Uzoy's The [DEF]inition Breaks The Female-Rapper Mold

​This week, Uzoy (pronounced ooh-zee) released her first proper tape, the 2DBZ-backed The [DEF]inition.

It's a good tape. At times, you would not be wrong if you were to say that it is a great tape. Solid production, memorable features, an attractive cover (that matters), a clear sense of purpose - all of the important pieces are there.

She's very clearly more naturally talented than many of her male counterparts here in town. But here's the main concern, and you may have actually noticed this already: Uzoy is a woman.

As such, any discussion of her capacity as a rapper inevitably spirals back to that fact, which inevitably spirals back to the novelty of the situation. A girl rapper automatically stands out among her peers because there are so few, but she'll stand out in the same way that a guy who always wears a top hat when he raps stands out. Even the best ones face that problem.

What's more confounding here, though, is that she's the first Houston female rapper (see?) in recent history who does not immediately fall into a preexisting role. Some specific examples, using Houston's best lady rappers:

TroubleSum, the Gutta Mamis and Kenika (to a semi-lesser extent) help make up the Femme Thug contingent. You'll almost certainly be threatened with some form of malice in their songs, and they'll almost always be backed by some larger male entity (ABN, Swisha House, etc.).

Perseph One: She's super-alt.

Candi Redd: Fronts Houston's chapter of the Independent Women club. These women will not tolerate any disrespect either, but earning your admiration is hardly their main goal.

Just Brittany, who is mostly known for singing, but raps convincingly on her new album: She's from the Sex As A Weapon club, of which Lil' Kim is the most famous member. We can still remember first hearing Kim talk about deep-throating someone and being like, "Yup, this is the greatest rapper of all time." She eventually went on to make one of the most influential albums in rap history, though not for reasons we had hoped.

Tawn P: New to the fray, she's a member of the Mother Earth group. These are usually pretty easy to pick out; they have an affinity for rhyming words like "proclamation," "segregation," "education" and any other kind of -ation together very quickly. Many times, they have dreadlocks or a similar hairstyle.

You get the point.