If you’ve been paying any attention to the discourse surrounding female rappers lately, you’ll likely be aware of a common complaint about rap’s recent slate of it-girls, who take more than their fair share of abuse online for making rap that breaks from traditional, street-centric, tough-guy content in favor of twerk-ready, independent woman anthems. While those men (it’s always men) are wrong, rap’s latest it-girl offers something completely different. Meet Scar Lip, the Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised mic menace whose single “This Is New York” has her dominating viral playlists and rapidly becoming one of hip-hop’s most recognizable faces.
Who Is Scar Lip?
Born Sierra Lewis sometime around the turn of the millennium (not a lot of biographical info is readily available about this burgeoning star), Scar Lip had a rough upbringing, resulting in the injury that gave her her stage name and a devil-may-care approach to rhyming (and life) that has many fans comparing her to a young DMX, who she counts as an inspiration alongside the rap group Onyx. Those influences show in her flow.
While a number of similarly tough-talking female lyricists have risen from the gritty streets of New York (among them: Cardi B, Lola Brooke, Nicki Minaj, and more), Scar Lip raps like the living embodiment of the phrase “mad brick” — both the local idiom meaning “it’s hella cold” and, well… imagine very angry masonry flying at your face. That’s how Scar Lip raps. Every bar is a big brass barbell being flung by the most brolic and belligerent weightlifter in the gym.
A sample from “This Is New York”: “This is New York, f*ck I look like tellin’ a n**** good morning?”
That’s the first line, by the way. Scar Lip’s exaggerated hostility has captured rap fans’ imaginations thanks to tracks like “New York” and “Glizzy Gobbler” and her viral Funk Flex freestyle, leading to appreciation from newfound peers like Swizz Beatz, who put her on his Hip-Hop 50 EP alongside fellow NY stalwarts Benny The Butcher and Jadakiss, Shaq, who recruited her for his “Bodies Freestyle,” and Snoop Dogg, who added his voice to a “This Is Cali” remix.
Although she’s yet to release a full-length body of work (and test fans’ tolerance for 20+ minutes of unhinged bars like the sample above), there’s certainly a lane for her hyper-aggressive style among more laid-back contemporaries like Ice Spice and Latto. And with so much support from hip-hop’s old heads (who probably miss when the genre radiated an air of danger compared to the more emo-friendly material on tap today), she’s got the headwinds to take her far after signing with Epic Records earlier this week. Ready or not, here she comes.
Check out some of Scar Lip’s signature tracks below: