Ruby Ibarra, Filipino-American rapper

[alexbayleaf]

The other day I discovered this awesome woman who is a rapper and spoken word artist.

Here she raps in a combination of Tagalog and English about race and identity:

( 2 more )

(As far as I can tell, Ruby doesn't have any of her music for sale yet. But you can follow her on Twitter as rubyibarra or on tumblr at rubyibarra.)

I have to admit this isn't usually my genre. I discovered Ruby's work when googling for Asian-American rappers for a mix I was making. I didn't find what I needed for the mix, but from what I did find, Ruby was the stand-out artist. I love her poetry and the puns and double-meanings in her words, and I'm wildly impressed by the rhythms she manages to wrap her mouth around. This is worth checking out even if (like me) you're not much into hip hop.

Female-fronted punk/pop-punk bands

[alexbayleaf]

So I thought I would put together a recs set of some great female-fronted punk and pop-punk bands. All of these are current or recent (within the last decade) and all are American. Just one Youtube video per band, so you get a taste of each.

Compton SF (San Francisco, California; 2005(?)-present)

These are a local (San Francisco) band I saw play a few months ago. They put on a great show! I love this video too -- the best kind of hand-made tour video, lots of good times and rocking out. These girls are basically everything I want in a great local band... I just wish they played more shows! If you're in the SF area and you get a chance, go see them live.

Compton SF on Myspace (EP for sale, $3), iTunes

( 3 more: The Soviettes, Tsunami Bomb, The Butchies )

Angel Haze, up and coming hip-hop artist

[littlemousling]

So possibly everyone else has already heard of Angel Haze? But perhaps not. She was sold to me as "a 19-year-old bisexual Native American lady with a song about 'Bitches On My Dick,'" which is both accurate and the primary source of awesome from my perspective.

In essence, she covers all of the same basic themes as, eg, Young Money, like "I am the best in the history of the world" and "no but seriously, I am so unbelievably rad" and, of course, "bitches on my dick," but, you know, she's a 19-year-old woman. Which makes it a lot more fun to listen to, in some ways.

Until pretty recently you could listen to her (very, very long) mixtape for free and buy the whole thing for $5, but I am getting the impression from The Internets that she's been signed, because her MySpace now features a bunch of, like, Nicki Minaj collabs. Which is cool! Just, I don't know those songs (YET). So instead here are two from the mixtape:

( A remix of Bitches On My Dick )

( 6'7 Freestyle )

( Plus a freestyle poem called I Like the Girls )