Does hip hop hate women?
Posted Dec 7 2007
Question from crowd
Does anyone foresee any major changes in mainstream hip hop?
Invincible
• Nobody has any idea, but they want the quick sell so it will probably get worse. Yet mainstream is being redefined through digital downloading and the power of sites such as My Space.
Joan Morgan
• Not worried about name-calling. Worried about power dynamics, the focus on language is narrowing.
• I don’t care what you call me if I’m winning, I’m not worried about name-calling, are you taking food out of my mouth. Those are the real issues
• Avoids NPR, CNN-limited to sound bites that don’t address real issues
• Talks about being 42 years old and views have changed, she can disconnect from hip hop, but not from being a Black woman, even back when she wrote the book (When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost), only two chapters were on hip hop
• She can talk about many issues, but is limited to being “that chick who talks about gender and hip hop”
Question from crowd
How can we get Black women to embrace “feminism?”
Joan Morgan
• They need exposure to broader discussion about what feminism means
• It’s even something that white women feel conflicted about
• Each generation needs to define the term for themselves
Davey D
• Hip hop is narrowly defined, young white kids challenging his authenticity whenever he talks about anything beyond the four elements (dance, rap, graffiti, DJing)
• On the other side, other people don’t see hip hop beyond the past five years—anything else doesn’t exist
• Master P was making positive records in the ‘90s. He was banging on the doors of KMEL but positive records didn’t sell. The white corporate types said he wasn’t street enough.
• Was with David Banner and watched him break down. He was attacked by his label for going on TRL to discuss Hurricane Katrina and not promoting his new album. He’s trying to do the right thing
• Brought up the psychological toll on males, these guys have millions and can’t be seen as vulnerable or conflicted
Question from crowd
Are fans more accountable than the artists? They do what sells so what’s fans’ responsibility?
Mark Anthony Neal
• Issue is deeper than money,
• Artists only get 7% of royalties and have no health insurance
• What also need to be taken into account is who distributes this stuff
• It’s easy to blame Flavor Flav, but that was one of the most popular shows in the history of television. It was created and marketed by a corporation.
• Corporations make Kanye VS Fifty—as if those were our only choices
• Cites new Angie Stone album, which names off Black geniuses that are never heard
• What about FCC? There are groups of White people who organize and watch for things and respond. When it came to Howard Stern and Janet Jackson they called and flooded companies with complaints
• How many Black folks call about Soulja Boy?
Question from crowd
How does one balance the division of being a woman and being Black?
Joan Morgan
• The first thing is refuse to choose, that denies your humanity and who you are
• When people want you to choose, it’s usually to collude in oppression eg)keep quiet about Isiah Thomas
• Second recognize that it’s tough, but recognize it and confront it
Question from crowd
How to move these discussions to actual change? Some of us drive home listening to Too Short.
Invincible
• Firstly, can’t oversimplify artists, Too Short says some things obviously, but he laid the blueprint for self sufficiency
• Shout outs mentor, activist Grace Lee Boggs-one thing Boogs emphasized, there is not one major shift, but rather, the combined small efforts that are independent and decentralized that make change
After reading your article I still think the same way. Women have a choice on what they want to do. sure there mind set is not as mature as an older woman but they still have a choice. They know how they are going to be viewed by their actions. I think the media is the one to blame because they show a certain image that its ok to be the way they are. I think that hip hop doesn't hate women because there have been a lot of women rappers in the game. There have even been positive up lifting women rappers like queen latifah.
This is one issue that I still don't know what to think on. When you look at hip hop today, the one thing that people think about is women wearing reavling clothes. Rappers today only use women as an accessory.This, I think, will never change. Sure some people like the artist Common let this affect him. From what I see he does not degrade women. Rappers are afraid of doing this because they think that their statues will go down. The only thing that is tumbling down is their respect for women.
After readng this article i changed some points but think the same about some to. I think that us as women are enough old to know what we want to wear and why we wear that type of clothes. But also I think that for me they prefer seeing a women with clothes that show a lot. On music the only thing they sing about is about women doing different types of activites. They talk about the guy having all the womens they wants and using drugs and drinking alcohol. Many of us don't really pay attention to the lyrics we just hear it and like it because of it's rythim but if we really pay a lot of attention to it we will understand that it only talks about women. Womens for men in a song is basically about a woment that goes every guy that they like and that it has money. On a way that they are trying to put the women in a bad place or that she is the worst person in life.But is rarely the time when there's a song that talks about a women suffering over a guys treatment. But i agree with the panel because is tru about the rappers having a kyric of women just as their game. Because if rappers if they talk about women being the victim or being nice in their lyriccsthey might getlower fans. And will start loosing money because they are talking good about women. But i just dont really understand the rappers why they decided to do it like that.
I think that people need to acknowledge female artist more often because then people wont have a reason to say that hip-hop hates women, also i think that when the rappers refer to women they way the do is because they think that women is ok with it when we're not. I hate when dudes try to call me out my name or refer to me as a female dog. I know thats not how their parents raised them. To me they are making their parents look bad because it seems like their parents didn't teach them how to respect women and thats not right.