04. Hombre - M.I.A. (Arular, 2005)

In addition to her immense talent as an all-around artist, M.I.A. has the kind of sensual voice that’s meant to paint pretty pop songs. Yet, she opts to rap over heavy beats and distorted sounds instead. A loss for pop is a gain for rap, where too few female singers make the cut above ground. Her unique voice box gives her the edge over other rappers, as she retains a melody to her rapping that others often lose in the rapid fire spitting game. Her in-your-face attitude lends a certain tigress quality to her delivery: feisty, sexy, and at the odd times, even playful. I love Nicki Minaj, but nobody got miss Maya beat on this playground. Best voice in the genre, hands down.

Here she is, at the two ends of her sexiness:

{My 50 ALL-TIME FAVOURITE FEMALE VOCALISTS list continues (tagged Female Vocalists)! The criteria are simple: they are female of the species, I love their voice, and they have attempted to sing in English at one point in their career. The present list is focused mostly on the quality/uniqueness of their tone (voice box), and their ability to emote the hell out of the songs.}