When Nicki Minaj first took home the BET Award for best female hip-hop artist, the 2010s had just begun, Barack Obama was enjoying the halfway point of his presidential term, and the Queens rapper was mere months away from unleashing Pink Friday, her much-anticipated debut studio album, upon the world.
The 2010 race was Minaj’s to lose; her fellow nominees — while all talented in their own rights — simply could not match the “Bedrock” breakout star’s momentum. Ester Dean, an instrumental collaborator on Minaj’s 2011 hit “Super Bass,” could only boast the Chris Brown-featuring “Drop It Low” as her sole single as a lead artist going into the June 2010 ceremony. Lil’ Kim, who picked up three prior nominations in this category between 2001 and 2006, had not released a studio album in five years, due to her finishing out her prison sentence. Rasheeda was coming off her first Billboard 200-charting album, Certified Hot Chick (No. 89), but she was nowhere near the burgeoning crossover sensation that Minaj was at the time. Finally, Trina headed into the race off the strength of her No. 13-peaking Amazin’ album, and she had not placed a single as a lead artist on the Hot 100 in half a decade. Minaj, who was riding high on massively successful singles like Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad” and her own “Your Love,” was the inevitable victor.
Nicki Minaj’s 2010 best female hip-hop artist victory was the beginning of seven consecutive years of domination. While she faced formidable opponents in some of those years (Azealia Banks, Iggy Azalea, Young M.A., and DeJ Loaf among them), Minaj just as often faced competitors that were laughably out of her league in terms of commercial and cultural impact. Take her 2011 victory against “B.B. (Boss Bitch)” rapper LoLa Monroe, or her triumph the following year over “Shake It to the Ground” rapper Rye Rye. Nicki’s victories became so predictable that her “fake surprised” reactions to her wins became a running jokeon social media.
Even before Nicki’s streak began, however, the best female hip-hop artist category was in something of a drought. The category was suspended for the 2007 ceremony, and the 2009 ceremony boasted just three nominees in the category. In the years following her streak, Minaj remained a fixture in the category, but faced heartier competition from the likes of Remy Ma (who won in 2017), Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion (both of whom have bested Minaj twice in the past five years).
This year’s lineup, which features seven of the most successful and defining women in contemporary hip-hop — the largest number of nominees the category has seen in its 22-year existence — is a far cry from the uneven playing field of 2010. In fact, it is a lineup where, for the first time in some years, every nominee is a genuinely plausible winner. Comprised of Minaj, Cardi B, Coi Leray, Ice Spice, GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion and Latto, this year’s best female hip-hop artist lineup boasts a rising generation of female rap talent, as well as the two now-iconic artists who helped paved the way for them.
The bulk of this year’s nominees are the progeny of a combination of Minaj’s Top 40 navigation skills and Cardi B’s social media savvy, making them worthy competitors to the two previous victors. Moreover, this year’s lineup reveals the ways in which hip-hop’s emphasis on regionality has helped bolster the simultaneous sustained mainstream success of multiple female rappers, after so many years where a single artist towered over the conversation, for better or for worse.
Ahead of this Sunday’s BET Awards, Billboard breaks down the resumes of this historic group of best female hip-hop artist nominees and their respective cases for taking home this award.
GloRilla
Image Credit: Aviva Klein
Reigning as the most-nominated female artist of this year’s ceremony, GloRilla is looking to take home her very first BET Award from one of her six nominations. With nominations for album of the year (Anyway, Life’s Great), video of the year (the Cardi B-assisted “Tomorrow 2”), and best collaboration (“Tomorrow 2” and the Hitkidd-produced “F.N.F.”), the Grammy-nominated rapper will likely have a very successful night come June 25. Last year, she won best new artist at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, and since last year’s main BET Awards ceremony, GloRilla has maintained her streak of success. Outside of the mammoth twin singles “F.N.F.” and “Tomorrow 2,” GloRilla also made waves with “Blessed,” her most recent solo single “Lick Or Sum” and the prickly Moneybagg Yo collaboration “On What U On,” which reached a peak of No. 56 on the Hot 100.
Sporting a gruffer tone and disposition that stands out from the dominant hyperfeminine aesthetic of contemporary mainstream female rap, GloRilla adds an important splash of contrast to the scene. As Memphis experiences a pivotal moment on the national hip-hop stage, GloRilla has emerged as female rap’s answer to the runaway success of her peers such as Moneybagg Yo and NLE Choppa. A successor of sorts to the late Gangsta Boo, GloRilla has been on an incredible run since “F.N.F.” became last year’s unofficial summer anthem, and she’s looking to pick up some more hardware along the way.
Cardi B
The Bronx superstar has already won this award twice, and this year she could add a third best female hip-hop artist trophy to her shelf. Several years removed from her status as hip-hop’s hottest new star (who can forget the meteoric rise of “Bodak Yellow” six summers ago?), Cardi enters this year’s race in a significantly different position. For one, even though she has yet to release her sophomore studio album, Cardi has already started acting as one of the genre’s elder stateswomen. She lent her touch to GloRilla’s “Tomorrow 2” and lifted the breakout rapper to her highest Hot 100 peak yet, while her appearance on the remix to Latto’s “Put It on da Floor” rocketed the song to No. 13 on the Hot 100, after it had struggled to chart for several weeks. She has also thrown her support behind other up-and-coming female rappers such as Scar Lip and Maiya The Don.
Cardi is also entering this year’s race intimately in tune with the sound of her hometown. With last year’s “Shake It,” Cardi plunged headfirst into Bronx drill alongside Kay Flock, Dougie B, and Bory300. The raw record became the first Hot 100 entry for Dougie B and Bory300, and the highest-charting song of Kay Flock’s career so far. With six career BET Award victories to her credit, and additional nominations this year for video of the year and best collaboration (both for “Tomorrow 2”), a Cardi B victory come June 25 would be as logical as it would be deserved.
Ice Spice
Image Credit: Christian Cody
There is no way to have a conversation about female rap in 2023, or popular music in general, without mentioning Ice Spice. After taking over social media with “Munch” late last summer, the Bronx native has since exploded as one of the year’s most popular artists.
In January, she unleashed her debut EP, Like..? Titled after one of her trademark ad-libs, the EP boasted additional minor hits such as “Bikini Bottom” and “In Ha Mood,” her first (and to date, only) unaccompanied entry on the Hot 100 (No. 58). Ice then followed up the release of her debut studio project with a series of world-conquering collaborations. “Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2” (with PinkPantheress) made it to the top three in the U.S. and U.K., a Nicki Minaj-assisted rework of Ice’s “Princess Diana” debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100, and a controversial remix of Taylor Swift’s “Karma” landed at No. 2 in the States. Ice Spice currently boasts the most Hot 100 top five hits out of any artist this year; her momentum going into next week’s ceremony is comparable to that of Nicki’s in 2010, Cardi’s in 2018 and Megan’s in 2020.
With rapturous love across the Internet, a hold on Gen Z unlike any of her peers, and a slew of undeniable smash hits, Ice Spice probably has the best shot at winning this award this year. The young rapper’s poppier take on Bronx drill has helped test the commercial limits of the sound, and her New York slang has already been instrumental in adding new phrases and words to the greater cultural lexicon. Should the “Gangsta Boo” rapper emerge victorious, she would be the first artist to win in this category on their first nomination since Nicki herself back in 2010. Such an outcome would be quite the full-circle moment: The two New York rap queens are set to unveil “Barbie World,” their second official collaboration, this Friday, June 23, and Minaj has affectionately dubbed Ice the “princess” to her “queen.” Ice Spice earned three other nominations at this year’s ceremony including best new artist, so a win in this category is certainly on the table.
Coi Leray
Coi Leray has come a long way since she first took over TikTok with idiosyncratic trap-inflected bangers like “No More Parties,” “Twinne,” and “Big Purr.” As documented in her Rap Caviar episode, the “Blick Blick” rapper has overcome intense online bullying over her body, image and sound. After facing ridicule for the underwhelming commercial performance of her debut studio album, last year’s No. 89-peaking Billboard 200 hit Trendsetter, Coi hit the studio and returned with the highest-peaking unaccompanied bit from a female rapper so far this year: the Hot 100 top ten hit “Players.”
The beauty of the success of “Players” is that Coi has been able to harness the explosive commerciality of Jersey club — thanks to the song’s DJ Smallz 732 remix — while having an authentic claim to the sound and culture. Raised in Hackensack, New Jersey, it is kind of poetic that Coi Leray arguably became the first female rapper to score a legitimate crossover Jersey club hit. Coi scored her first nod in this category back in 2021, and this year, she picked up a BET Her Award nomination for “Players.” With her sophomore studio album due just two days before the June 25 ceremony, Coi could very well ride her momentum all the way to the first major award of her career.
Latto
Image Credit: Ssam Kim
After taking home best new artist at last year’s ceremonies, Latto added two more nominations to her overall total. This year, the Atlanta rapper is nominated for best female hip-hop artist and best collaboration, for her “Big Energy” remix with DJ Khaled and Mariah Carey.
Latto’s big ticket going into this year’s race is obviously her latest hit single “Put It on da Floor Again,” but she had a consistent year beyond that song. As she continues to prep her third studio album, Latto collaborated with Chlöe on “For the Night,” earned a minor viral hit with “Another Nasty Song,” critiqued the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade with “P—y,” delivered acclaimed performances at Coachella, and helped boost the rising Black pop star Lu Kala with her No. 83-peaking “Lottery.” Recently, the “B—h From Da Souf” rapper also lent her talents to Lola Brooke and Billy B’s “Don’t Play With It,” helping the New York rappers’ breakout single reach the Hot 100 for the very first time.
From the Shawty Lo-referencing “Put It On Da Floor Again” to the generation-bridging Southern female rap team-up “FTCU” (with GloRilla & Gangsta Boo), Latto has been putting on for Atlanta like she has for her entire career. While she does not have the highest-charting female rap record of the year, Latto’s continued success and consistent output are proof that BET made the right decision crowning her best new artist last year. A victory for Latto would mark the first time an Atlanta rapper has won, and it would continue the 2020s winning streak for Southern female rappers in this category after Megan Thee Stallion’s three consecutive wins this decade.
Megan Thee Stallion
It has been an understandably quiet year for Megan Thee Stallion as she continues to take some time to herself, following a tumultuous few years that were marked by her shooting at the hands of Canadian rapper Tory Lanez and the multi-year legal saga that followed.
While the “Savage” rapper has not released any music this year, her offerings in the back half of 2022 still count for consideration. Last August, Megan unleashed Traumazine, her ruminative sophomore studio album, with just a single day’s notice. Boasting memorable tracks such as “Plan B,” “NDA,” “Anxiety,” “Her,” “Sweetest Pie” (with Dua Lipa), and the Key Glock-featuring “Ungrateful,” Traumazine displayed a more vulnerable and revelatory side of Megan Thee Stallion. The album was her fifth consecutive project to reach the top ten of the Billboard 200, and her highest-charting entry on Top Album Sales (No. 4).
Last year, the “Cry Baby” rapper also continued her philanthropic work and reigned as one of the most in-demand artists of the music festival season. Like her peers, Megan has always prioritized uplifting her hometown: “Southside Royalty Freestyle,” a collaboration with Houston rap icons Sauce Walka, Big Pokey and Lil’ Keke, helps close out Traumazine — a reminder that, nearly 30 years after André 3000 first said it, the South still got something to say.
With just one other nomination this year (“Her” earned a BET Her Award nod), Megan faces her toughest battle yet as she looks to take home her fourth consecutive award in this category. Even though her chances are slimmer than they have been in the past, a fourth victory for Megan would not be completely unfounded.
Nicki Minaj
Image Credit: Alex “Grizz” Loucas
As Nicki Minaj enters her thirteenth race for the BET Award for best female hip-hop artist, she is, once again, in great standing. Over the past year, Minaj has continued to evolve as a commercial force, a mentor for younger female rappers, and a businesswoman.
Minaj currently holds the honor of having the last hip-hop song to top the Hot 100 : last year’s “Super Freaky Girl.” She also boasts the second highest-peaking unaccompanied female rap record of the year with “Red Ruby Da Sleaze” (No. 13), the highest-peaking collaboration between two female rappers this year with “Princess Diana” (No. 4), and the longest-charting project released by a female rapper in 2022 with the hits compilation Queen Radio: Vol. 1 (37 weeks). Her “Queen Mix” of “Super Freaky Girl” also found the Grammy nominee throwing her support behind younger female rappers such as BIA, Katie Got Bandz, Akbar V, Maliibu Miitch and JT of City Girls. Minaj also linked up with Sexyy Red for a remix of her viral hit “Pound Town,” helping the song become the rising St. Louis rapper’s first entry on the Hot 100.
Outside of music, Minaj has also been making waves as a mogul. She recently announced that she launched her own record label (called Heavy On It Records), she is set to star in a 50 Cent-produced animated series and last year, she fronted the campaign for Marc Jacobs’ Spring 2022 collection. Already a seven-time victor in this category, a win for Minaj in 2023 would be a testament to her longevity and ability to navigate so many different channels of such a brutal industry. She has one other nomination at this year’s ceremony (a viewer’s choice award nod for “Super Freaky Girl”), so a win here is far from secured.
Nonetheless, her inclusion in this lineup thirteen years after her first nomination is a reminder of how far we have come with this category. Gone are the days when a Nicki Minaj victory was as predictable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. While there is always more work to be done to accurately reflect the breadth of contemporary female rap — Ché Noir, Monaleo, Scar Lip are all absent, to name just a few of the other artists currently making waves — the 2023 lineup for best female hip-hop artist is the closest BET has gotten to properly doing so in its 22-year history.
