Lady Leshurr is an English rapper, singer, and producer. Lady Leshurr’s Queen Speech 4 video, from her Queen Speech series, went viral this past year. A native of the United Kingdom, Lady Leshurr breaks down the barriers set for most female rappers. It is expected, by society, that women must be sexualized and succumb to the shadow of the male when it comes to hip hop. The concept of hip hop is hardcore, rebellious, and confident; nearly everything a woman is not portrayed as in the media. Throughout the video, Lady Leshurr is the main image in the camera walking down the middle of the street as she raps. This sheds light on Lady Leshurr’s immense confidence. Her lyrical content emphasizes this as she indeed confident and has the ability to switch between short and funny bars to bars that must be built upon and might pick your brain a bit. The various pop culture references lead me to believe her intended audience may be Americans, otherwise these references would not hold much weight. Her style is a bit on the feminine side, but she adds a masculine touch with her backwards snap back and boxer briefs. I believe her video message was that she is a confident woman who likes to have fun and knows she’s the sh*t.
In contrast to Lady Leshurr, Dope Saint Jude is a rapper and producer from Cape Town, South Africa. Dope Saint Jude’s Realtak, to me, is less about braggadocio and more about social issues. Dope Saint Jude is a member of the LGBTQ community, but she still has a shirtless man in the video. This shows her acknowledgement of the hip hop culture having a problem with sexualizing females in music videos. The scene with the shirtless male looks like it’s the “cool” scene because this is what society expects. On the other hand, the scene with the females are in her room. I took this as a symbol of her comfortability around women and how homosexuality is to be kept private. Aside from the video aesthetics, Dope Saint Jude is also a lyricist. She makes a statement about the problems that come with her skin complexion, as she is neither accepted by the white people or black because they do not feel she identifies with them. Like Lady Leshurr, Dope Saint Jude, shows her attention to American society by using the beat from the song My N*gga My N*gga by YG, an American rapper.