The top 10 female rappers of all time ranked, from Nicki Minaj to Queen Latifah to Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott, with more than 30 million records sold, is reportedly the top-selling female rapper of all time

Queen Latifah, before she scored an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role in Chicago, established herself as one of the top MCs in the game

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Nicki Minaj does things with her voice that are just spellbinding – so where does she rank among the top 10 female rappers of all time?

Published: 10:15pm, 14 Aug 2020Updated: 4:02am, 15 Aug 2020

By Jim Harrington

I really enjoyed Snoop Dogg’s list of the top 10 rappers, especially since he included the great Big Daddy Kane in the mix.

What he didn’t include, however, was any women. So, to try to balance it out a bit, I came up with my own list of the top 10 female rappers of all time.

In making my list, I looked at such things as impact on the genre and body of work – which explains why you won’t see any newer artists here – as well as pure rapping talent and lyrical prowess. And, of course, just how much I enjoy their music greatly factored in.

Here’s my list, which, unlike Snoop’s, is ranked from 1-10:

Lauryn Hill has only released one full-length studio offering during her lengthy solo career.

1. Missy Elliott: With more than 30 million records sold, this native of the US state of Virginia is reportedly the top-selling female rapper of all time and deserves to someday be enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, alongside such fellow hip-hop heroes as Public Enemy and 2Pac.

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