She made her official debut as the lead singer of Destiny's Child in 1997, with the single "No, No, No." Her career is full of record-breaking feats; she possesses the most simultaneous Billboard hits by a woman, is the most nominated woman in Grammy history, and has won the most MTV Video Music Awards ever (Freudensprung). In 2014 Forbes declared Beyoncé to be the world’s most powerful celebrity, and she has leveraged her global brand in support of gender equality through her influential charity, the #BeyGood Project (Hilton). Her hit single Flawless samples from a TEDx Talk called We Should All Be Feminists by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Freudensprung).
Nicki Minaj
(b. 1982)
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, known professionally as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-American rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and model. Minaj expanded her role in the music industry from a freestyle rapper from the Southside of Jamaica Queens to a global sensation and hip-hop thought-leader exploring multiple genres and themes in music and challenging industry standards both in and out of the booth (Inman). Minaj is the first female rapper to chart three titles concurrently, for five weeks, in R&B/Hip-Hop Songs' top 10. Nicki Minaj has garnered countless awards, including two American Music Awards, MTV Awards, and Billboard's own "Rising Star" Women In Music Awards (Soulsby).
Drake
(b. 1986)
Aubrey Graham, otherwise known to some as Drake, introduced himself to the world in 2009 with the release of his explosive mixtape So Far Gone, a project that easily mixed classic Young Money-Esque rapping with softer flows and melodies with clear pop-sensibilities (Pavlakos). The combination of singing and rapping has always existed (Phonte, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Andre 3000), but Drake took its popularity and threw it into the stratosphere (Braboy). His influences aren’t a secret, as he has cited Phonte’s rap duo with Big Pooh as Little Brother as a source of inspiration (Pavlakos). He has five Billboard chart-topping albums, three mixtapes, 100 charted songs, and two high-profile rap battles make for the most ludicrous decade from an artist who began his reign in the late 2000s as Lil Wayne’s protegee (Braboy).
Cardi B.
(b. 1992)
Born Belcallis Almanzar, the stripper turned reality TV sensation, is representing a new breed of fierce female prototypes — who takes no prisoners and makes no apologies in the process. Cardi B has become a symbol for the “regular degular shmegular," as she refers to herself, to people who weren’t born with platinum spoons in their mouths — or famed family pedigree (Bernard). Cardi B earned her stripes in her way — building up millions of followers on social media. She has amassed three No.1 Billboard Hot 100 hits: Bodak Yellow, I Like It, featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, and a feature on Maroon 5’s Girls Like You that sat at the penthouse of the Billboard Hot 100 charts for seven weeks (Bernard). With her feature on the remix of Maroon 5’s Girl Like You, spending that many many weeks on the top of the Billboard charts, she also has the accomplishment of spending 11 cumulative weeks at No.1, solidifying her place in Hip-Hop culture (Bernard).
