TV Rundown: RHODC, Nicki Minaj & Lauryn Hill

My Mic Sounds Nice: A Truth About Women And Hip Hop

CHANNEL: B.E.T.

(Air Date: August 31, 2010)

Ladies, First

BET is trying to get some act-right these days.  The recently aired, hour-long documentary “My Mic Sounds Nice” explores the challenges and triumphs of XX chromosome havers in the male-driven world of hip hop. MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, Russell Simmons, Jean Grae, Eve, Trina, Jermaine Dupri and Missy Elliot are just a few of the dozens of hip hop artists and music industry insiders who chime into the conversation.  They cover everything from the drought of female MCs that caused the Grammys to drop the Best Female MC category in 2005 to whether or not it’s chivalrous or sexist to almost always have new female rappers introduced or groomed by male colleagues. Everybody seems to be a “first lady” of something, right? The documentary is only an hour long, so they try to squeeze in a little bit of everything instead of really digging into meatier topics. They did, however, offer a fairly large, but overwhelmingly positive stack of opinions about Nicki Minaj. Admittedly, I have lowered expectations for BET, but this documentary is actually pretty good even though it’s trying to do too much in too little time. If nothing else you’ll get put on to some under the radar (but dope) MCs like Invincible, Medusa and Tiye Phoenix. What do you think of Nicki Minaj? Is she good or bad for hip hop in general and women MCs in particular?

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