Each year, MTV focuses a lens on pop culture shaping women rappers in a week-long celebration of both legacy and emerging emcees during Women In Rap Week. From new exclusive performances and interviews with today’s rising stars to artist partnerships highlighting heavy hitters, and even archival gems straight out of the MTV vault, the goal of Women In Rap Week is to create engaging content for fans to have a space to salute their favorites and get a comprehensive look at the current landscape of women in the genre, plus the icons that paved the way for new artistry to be invited into the culture. In an effort to make the 2023 celebration the biggest yet, we set out to bring fans even closer to their top artists through an in-person showcase that was also live streamed across social platforms and published on MTV linear channels for an even wider audience to enjoy. With our 2023 campaign, we set out to solidify MTV platforms as the bridge for fans to uplift and connect with the industry’s wide variety of women in rap.
The top priority in making MTV’s fourth annual Women In Rap Week the biggest yet, in alignment with 2023’s 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop, was reaching fans on more platforms than ever before. In order to achieve this goal we planned custom content highlighting women emcees, ranging from those just gaining momentum all the way to the first ladies of Hip-Hop. These women were honored through features in our hit MTV Brand Social series ‘20 Questions for 2023’ and ‘Music To Blank To’, archival content from the MTV vault, MTV PUSH Artist To Watch campaign alignment, MTV Fresh Out Live guest interviews, multimedia pieces created by an outstanding visual artist partner, social fan engagement opportunities, and more. From having 2023 rap standout Lady London detail her debut album in an episode of ‘Music To Blank To’ to recognizing Missy Elliott’s historic Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction with an artist partnership to giving new life to one of Lil Kim’s first MTV interviews via social, and so much more, Women In Rap Week 2023 was jam packed with culture-shaping gems.
For this iteration, the pinnacle of our campaign was an in-person talent showcase live streamed for social coined “MTV Live: Women In Rap”. Our plan was to bring a few of social media’s favorite women emcees together for a celebration of Hip-Hop and the women emcees that add unique flavor to the genre, and we did just that. With 2023 viral sensations Flyana Boss, Monaleo, and Lola Brooke confirmed to perform, we gathered an intimate audience of their super fans to witness them hit the stage live at MTV’s NYC headquarters and live streamed the show across MTV’s TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube simultaneously for their fans all around the world to join in on the party. These rising stars of the rap game performed and completed interviews surrounding their projects and inspirations, all while honoring the trailblazers of the genre that came before them. Throughout their time with us, each talent shared special messages with fans in the room and those watching live. There was so much love radiating that Monaleo even shared a group hug with audience members after connecting with them on a deeper level. These showcase moments created an avenue for fans of each performing artist to feel closer to their faves, whether in person or through their phone screen. And taking things even further than social, following the MTV Live: Women In Rap launch, both performances and interviews from the showcase were put in rotation on MTV linear music channels to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.
Throughout the entirety of Women In Rap Week 2023, we reached the fans directly with content published across social platforms of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Facebook, and Threads, as well as extending the celebration to linear MTV music channels, MTV.com, and even Paramount+. Each piece of content created for the week was optimized with different versions for every platform.
Having met fans right where they were, we saw the immediate impact of our 2023 Women In Rap Week campaign. Fans not only publicly commented their happiness to see their favorites receive the flowers they deserve through the artist partnerships, archival video, exclusive interviews, and more, but also expressed that they felt inspired by each woman that hit the MTV Live: Women In Rap showcase stage. The sentiment was extremely positive, with special energy in the room and on the livestream creating lasting bonds between Flyana Boss, Monaleo, Lola Brooke and the audience. Popular female rap fan accounts on social reposted multiple clips of Women In Rap Week content, including MTV Live: Women In Rap performances, interview sound bites, and intimate moments between participating talent and fans in the room. Both legendary and up-and-coming women emcees including Foxy Brown, Cardi B, Sexyy Red, and others shared our content throughout the week on social, expressing their gratitude for recognition from MTV.
Following its November 2023 conclusion, MTV’s Women In Rap Week content garnered 14M views and 852K engagements overall – a 93% and 113% respective increase from the previous year’s campaign. In addition, the MTV Live: Women In Rap livestream drove a combined 102K views and 122K engagements across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. After witnessing the cultural impact created across social communities and achieving a highly positive fan sentiment, these numbers were the icing on the cake for our Women In Rap Week 2023 efforts to be considered a huge success.
