Female rappers in Toronto are some of the most talented artists on the scene, period.

Maybe it’s the fact they have to work exponentially harder for credibility in a male-dominated industry (to be fair, gender dynamics are changing slowly), but these lyricists come heavy on the mic with defined sounds and esthetics to boot.

Representing Black, queer, and POC women in full force, some of these artists have had their feet planted in the industry for years, while others are just getting their toes wet. Either way, they're some of the most exciting acts in the city right now.

Here are my picks for 10 female rappers in Toronto you should know.

Haviah Mighty

Undeniably the most energetic and promising rapper in the city right now, Haviah (also one-third of the all-women rap group The Sorority) has gone solo, and her album 13th Floor can’t come out soon enough (it drops next month).

Judging by the videos she’s been releasing the last few weeks, it’s going to be a much-needed, home-grown track list of no-nonsense bars.

Sydanie

Proudly repping Jane and Finch is this 25-year-old talent, whose latest release 999 is a hard-hitting album of rapid-fire flow over hypnotic beats.

Parts electro-house reverie, parts diary, Sydanie’s vibe is an accumulation of hard-earned rap street-level accolades since arriving on the scene in 2012. She cuts right to the chase—she is a mom after all; no time for BS.

Golde London

It’s been nearly a decade since her video Shadows first game out, and to this day, Golde remains one of the city’s best kept secrets. She’s been M.I.A. for a while but evidently not without results: she's officially out with a new single called Juice that makes a 2019 comeback look promising.

Tasha the Amazon

It’s been three years since this highly-focused rapper burst onto the scene with her Juno Award-winning album Die Every Day (she became the first female artist to win an MMVA for best hip-hop video for Picasso Leaning) but Tasha Schuman hasn’t slowed her roll since.

She’ll be performing with Azealia Banks at CMW next month, plus she just released a fun new track called That Ain’t You that’ll leave you wanting more.

DijahSB

Maybe you’ve seen her on stage with Jay Electronica, or in the finals of BET’s Freestyle Friday. Since her days as Kzaraw in the rap duo Class of 93, alongside her producer Astro Mega, Dijah has gained a reputation for her Toronto anthems and songs repping LGBT love.

If you’re a fan, April was good to you: she’ll be dropping new tracks every Friday for the rest of the month.

LolaBunz

West-end pride personified, this MC comes hot off an invigorating performance at the Care Free Black Girl show at SXSW. Live performances have always been her strong suit (she founded the Jane and Finch Female Cypher back in 2011) and her latest eight-track EP Wild Card reps the Screwface Capital, as always.

Baadass Bukk

Tracks are way too few and far between from this artist repping Driftwood, but Bukk finally released a new track, Shootin No Safety/Speaking Tongues. She’s still spitting with her usual intensity, but only time will tell if her new stuff will rack up the same attention as her remix of Future’s Mask Off.

Honey Cocaine

There was a point in Toronto hip hop when the name Honey C was recognized city-wide. It’s hard to forget the single that propelled her to fame back in 2011, and the accompanying video of the baby-faced rapper reciting the name of the track, I Don’t Give A Fuck.

Times have changed:  since touring with Tyga, Honey C has developed into a promising artist with her impressive new album Wildfire: a mix of her new R&B sound alongside rap tracks like Yea Yea Yea.

Yasmine

This Scarborough artist finally garnered some attention early last year, largely in thanks to the help of the local heavyweight arts collective, 88 Days of Fortune.

Her album No Squad In The Wild impressed with broody tracks like Late Nights, a reflection of her coming-out in Sublime, and raps that are kind of romantic, in a hard, down-tempo way.

Jelly Too Fly

This female MC has been around for a minute. She’s low-key, but definitely a staple at Toronto hip-hop events like Manifesto, NXNE and A3C. 

Though her Soundcloud has been fairly quiet over the years, Jelly can be seen in a recent Youtube clip performing her track Trauma Freestyle, released late last year. As the video shows, her skills are far from rusty.