First female rapper to win Best New Artist at the Grammys

Lauryn Hill (USA) was named Best New Artist at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards in 1999. Hill won five Grammys from 10 nominations at the 1999 ceremony (both single-year records for a female artist at the time), including Album of the Year for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Despite subsequent nominations for the likes of Nicki Minaj (2012), Iggy Azalea (2015) and Lizzo (2020), it would be 22 years before another female rapper took home the award, when Houston native Megan Thee Stallion (b. Megan Pete) won Best New Artist at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards on 14 March 2021. It was the first time that as many as three rappers – male or female – had been nominated for the award, with Chika (b. Jane Chika Oranika) and Doja Cat (b. Amala Dlamini) joining Megan Thee Stallion in the eight-person category.

Hip-hop collective Arrested Development (1993), Macklemore (b. Ben Haggerty; 2014) and Chance the Rapper (b. Chancelor Bennett; 2017) have previously won Best New Artist at the Grammys.