Hey everyone from InPear Music, I'm Robin Hilton and today I'm excited to share the second episode of our new season of louder than a riot with you.

This season louder than a riot is digging into the unwritten rules of rap and the rule breakers who refuse to play nice.

In this episode they tell us the story of the first female MC, Sharok.

She's a rapper from the Bronx who laid the foundations of the genre as we know it, but she often gets left out of the history.

Because decades ago, Sharok had to deal with the hurdles that so many women in rap face today getting tokenized by her own peers and played by the industry.

It's a conversation about who gets to be remembered and who's left in the dust for reasons that go beyond skill and merit.

I hope you enjoy.

A warning before we begin. This podcast is explicit in every way.

Okay so yeah, so this is the Bronx Music Heritage Center. It's giving very much Bronx after school, painted piano, drumset, community center vibes, posters everywhere.

Good crowd, cute crowds. We're the youngest people in here.

Definitely the youngest people in here.

I'm here with my producer, Mono Sondarason, to see a Bronx hip-hop legend.

There's a small crowd in the community center. Grandmaster Kaz of the Cold Crush Brothers is cutting it up on the turntables.

As we make the rounds to get a sense of who's here, we see an older white man in the front row.

What's your name?

Charles Taylor Rance.

And what do you know about Sharok?

I was really into hip-hop, but I got into it later. I didn't know about her. I thought Chantay was the first, but Sharok was the first.

Kaz based out the music and people start quieting down. The woman of the hour takes the stage.

Her name is MC Sharok.

We are so happy to have on the stage the first female MC in the world.

Sharok got on big shades, gold hoop earrings, and a black leather jacket.

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