Overview/Intro of the project

Reform Radio identified the lack of female rappers in the music industry, especially in the North. Funded by Arts Council England we developed a pilot to understand why. What happened next was nothing short of pioneering, and the women that joined the project went on to form a collective called HERchester, Manchester’s first all Female Rap collective. The women are paving the way for younger women to get into rap and have trained as facilitators to deliver work across the North, in the quest to diversify this genre.


How it started, how it evolved, where it is now

In May 2019 Reform Radio launched a pilot project, focused solely on finding female MC talent. Discovering a lack of women coming forward to take part in cyphers and lack of gender diversity when actively seeking to book female MCs we developed a pilot project with support from Arts council England to respond to this need.

We partnered with Manchester MC and recent BBC introducing artist, OneDa, to develop and lead this pilot project, which began on the quest of bringing together the aspiring Female MCs from across Manchester. The call out was heard and we instantly saw the spark ignite for these initial SIX/SEVEN? strangers, who were excited just by the prospect of this being the first time they had seen a gathering of female artists in the Manchester hip-hop and rap community.

Over the months that followed they got the opportunity to work side-by-side with OneDa, who helped them develop their lyric writing, performance skills and confidence as well as being provided with a space to record and connect with each other.