Brittney Carter & Ang13 Talk Womanhood and Hip Hop in Chicago And Beyond

Written by Vocalo Radio on February 4, 2020

Ang13 and Brittney Carter are some of the finest MCs in Chicago and each represent a strong legacy of multigenerational female voices in the Chicago hip-hop scene. They sat down with Jill Hopkins in 2020 to chat womanhood, songwriting and the art of hip-hop ….

Angela “Ang13” Zone and Brittney Carter found themselves on the hip-hop scene at two very different times in the genre’s history — Ang got her start decades ago when she was 13 years old and has been a breakdancer, graffiti writer, MC and producer, while Brittney started writing in 2014 (when she discovered the Young Chicago Authors (YCA) writing workshops, where she learned from acclaimed poets Kevin Coval and Jamila Woods) Carter released her debut album As I Am in 2020.

Both artists, however, share an integral piece of their musical histories: they’ve both held their own in an industry historically dominated and controlled by men.

Jill Hopkins sat down with Ang13 and Brittney Carter on Feb. 4, 2020, a few days before their performance at Vocalo and Young Chicago Authors’ Winter Block Party on Feb. 8 of that year. The three discussed their experiences as women in Chicago’s hip hop scene, occupying multifaceted spaces within the scene and uplifting other female-identifying artists.

Ang and Brittney agree that, while the scene has grown more welcoming of diverse perspectives as recently as 2019, there is a necessity to spread empowerment to ensure women are no longer forced into boxes of societal expectations.

“You can choose who you want to be instead of falling into the mold of what they said you could be,” Ang13 expressed. “Women can be women. We’re everything.”