“They would always look at each other with raised eyebrows before asking me, “YOU rap?”,” recalls Naijah Lynes. She grew up hearing scoffs and mocking jokes from people who doubted her as a young woman with aspirations of becoming a rapper. She “was used to always being the outlier, the only girl in a group of boys freestyling.” In the beginning of her aspirations, she would feel upset that her long hours of rapping in her room would be discredited by other people, simply because of her gender. “There need to be more female rappers for young girls like myself to look up to and feel encouraged,” Naijah claimed. “I hope to be that rapper for someone one day.” She did not grow up seeing a lot of female rappers besides Nicki Minaj, Lil Kim, and Remy Ma. Lynes’ inspiration did not come from seeing rappers, as she started listening to them once she fell in love with rapping. “One day my friends were freestyling in the cafeteria during lunch. When it was my turn, it came to me nat...