Although I feel like in some cases hip-hop does represent all black people both men and women in a very positive manner, the majority of
mainstream hip-hop is dominated by misogyny.
Hip-hop reinforces the welfare mom stereotype, it justifies
men not raising their kids, and it justifies and promotes domestic violence. Most young black men do not realize how
sexist they really are. Unaware of the
power of our words, we totally ignore the fact that we make it twice as hard
for black women to grow, mentally, emotionally, socially, and financially.
We rarely hear male rappers, spitting positive lyrics about
women. Not saying that these lyrics are nonexistent,
simply saying they do not receive enough attention in the mainstream.
There are rappers that make a conscious effort to use respectful
lyrics when speaking about women. One
that comes to mind is Common. He is not
as popular within mainstream hip hop.
Although corporations recognize his talent, they do not necessarily want
to hear his message. Some black males reject
Common altogether due to his lyrical approach, and consider him extremely soft.
Some rap contradicts itself, by honoring a women for her
love and devotion, but still comes off as misogynistic due to the fact that the
male rapper is referring to his love as a bitch.
One example comes from the second most influential hip hop
artist of my time, Biggie Smalls. A
hip-hop “classic”, an inner city love anthem titled “Me and My Bitch”. I totally ignored the word bitch, and just
thought it was a good song. Recently, I
listened to it again.
The lyrics suggest that Biggies girlfriend was more of a
sidekick than an actual girlfriend or partner.
He talks about beating her if she acts up. He talks about cheating on her from time to
time. In the end his actions actually
got her killed.
Another example that comes to mind is T.I.’s “Chilling with
my Bitch”. It’s another example of a
song in which the young male is clearly expressing his affection for his
lady. Again I feel like the lyrics suggest
T.I.’s woman is more of a sidekick.
The
fact that he is announcing that he is going to take a day to hang out with his
lady suggests that this is not his lady at all, but rather the female he shows
more affection compared to other women the young man is messing with. Instead of hanging with friends he makes an
exception to hang out with his lady. As
a man, that seems backwards, but as a young man I thought that he was a good
man for deciding to hang out with his “bitch”.
This ideology is
common among African American males both young and old. Although they may not be intentionally trying
to make songs that promote infidelity; Fact of the matter is, they are. Biggie’s
song takes it a step further casually talking about beating her.
Biggie, and T.I. add another obstacle to the already complex
task of repairing the black family. How
do we erase the idea that it is okay to cheat on our women? More importantly than that, how do we erase
the idea that it’s okay to hit our women?
The idea has been embedded into the majority of young black males
through movies, politics, TV, sports, school, and music.
Although most men do not realize it, the word Bitch is the
most disrespectful word you can call a woman.
It is the equivalent to the word nigger for black people. It’s been used to subjugate and oppress women
for centuries. It’s hard to find
mainstream rap music that does not use the word bitch to describe a woman.
One could make an argument that mainstream hip-hop
influences how the white dominant culture view black women.
All men, white black or whatever justify the use of the word
bitch by pointing out a woman’s actions.
These actions in some cases can be as small as a woman ignoring a man
trying to hit on her, or something that truly hurts, like a woman using a man,
showing him affection with the sole purpose to receive money and other gifts.
I may be speaking
from a misogynistic point of view but I really do not like when humans take
advantage of each other in any capacity, but especially when it comes to emotional
and mental stability.
Black men are either unaware, or genuinely disinterested in
the consequences of their negative lyrics towards black women, they give all
other men and women of other ethnicities permission to judge and form negative
false perceptions of black women.
The reality is that black women are the hardest working
demographic in the nation. For every 100
black men in college there are 200 black women.
The lyrics we hear on the radio do not reflect that. There have been many attempts by men to distinguish
what type of women is a bitch. My favorite
rapper Tupac Shakur, has lyrics full of misogyny. Tupac has a song called “Wonder why they call
you Bitch”.
Tupac uses a misogynistic moral approach basically saying a
women is a bitch for reasons as follows:
·
A women that only talks to rich men, or men she
thinks are rich either based on deception by the man, or just an assumption
made by the woman based on the visual appearance of the male.
·
Sleeps with lots of men. The fact that a man regardless of the amount
of sexual partners he has can determine whether or not a woman is morally wrong
is a contradiction in itself. Whether we
agree with a person’s actions, it should never give us the right to label a
person. One of the most common sayings
in the inner city is “you cannot turn a hoe into a house wife.” Some men right now would tell you this statement
is true. So caught up in image, some would actually leave a woman with “bad”
reputation. It can be as bad as a young
man leaving a woman to raise the child on her own.
Another artist who has tried to distinguish the difference
between “bitches” and “women” is Jay-Z. One
song of his comes to mind, is off the Blueprint 2, titled “Bitches and Sistes”.
In “bitches and sistes”, Jay-Z compares what “women” do, to
what “bitches” do. He bases this off his
experience with women. Although he may
not realize it, Jay-Z is attempting to define womanhood from a male’s point of
view.
That’s where we have
to take a step back and ask ourselves is it our place to do that? Some would say yes. I however feel that if we try and define
womanhood, without any idea of what it’s like to be a woman we end up with a
very blurry view of what a woman should and should not be.
Without a women’s perspective to counter this song, this
message becomes a dominant view.
Tupac and Jay-Z are
the biggest rappers of their respective times.
The influence they have over the masses is comparable to the Beatles,
Elvis, or any other big star who influenced the culture of not only their communities
but the world. So when men hear these types
of songs, they buy into these lyrics.
They don’t think about alternative ways to view women.
Although I do not like the word bitch when used to refer to
a woman. I cannot write off hip hop because of that.
As I write this, I have gone back and forth as to whether or
not these men are wrong for using these misogynistic lyrics. I cannot answer that.
I keep getting caught up on the fact that at one point if
not now, these kids, as well as men were expressing themselves and talking
about what they experienced. As I have
gone back and listened to all these songs, I hear the hate, and anger towards
themselves as well as women. I question
how black critics of Hip Hop, like Maxine Waters, and Oprah ignored these lyrics, and simply wrote them off
as disrespectful.
Not one person listened to the music and thought, that although
the language was a problem, the bigger issue was how these kids came to think
the way they did?
If we eliminate the root of the problem than it’s much
easier to eliminate negative views of women.
One would have to look at the 70’s and the dismantling of
the black panthers, Blaxploitation movies and the glorification of the
pimp. Look at the crack epidemic of the
80s, and the breakdown of the family.
Boys growing up resenting their mothers for things ranging
from choices in men, and/or drug use, to working long hours. It may be a result of having a father who
beats and disrespects his lady. So many potential
issues that are ignored when questioning the use of misogynistic lyrics.
The biggest issue is the absence of other views to counter
the misogyny. In the 90s you had female
MCs like Mc Lyte, and Queen Latifah, as well as male MCs in the mainstream that
would balance out the ultra-misogynistic views of other artists. Sad to say, that’s not the case today.
Even the biggest female rap artist Nicki Minaj uses the word
bitch to describe herself. I don’t agree,
from a male perspective, it seems like she is setting women back a few decades.
I am not a woman
though, it would be
interesting to know what the majority of women thought
about Nikki Minaj?
M.O.B., which stands for money over bitches. Another term is bad bitch which I still don’t get.
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