When the self-proclaimed Barbie first copped a mainstream look, people were outraged by her animated voice and ability to switch personas on wax. Confused, many pegged the Young Money signee bipolar. Wearing a straight jacket while rhyming,”Chef cooking for me. They say my shoe game crazy. The mental asylum looking for me” in Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad” vid immediately validated people’s thoughts. But what speculators failed to acknowledge is that Nicki came from a theater background. The showy rapper-turned-singer graduated from LaGuardia High School with a concentration in drama, making her animation far from far-fetched.

Not too long after the speculation about her schizoid personality, many honed in on her questionable bisexuality. Homophobes were outraged and the LGBT community was too, mainly lesbians. Many queer women felt that the Trinidadian rapper only used her alleged bisexuality to woo men. That was until she shut down all accusations during an interview with Black Men magazine, where she clearly stated that she does not have sex with women.Once the LGBT community forgave and forgot about that fiasco, people deemed her influence on the female image irresponsible. Calling herself a “Barbie” was considered dangerous and detrimental to the self-esteem of young black girls, but it was far from dangerous to Nicki’s career. Mattel ignored the hate and created an official Nicki Minaj Barbie, which was sold for $5,605 at a charity auction.

Throughout it all, a lackluster beef was started with rap veteran Lil’ Kim who claimed that Nicki Minaj stole her style. Nicki Nick, however, continued to create diss records, adding fuel to Kimberly’s fire. Nonetheless, valid disappointment and outrage came on the heels of Nick’s “Stupid Hoe” video, another alleged diss record towards the Queen Bee. But before the criticism of “Stupid Hoe” made its rounds, Nicki broke the record on VEVO for having the highest first-day views ever, accruing 4.8 million views. Regardless of the record-breaking event, perhaps the swift criticism is the reason why BET banned the video.

Nicki is constantly criticized but seems to gain more fans and even more endorsements. While being on the verge of crossing over to becoming one of the biggest pop stars, Nicki snagged herself the title of spokesperson alongside Ricky Martin for MAC’s 2012 Viva Glam campaign. The multicolored wig-wearing future mogul just performed during halftime at the Super Bowl with Madonna and M.I.A. She even made her way to the Grammy’s and the NBA All-Star game in Orlando.

After just a few short years, Nicki Minaj is monopolizing the rap industry, and the doors have cracked open for a variety of female rappers again. Blogs and media outlets are consistently noting the endeavors of newbies Azealia Banks, Iggy Azalea, Brianna the YRB, Nyemiah Supreme and more. It’s time to hop off the Nicki Minaj-bashing bandwagon. Thank her for reopening the door and highlight the myriad of alternatives to her.

I could have written a really witty or quirky first line followed by shade thrown at Kreayshawn and a few big ups to Nicki Minaj. I could have also written some sort of response to Touré’s recent piece in the New York Times about white female rappers challenging the black masculinity that hip-hop is built on.  But I didn’t really feel the need to do any of that. Although, the title of this piece is “The New Female Rappers In the Game,” the women that I’m about to mention have all been working hard to gain the following that they now have. Neither of them have sat on 106 & Park’s couch being graced with an interview by Rocsi and Terrence J, nor have their videos been played by MTV, although they should be.

Residing in cities such as Atlanta, LA, and New York City these women are gaining a following, booking shows, and releasing visuals that are just as stimulating as their lyrics.

While the majority of the women mentioned haven’t received a ton of mainstream attention one of them recently has. Nitty Scott MC was featured in one of the cyphers among Estelle, Soprano, and Lacrae at the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards. The 21-year-old current resident of Brooklyn, NY has benefited from her 3-plus-minute time to shine. “It helped to upgrade my profile as an artist. It made people more familiar with me as an individual as opposed to a part of this group of upcoming MCs. It set me apart as my own entity,” she said.

Siya, a Brooklyn native who didn’t have the opportunity to spit in a BET cypher but has shared stages with a myriad of rappers whose videos are aired on BET, MTV, and VH1, easily could have. Not too long ago she released her mixtape, Elevator Dreams, and followed that with her Mike Ho-directed video, “I’m Gone,” which has gotten almost 50,000 views on YouTube. She’s currently working on her debut album, Letter to the Sky, and that snagged a feature from Gym Class Heroes’ Travie McCoy for.

While Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj are still busting shots at each other, some female MCs are actually showing camaraderie. Siya teamed up with Maybach Music’s new signee Audra The Rapper recently to release a freestyle to Drake’s “Motto.” Since signing with Maybach Music, the Virginia native has been gracing New York’s hip-hop Scene with her slick and raspy lyrics. Last summer, she dropped her EP No Such Thing Does Exist.

Camaraderie isn’t just taking place on the Northeast Coast either. Boog Brown, a Detroit native has been in Atlanta making waves and rocking shows with her peers. She just released the remix version of her popular album, Brown Study, which was a collaborative effort with Apollo Brown. The album features artists such as 14KT, Nick Tha 1Da,  MarvWon, and illastrate. Adrift The Belle, who has been on a few of the same bills as Boog Brown is also heating up Atlanta. Her East Coast tribute album D.R.U.G.S.-N-Adrift  recently made its away around the blogosphere, earning accolades for her and D.R.U.G.S., who produced “I Just Wanna” for 50 Cent.

Over on the West Coast, Raven Sorvino–also known as the first lady of Language Artz–has been consistently hitting the internet with visuals to gear up for her upcoming album, Paper Girl. She just revealed her new sensual video, “Whisper’z N.S.F.W.” where she taps into her sexy side. In addition to being an MC, she’s an actress. Her theatrical side slightly comes out through her sidekick, “Ralphie”, a Ralph Lauren Teddy Bear who has made a few cameos in her last few videos.

Female MCs often serve as hip-hop’s eye candy. All of these women have extremely different images and different styles but, one thing that they all have in common is ill lyrics. “People respect how it looks before they respect what it is,” says Nitty Scott MC. “If these women were to never drop a video, you definitely would have to respect their sound.”