Mobbin In Heels: Not Forgetting About Womyn in Hip Hop

Much has changed for the presence of female emcees since the days of Sha-Rock (I know I’m taking it way back), but the struggle for respect remains nearly impossible. None of my reflections can pin-point the reason why no female emcee has managed to have the world-wide success of Kanye West, for example. These thoughts come to mind in light of new unsigned hype from Baltimore, Mobbin Morty. Her prosperous embodiment of a hardcore leafy persona—the type of Hip Hop reminiscent of Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y and Dom Kennedy—has me in awe. She does me one better though, her ownership of female sexuality flows interchangeably with her grassy stilo. Hands down she offers way more lyrically than Lil Kim, so I wonder if her music can take her where no female emcee has ever gone.

At one line she’s like, “I get a little sad when my blunt comes to an end” (Calamari) and then flipmode, “aint nothin’ wrong with a cheetah print thong/I twerk it for my daddy when he smoking marijuannnn” (Chimpanzee). Smoking doesn’t place Morty in the classic secondary role, of being the girl with a pothead boyfriend. Totally flipping the script, Morty interacts with the blunt in a way that most guys can relate to; she plays the role of the chief, liberating herself from simply preparing the broccoli and looking cute.  Despite the banal problems of sexuality that she advances—patriarchal terms like “daddy”—you can get a sense that Morty has a mature understanding of pure relationships. Rather than an internalization of male pressure, Morty decides for herself what she is willing to contribute for a mutually satisfying relationship.

In the stories of Mobbin Morty we get a return to the experience of female youth without portrayals of penis envy, while she delimits her participation in “masculine” domains—cannabis culture, trap beats, etc. Sit back and watch the evolution of feminine hip hop with me. Download Morty’s new mixtape, Back to the Blunt (BTTB).