For lack of better words the rap game has been and still is a man's game. It has always been fueled by testosterone and propelled by unfailing braggadocio. That said there have been some females who have broken the mold, but in 2008 they are absent; almost pushed to the precipice of non existence. Enter Babs Bunny, Lady Luck and The Lady of Rage, collectively known as the FEM (Females Earning Money) movement. Together, this all female posse is determined to kick in all the doors that seemingly block female progression in the rap game. All three rappers have storied pasts; who could ever forget Luck's memorable battle with Remy, Rage rocking and stuffing with her Afro puffs, or Babs' exploits on Diddy's Making The Band (For the record Diddy should have quit after the first season). Nevertheless, the aforementioned artists have no intentions of reinventing themselves, but they are set on showing the world what they might have missed. BNtri: Y'all can just start by introducing yourselves and letting us know who you are and where you are from.
Babs: Iight...Babs Bunny, first lady of the street, former member of the band, former first lady of Bad Boy.
Lady Luck: Hey! This is Lady Luck just googleme.com
Lady of Rage: Whaddup this is Rage, formerly of Death Row Records, now with Boss Lady Entertainment.
BNtri: Whose idea was it to form FEM, or F-E-M, which one is it?
Babs: It's F-E-M, FEM, Females Earning Money. My manager Uneek and Ed Lover came together and they were like they wanted to this all female power movement and being that she [Uneek] is my manager managing me of course and she also manages Lady Luck. She had contacts with Rage and uknow Amil and we just came together and started to holla at another couple of other females and they wanted to be a part of it and that's just how it started.
BNtri: I thought Amil was supposed to be a part of the group, where she at?
Lady of Rage: She is a part of the movement, but she is more of behind the scenes. She is not as vocal as we are, she contributes but in other ways.
BNtri: What was the motivation or the reason behind an all female collective?
Babs: The motivation was definitely my manager, but the state of hip hop with females right now is just crazy. And it's so hard, so hard for us and I just felt that if we all just came together, they don't have no choice but to let us in, it's just...they have no choice, they don't. We busting down the door and anybody else that is standing behind that shit...
Lady of Rage: I feel that we always have to show and prove, we always have to try harder, we always have to prove a point and - I mean that's fine I don't really care about proving a point but it needs to be more of us cause I know that there are many talented females out there and they just might not have a way to get to that point- to get where they want to be. I think that by us coming together and showing camaraderie I think others will follow suit.
BNtri: When can listeners expect an album?
Babs: Well the street album will be out late September, produced by DJ Doo Wop and that's when it's coming out.
BNtri: Does this album have a title?
Lady Luck: We got the street album out right now youknowwhatimean, well it's actually coming out in a couple of weeks and that's called Set It Off. Taking the theme from the whole Set It Off movie and stuff like that. And the album we really have no title for that cause we are still in the early stages youknowwhatimean, and with all the wonderful amounts of music we are going to be recording it's hard to put a name on it so early.
BNtri: What can heads expect from the street album?
Lady Luck: New music youknowwhatimean; like if you haven't heard from us in a while or if you have and you staying on top of your game with uknow your favorite female rappers either way we are gonna make sure it's good music brought to the game uknow. We are not just gonna sit here, hop on beats and rap about anything youknowwhatimean, we are gonna work hard and make sure people can feel good music again.
BNtri: Do y'all have any favorite cuts on album?
Lady Luck: Everything we recorded so far I am in love with I mean I definitely love the music youknowwhatimean because I like monkeying around on tracks with Baps and I love beating the fuck out of a beat with Rage youknowwhatiamsayin so it's very interesting, it's very fun
Babs: My favorite record on the album is a single we shot a video for, Put Some Weight On It, I really like that record.
Lady Luck: My favorite record on there that represents like, I be feeling corny when this hook come on cause I feel like my fist in the air when it go youknowwhatimean, "Run and tell niggas I ain't die/ It's survival of the fit only the strong survive/ ehh wehh FEM we gonna ride/ survival of the fit only the strong survive." Like we basically saying run and tell the niggas we was fucking with, we didn't die youknowwhatimean, we still out here grindin'. We still out here making the money, we still out here doing what we got to do to make it happen and God is good, with him on deck we good.
BNtri: Apart from the obvious transformations, how has the game changed since your respective days with Death Row, Bad Boy and Def Jam?
Lady of Rage: In my opinion now it's more about entertainment like back then it was more like who got the skills to rock the MIC, the lyrics and things like that. Now it's about entertainment, who got the best dance, who got the best hook, it's a different game right now.
Babs: I feel the same way, right now the game is about who got the best dance moves and I do so I challenge anybody out there...
BNtri: Got any advice for any females trying to make it in the game?
Lady Luck: Run (laughs).
Lady of Rage: Just do it.
Lady Luck: If you really want to do this music, then you got to run full speed ahead. You got to be strong because being a female they gonna come for you and other artists gonna come for you. This is not the easiest thing in the world. People think that they can make words rap, they get a deal and they blow up youknowwhatimean only like 1% of artists who drop albums are even successful. These days it's even less than that with all these turntable hits. As far as the females are concerned we lack in other fields. There are other fields we can go and dominate. You can be more successful and make more money in those fields. You know we need scientists, we need activists, we need lawyers, we need doctors, and we need a lot of other people in our communities than another rapper.
BNtri: Any last words?
Babs: I am hot! You either gonna get down or lay down, this is the movement. Real chicks do real things and this is not a game, this is a business. So anybody that's trying to get into it you need to learn the business part first. Just don't think everything is studio, studio cause they will rape you; these niggas in the game dey liars, dey rogues.
Lady Luck: I just want to basically say uknow a shout out to Uneek and Ed Lover; I appreciate y'all putting the whole project together. And uknow God is good, keep God first everything will come later and another thing to anybody reading this article if you have anything negative to say about anybody here just remember you are reading it about us and we are not reading nothing about you.
Lady of Rage: I agree with what they just said and also have faith in yourself; in whatever you aspire to be, whatever it is, whatever you may wanna do in life. Never give up, you got to have that attitude, it's all or nothing.
Penned by BNtri
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