From Bessie Smith to Cardi B: 25 essential songs by Black women that rocked the world
(WorldNews Music)

Destined to make history as the biggest single of 2020, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s rap hit “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 rocking the music business, 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 1920s to where funk transitioned into disco in the ’70s to any number of significant changes in hip-hop and pop from the ’80s onward, you will find one common denominator: Black women leading the way. In celebration...