This is something I should have mentioned in a previous post when I was addressing my problems with dancehall artistes but it’s just as well
as this is an issue that is present in other genres of music- typically urban male-dominated
ones where hyper masculinity and bravado are celebrated. The topic of this post
is the phenomenon of “The First Lady” in a crew or group of musicians. It’s a
title that is supposedly to inspire thoughts and feelings of royalty and garner
respect but I see it as a ploy to keep women out of real positions of
dominance, to quell any real chances of a takeover or of there being a level
playing field.
There’s the saying, if you can’t beat them, join them. Men
in the music industry have remixed that and turned it to “To ensure we don’t
have to beat them, include and insulate them.” Once a crew had a First Lady, that’s
usually it- no more ladies are welcome unless she drops out. They make it seem
like such a privilege to be deemed the first lady of their prestigious crew
that the women given these titles don’t even realize the competitive and
cantankerous attitudes that this practice fosters within the women themselves.
Or maybe they realize and they just don’t give a damn. I get it, it’s hard to
make it in dancehall and hip hop for a woman and any advantage that an aspiring
female star can get, she’s likely to take especially if she has been working
hard for long with no significant results. But is every helping hand offered to
you THAT helpful in the long run, ladies?
