I still remember the day I first heard Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s chart-topping hit “WAP”, but I have to admit, I didn’t understand why it was getting so much media coverage at the time. I grew up around plenty of sexual songs, despite my relatively sheltered upbringing. I listened to Lady Gaga’s “Love Game” far before I knew what a “disco stick” was, I didn’t understand why my parents were so worried about ten-year-old me’s obsession with Rick James’ “Super Freak,” and Salt-N-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex” arguably put me on the sex-positive path I walk to this day. I’d followed both Cardi and Megan for a while before “WAP”’s release, and the song itself only stood out to me at first because it was a collaboration between two of my favorite artists. Nonetheless, the internet blew up with moralizing backlash, feminist defenses, and, of course, plentiful Ben Shapiro memes. Arguably, this one song (along with the rise in popularity of female rap generally) has changed the culture of pop and rap music for years to come. Now that it’s been a couple years, it’s a good time to take a step back and look at the legacy of explicitly sexual music historically and some affirmations and critiques of this type of work. Along the way you’ll get some fun, horny music recommendations too!
Turn of the Century Sexual Music
Despite common anxieties around the supposedly new emergence of sexually explicit music, silly, horny sex tunes date back to at least the 1920s. Dirty Blues was a popular genre, rivalling romantic and lamentational blues music, despite its sexual nature often barring radio play. It evolved, like a disturbing amount of North American entertainment, from extremely racist and disgustingly popular minstrel shows which dominated American popular culture from the early 1800s to the early 1900s. “Hokum music,” which played with sexual innuendo, was a staple in these shows and evolved into both raunchy country and blues music. Dirty Blues often also relied on euphemism and double entendre, as can be observed in Lil Johnson’s “Press My Button, Ring My Bell” (1932). Some songs were much more explicit, however, like “Shave ‘Em Dry” originally recorded by Ma Rainey in 1924. That song in particular has experienced a bit of a revival in the past few years as music reaction and review channels have started posting videos which highlight the juxtaposition between what’s considered “old timey” music’s reputation for being family friendly and the reality of lyrics as raunchy as Cardi or Megan’s.
Late-20th Century Horny Music
Seemingly for commercial reasons, explicitly (or very obviously euphemistic) sexual lyrics in popular music went mostly out of style during the mid 20th century, with some notable exceptions like Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit “Let’s Get It On,” Anita Ward’s 1979 “Ring My Bell” and Olivia Newton-John’s 1981 bop “Physical.” All of these are pretty spicy for adults who can catch the connotation, but nothing compared to lines from Dirty Blues songs that explicitly reference nipples, humping and fucking among other things. Yet anyone who’s been alive longer than me and every other zillenial, can tell you some music took a dramatic turn towards the raunchy far before 2020.
Probably the horniest spike in modern music history began in the late 1980s and early 90s with the emergence of Dirty Rap (also known as sex rap or pornocore among other terms). This subgenre is defined by revolving mainly or entirely around sex and generally has explicit lyrics not simply resorting to euphemism. Arguably, Dirty Rap was pioneered by 2 Live Crew’s 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be which was so controversial people were arrested for selling copies and obscenity trials were held to halt its spread. Although its biggest hit’s prominent sample of the Full Metal Jacket (1987) is cringeworthy in its sexualization and arguably mockery of the vietnamese character’s accent, it was a fundamental building block for the genre.
Although saturated with songs by men like Sir Mix-A-Lots’ historic hit “Baby Got Back”(1992) and Three 6 Mafia’s “Slob On My Knob” (1999), this early era of Dirty Rap was host to many raunchy tracks by women as well. Some great examples are BWP’s “Two Minute Brother” (1991), and the slightly more radio friendly songs “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg" (1992) by TLC and Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop” (1993). As Anna Powers describes in her book Good Booty (2017), women in the genre often ended up “playing the role of conscience,” using a raunchy explicit subgenre to initiate open communication about sexuality and pleasure. Arguably an example of this is Salt-N-Pepa’s aforementioned “Let’s Talk About Sex” (1990), which not only openly addressed issues like censorship and transactional sex but also had a version specifically addressing the AIDS crisis. Similarly, members of TLC not only had lyrics promoting body positivity (“Two inches or a yard, rock hard or if it’s saggin’”) but also wore outfits decked out in condoms to encourage safer sex. Although the Dirty Rap of this moment generally formed offshoots and evolved into other subgenres, explicitly horny popular music, especially hip-hop, has continued to flourish in the 21st century.
2st-Century Sexy Music
Khia’s 2002 classic “My Neck, My Back” reached #42 on the charts and kicked off the aughts with extremely graphic lyrics centralizing female pleasure. I personally would not follow her advice to “roll your tongue // From the crack, back to the front” for UTI prevention reasons, but the detailed lyrics rival even 2020’s “WAP.” This decade brought newfound billboard popularity of horny songs. Despite their popularity in genres like hip-hop, before the 2000s there were hardly any explicit lyrics in #1 singles. Since 2001, however, there has only been one year (2012) with no explicit #1 singles in the USA. Cunnilingus-obsessed and no-homo claiming Lil Wayne had the number one hit “Lollipop” in 2008. This was also the decade of many spicy (but not always particularly graphic) #1 hits like “Bootylicious” (2001), “Hot In Herre” (2002), “Yeah!” (2004), “Candy Shop” (2005), “Laffy Taffy” (2006), and “Low” (2008) among others. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to why so many of these decided to go with a candy euphemism, but apparently it was a successful formula. Unfortunately, despite Khia’s 2002 hit, this decade had an absurd dearth of mainstream female rappers. This all changed with Nicki Minaj’s 2010 break into the public eye.
Minaj was gaining traction through the latter half of the aughts, but her mainstream success really began in the next decade with her historically phenomenal feature on Kanye West’s “Monster” (2010) and her debut album Pink Friday (2010). This album was quite tame when it came to sexuality, but it marked the beginning of a career defined by her ability to embody intense sexuality without sacrificing artistry, talent and style. 2010 also brought Rihanna’s “S&M,” a notably kinky pop song which arguably introduced me to my life-long passion for BDSM. Minaj’s reworking of the previously mentioned classic “Baby Got Back” for her hit “Anaconda” in 2014 brought sexuality to the forefront and helped usher in the era of slim-thick body type appreciation. The 2010s also kicked off the careers of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, female rappers who utilized brazen sexuality in their stage personas far before WAP. Megan Thee Stallion’s frequently graphic sexual lyrics tend to prioratize her pleasure, and Cardi B has been unafraid to discuss her attraction to women and background as an exotic dancer throughout her career.
The continued success of these artists’ use of sexually explicit lyrics is positive in many ways. It’s fun and to have access to art that’s sex+ and centers eroticism, especially from women’s point of views. Sex, for many, is a pleasurable pillar of their lives, so representing it explicitly in art can be important. Art that deals closely with the literal play-by-plays of sex can be titillating, is often humorous, and can even be a good moment to teach about safer sex, interpersonal relationships or how to pleasure others. Even when the sex described doesn’t model perfectly healthy sexual encounters or attitudes, it’s fun to step into the fantasy. It’s sexy to imagine raunchy scenarios, being very attractive and confident, and getting to embody sex appeal publicly. They’re performances and they’re fun ones at that.
Critique of Overly Sexual Music
However, that doesn’t mean there are no valid critiques of this sort of music. For one thing, many sexual songs can objectify women and promote unsafe or nonconsensual sex acts (Robyn Thicc I’m looking at you!). Even when it comes to music made by women, many of these artists (Minaj, Cardi, and Megan included) can express much less sex+ and empowering views in interviews, still upholding slut-shaming ideas. For example, in the same breath where Cardi confidently claims her history in exotic dance, she takes care to distance herself from full-service sexworkers, rapping “I said dance not fuck, don’t get it confused.” She even filed a defamation lawsuit against someone who claimed she worked as a full service sex worker (among other things). Denunciation of sex work in particular is doubly insulting because of the hypocrisy. Sexual artists wear fashion inspired by sex workers, profit from creating sexually arousing art, and have lyrics proudly asserting the material comforts they gain from sexuality; yet they still stigmatize those who perform marginalized forms of sexwork.
Even if it weren’t for the unfortunate hypocrisy when it comes to sex negativity and anti-sexwork biases, sexually charged work by women of color especially raises red flags for some. There’s a long history of the sexual commodification of Black women which casts an uncomfortable light on the fact a large portion of the most popular graphically sexual songs by in modern history were made by Black women in particular. It seems likely that white supremacy, and specifically the Jezebel archetype, make it so that Black women can gain fame and resources by selling their sexualities, but still face immense difficulty in being taken seriously making art on other topics. Cardi B has described how she makes brazenly sexual content knowing that it’s “what people want to hear” and not necessarily because it’s what she wants to create. In the same instagram video Cardi describes the poor reception she receives when she puts out less sexual music and insightfully mentions “There’s a lot of female rappers that be rapping their ass off and don’t be talking about [...] you know, getting down and dirty, and ya’ll don’t be supporting them [...] and they be mad dope. So don’t blame that shit on us when ya’ll don’t be supporting them.”
Some Less Raunchy Recommendations
In the interest of not pigeonholing Black female rappers, here’s some less sexual song recommendations. One of my favorite songs from the past few years is “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” (2020) by Doechii. To be fair, it certainly still has sexual themes, but most of the six-minute track is dedicated to witty personal lyricism and the sexuality present comes from a distinctly female gaze. If that length is too daunting, I’d start with “What’s Your Name” (2020). You might also be interested in the often introspective and uplifting work of British rapper Little Simz. I recommend “Woman” (2021) and her older, slightly more aggressive “Good For What” (2017). Tierra Whack’s “Unemployed” (2019) is infectiously catchy and lyrically dense with a uniquely disturbing (and also sort of funny?) video to accompany it. Much of Bree Runway’s catalogue is on the sexual side (and no less amazing for it), but “APESHIT” (2020) has less explicit themes and is quite the banger. Rico Nasty is one of my all-time favorites, and although she has some more seductive tracks, her bread and butter is powerfully angry songs like “Rage”(2018) and her newest album explores with more chill psychedelic tracks like “Skullflower”(2022) and “Gotsta Get Paid”(2022). Mykki Blanco has been making artistically inspired and creative work like “Wavvy”(2012) and “Loner”(2016) for a decade while being regrettably underappreciated. Even Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have quite a bit of work that’s less sexual and attracts less media attention, like Megan’s vulnerable track “Anxiety” (2022) off her newest album, and Cardi B’s “Be Careful” (2018).
Sexuality in music is liberating, titillating, and downright fun. “Dirty” genres like Dirty Blues and Rap create a space for subversion, education and frankness, but can unfortunately fall prey to reproducing harmful aspects of American culture like the tendency to value Black women only for their perceived sexual accessibility. Black people have been integral to modern music in the USA, so it’s not surprising that Black artists have been behind some of the most popular sexual songs of the last century. It’s important, though, to make cultural space to platform and celebrate Black creative endeavors beyond the erotic sphere. In some ways, these “Dirty” genres provide a lane for creatives, especially women, to break into the public eye and create statements. At the same time, it’s concerning when so little space is made for artists that don’t wish to create sexualized art, or who express sexuality in ways that don’t cater to the male gaze. Ideally, we can support and engage with highly sexualized material in ways that help us learn to respect all sex work while also dedicating time to artistic works that deserve just as much attention and thought.
By Aiden/Estelle Garrett