- GIFTED GAB
First, first: My heart goes out to our neighbors in Snohomish County—the survivors, the families of the dead and missing in Oso, victims of a huge mudslide that crushed homes and cost at least two dozen (at last count) lives just 60 miles from Seattle. As we get embroiled in our own particular self-stuck minutiae, I hope you spare a thought to what you would do if the earth’s rug were pulled out from under you—or over you.
Now to business. Since stepping out with her scene-ganking appearance in the first Young Seattle video, and on her own Jordan V–covered two in 2012 with her debut, Queen La’Chiefah, Gifted Gab (aka the First Lady of Moor Gang™) has widely been regarded as one of the best female rappers from this corner of the country. The fact is—just like another XX-chromosomed MC from this region, Stas from THEESatisfaction—Gab isn’t just one of the best female rappers in the NW, she’s one of its best rappers, period, and should thus be included in all of those tedious conversations that dudes have, comparing art like basketball stats. This, I believe, is the impetus behind the name of her newest, the just-released Girl Rap.
