It’s not always easy to find songs that are outwardly good to women, but they’re out there and they exist in underground hip-hop. Mainstream music may be all about degrading women to turn a profit, but some underground rap does the opposite: It raises women up, while throwing down some good beats. Check out what The Coup, 2Pac and Zion I & The Grouch have to say in these three songs.

Wear Clean Draws by The Coup (2001)

The Coup not only has a badass female DJ, but they also have a song that is addressed to one of the rappers daughters. The song starts out like this:

“Go on draw them superheroes with the curly hair

You’re my daughter
My love
More than kin to me
This for you and the woman that you finna be
Tell that boy he’s wrong
Girls are strong…

If somebody hits you
Hit ’em back
Then negotiate a peace contract
Life if a challenge and you gotta team up
If you play house pretend that the man clean up
You too busy with the other things you gotta do…”

As the song continues, the DJ, Pam the Funkstress, throws down some scratching.

Keep Ya Head Up by 2Pac (1998)

Of course, this classic song by Tupac:

“I give a holla to my sisters on welfare

2Pac cares, if don’t nobody else care…”

He goes on to rap about how men often leave women to mother a child alone. As the song progresses he gets very literal:

“…And since we all came from a woman

Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman

I wonder why we take from our women

Why we rape our women, do we hate our women

I think it’s time to kill for our women

Time to heal our women, b real to our women…”

Make You Fly by Zion I & The Grouch (2006)

The Chorus, sung by Esthero, starts out like this:

“I am the virgin, I’m the whore
So you won’t push a brother, don’t leave
I am the goddess, I’m the sky
I give you room to make you fly
So why, why
Don’t you recognize me anymore?”

And then Zion I starts rapping:

“An open letter to you sister
Mother, wife, and girlfriend
Hope to make it better before we reach the world’s end
Spin, through centuries of hypocrisy when
Patriarchy subjugated your biology, ya
Divine feminine was always kept hidden
You know I love my mama, called you freak ’cause I was trippin
Take you for granted, man, I’ve often been the culprit
But I’m crypted when I stand like a preacher in this pulpit
Sex symbols like all imitation
A trophy, not a wife but you’re the queen of creation
More than a beauty but it’s harder to see
We told to never cry, hoes down, up G’s, but
You gave birth to me, sacred like the Earth to me
Blessed, never cursin’ me, your love is what these verses be…”

Then Grouch raps, saying:

“Women: you’re the ones who are real strong
And I don’t feel good how we treat you on a hill wrong
Feel lungs breathe (breathe )
She’s the equal I need…”

The sheep that stand up for rappers like Eminem and the actions of Chris Brown will keep funneling the money into misogynist rap. But thankfully, being a good rapper is not equated with being a misogynist. The Coup, Tupac, Zion I and The Grouch show what it means to be a truly good rapper.

(Lyrics found at Genius.com Lyricsmania.com)