Hot 21 Radio

Veteran Hip Hop journalist and television executive Kim Osorio was born and raised in the Bronx at a time when Hip Hop was just starting to flourish.

Pete Davidson Brags About Being In Bed With Kim Kardashian In Leaked Kanye West Texts Instagram Former 'Source' Editor-In-Chief Kim Osorio Applauds Women In Hip Hop But Says There's A 'Long Way To Go' Published on:Mar 30, 2022, 6:10 PM by 1 Exclusive March is Womens History Month and there hasnt been too much coverage surrounding womens invaluable contributions to Hip Hop. From Cynthia Campbell who threw the infamous Back To School Jam with her brother Kool Hercin 1973 to Sugar Hill Records founder Sylvia Robinson, women have been there since the beginning, breathing life into the culture and propelling it to the position its in today. Now the biggest genre in the world, Hip Hop has transcended any doubt it was nothing more than a fad. Veteran Hip Hop journalist and television executive Kim Osoriowas born and raised in the Bronx at a time when Hip Hop was just starting to flourish. It was all around her and she knew she wanted to be a part of it at a young age. Memorizing every word to Roxanne Shants Roxannes Revenge was like homework back then and Osorio was an eager student ready to learn. The beats really appealed to me, she tells HipHopDX in a recent interview. I did all of that stuff in the streets with Hip Hop that we all did growing up. But there was a time where the music, beats and lyrics started to speak to me differently than just your average coming up in the Bronx. No, theres something here that Im identifying with more than just, This is Hip Hop around me.' As for Roxannes Revenge, Osorio says she wrote the lyrics down because it was a girl. She continues, That was big to me. I dont know another Hip Hop fan at that time in it as deep as I was that didnt write those lyrics down and recite them. So you had to know that record. When you went to school the next day, you got to know the lyrics. Shant was only 14 when she wrote the track, but the fact she was also a girl going up against the popular 80s rap group U.T.F.O. was unheard of she was simply way ahead of her time. It blows my mind that a lot of female artists were as young as they were when they were thrust into the space and especially in the way that they had to come into it with the male crews, Osorio says. When you think of Shant, when you think of Kim, when you think of Foxy , their age and the things they were spitting in their rhymes now as a mother of 21 and 15 year old, I feel like something as influential as Hip Hop can force our girls to have to grow up too fast. But thats what they were. And all of us, we were exposed to that at that age. The 1991 single Poor Georgie by MC Lyte is a perfect example. Lyte was 21 when she wrote the song and bravely tackled addiction, domestic violence and dysfunctional relationships. While rap has certainly seen an uprising of women in the space, there are very few spitting with that kind of substance. But that doesnt mean there hasnt been progress. As Osorio points out, women in Hip Hop are putting up impressive sales numbers. You think of how well female artists have done, so thats a barrier that theyve broken, she says. I dont know if it took a longer time back in the day before someone went platinum or someone had this amount of streams. I dont know. But I would say that the appetite that people have for a female POV and Hip Hop is through the success of the artists that we have. So I feel like thats a barrier that was broken. Also, women being in charge of their own business. I think were seeing a lot more of that these days than we ever saw. Women who are out there in the space and theres not a man standing right behind that woman like, Im responsible for her, no matter how brilliant she is. Read more