25 songs by Black women that rocked the music world, from the 1920s to 2020
(WorldNews Music)

Destined to make history as the biggest single of 2020 – still No. 1 after six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 as of this writing – rappers Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” is smart, vulgar, provocative, highly entertaining, and, like so many influential hit songs before it, divisive. It’s the sound of two gifted artists in their mid-20s at the pinnacle of the pop world; the sound of two Black women rocking the music biz, a traditionally white male dominated industry that Black women have been successfully infiltrating for the past century. From the beginning of blues and jazz in the ’20s to where funk transitioned into disco in the...