Crush on You introduced The Queen Bee her most famous persona, who laid the foundation for contemporary female rappers to implement personas in their discography. “ I am a diamond cluster hustler, queen bitch, supreme bitch /Kill a nigga for my nigga by any means bitch, murder scene bitch /Clean bitch, disease-free bitch, check it /I write a rhyme, melt in your mouth like M&M’s,” she rapped on Queen Bitch, titled after her alter ego. On Hard Core, Lil Kim’s 1996 debut studio album, the Brooklyn rapper channelled her frustrations of being disrespected by her male counterparts in hip-hop and betrayal by Notorious B.I.G., her mentor and lover, through her several alter egos over the album’s tracks. “Black women’s screams are often purposefully ignored, but channelling that anger in music forces people to pay attention,” Brooklyn White wrote for Bitch Media. “People, when they meet me, expect that all the time, but that person is strictly for the stage.” Sasha Fierce – who was killed off in 2010 – enabled Beyoncé to embrace her rage in a society where black women, especially mothers, are refused the privilege of anger.
“Sasha Fierce was born when I did Crazy in Love,” Bey explained in a 2008 interview. “Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I‘m working and when I’m on the stage.” Split into a double album, Beyoncé and Sasha Fierce created the record’s duality as tracks transitioned from upbeat, electro-inspired pop to emotionally powerful R&B ballads. “I have someone else that takes over when it’s time for me to work and when I’m on stage, this alter ego that I’ve created, that kind of protects me and who I really am,” Beyoncé said in a press release for I Am… Sasha Fierce, her third studio album.