MICHIE MEE

FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN CANADIAN HIPHOP IS SOMETHING MICHIE MEE TAKES GREAT

PRIDE IN. When she was up-and-coming in the 1980s, hip-hop from Canada was practically nonexistent to international ears, let alone when it was performed by women.

But Michie Mee blazed both trails. In 1988, she became the very first Canadian rapper on a major U.S. label when she signed with First Priority/Atlantic Records. She found peers in American emcees like MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa, but Michie Mee — born Michelle McCullock in Jamaica and raised in Toronto — stood out for how she combined her Caribbean roots and Canadian perspective. With her vibrant 1991 debut, Jamaican Funk—Canadian Style, she demanded the world pay attention to Canadian hip-hop, paving the way for generations to follow in her footsteps. But the struggles still remain.

“I used to always say, no one wants to hear what we have to say. For me, here I am, this Jamaican, underground, grew up Jane and Finch — how do I get talking [to] the A&R? Where do I get the growth, in terms of [being] a female rapper in the business of music?” Michie Mee tells Exclaim! “That hurdle’s still there. I think one of the big goals should be for Canadian [female hip-hop artists] to make it in the U.S.. That’s still something that’s an obstacle, because there’s a rapper in every corner, and everyone’s doing it, and knows how to do it, so you have to kind of gain your respect, and that goes to show what I was fighting back then — if it was so easy, I’d have been able to do it.”

Now, Michie Mee says, there’s such a wide range of Canadian female emcees, each offering something different. She names Golde London and the Sorority (the nowdormant supergroup composed of Haviah Mighty, Keysha Freshh, Lex Leosis and pHoenix Pagliacci) as a couple of her favourites. It’s nice to see, Michie Mee adds, because such nuance has typically been reserved for male rappers.

She’s still at it, too: Michie Mee released her excellent new album, Bahdgyal’s Revenge, which came out last November. She has released handfuls of singles over the years, but this is her first full-length since 2000’s The First Cut Is the Deepest, which included the Junonominated hit “Don’t Wanna Be Your Slave.” “To stay relevant now and to have the nerve to drop an album now, I really do give myself credit, because it’s hard to do,” Michie Mee says.

She wrote Bahdgyal’s Revenge as she travelled to and from Jamaica, finding inspiration in the sounds of airports, the atmosphere, the bars, the streets. She veered away from drawing on any kind of trending production style, instead pulling from what she already knew. And while the album retains her distinguishing blend of reggae, dancehall and rock, it still sounds bitingly fresh.

And though Canadian hip-hop has exploded in size and respect since Michie Mee’s early days, she notes there’s still something starkly missing: stories told by mature female voices. “That leaves a niche wide open for me,” Michie Mee asserts. At 50, she still has so much to prove — and stories to tell. “You want to talk about menopause? Whatever! Pre-menopause?” She laughs. “Having kids, fibroids, whatever you want to talk about. I mean, there’s so much that you could make fun of, doesn’t have to be straight.”

“YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT MENOPAUSE? WHATEVER! PRE- MENOPAUSE? HAVING KIDS, FIBROIDS, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT.”