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NOLAY: Female MCs feel they have to fight that much harder to get themselves heard. At my first proper rave, I was onstage with Ghetts and Crazy Titch. I was in the middle of them, and [Crazy Titch] kept passing the mic past me. I felt at that moment, that was sexism. If that was a male MC that he was acquainted with, I don’t feel like he would have [ignored him]. I can’t say that Crazy Titch doesn’t respect me — as time went on, I battled through. But with the males within this scene, it’s more of an underlying sexism. They’re not very blunt with it; they won’t say it, but you can see it in their actions.

I dated one or two MCs, and I started to notice this pattern. They were insecure about my art. They were trying to control me and break me down, and I realized it was because I’m really good at what I do. It sounds big-headed, but that was just the truth. It’s like a group of guys playing football, and a girl runs onto the pitch and starts tackling them or playing better than them. They get annoyed, and because of their ego, they find it quite hard to hide. When I started to notice that, I learned that I have to be quite cutthroat in this industry, especially as a woman.

With female acts, there can always ever only be one. That kind of mentality doesn't make any sense. I have always been competitive, whether [the opponent is] male or female. But [the media] tries to pit women against each other. [Interviewers] will say, “Do you think you are the best female? Do you think that you are a top five female?” That’s one question that I hate. It’s like, “No, I feel like I’m a top five lyricist, male or female. I’m the best.” I used to be described as “the female version of Ghetts.” How do you know Ghetts isn’t the male version of me? Ghetts wasn’t with me when I was writing my bars, he didn’t teach me how to spit, or how to perform in front of thousands of people.