyMo” Moran, drummer for Slightly Stoopid, and gets the real scoop on San Diego’s most blazin’ reggae rock band, stoopidheads and decriminalizing marijuana in America. Interview by Leslie Cunningham (2010).
