Hip Hop And Feminism Essay

Women will begin to either believe the words or hate men for saying them. No woman should ever feel like she is not worthy to have her own life or like she deserves nothing better than to be a man’s ‘side-hoe.’ There is no reason for women to be degraded this way. Luckily, not all rap music is like this. I did listen to some music that talked about how women should be respected, or how a man wants his girlfriend back and doesn’t care if they have sex or not. There is some rap that has deeper meaning, and that rap is actually good music.

Though there are quite a few songs based on hatred and anger, songs such as “i” by Kendrick Lamar and “Love Yourz” by J. Cole teach viewers to love themselves despite all the negativity in the world. As for songs regarding sexually exploiting women, there are songs that speak out against this as well. Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y” is the perfect example of a feminist rap song, saying “I’m not your personal whore, that’s not what I’m here for”. These songs prove that there is positivity in the hip hop

It reduces women to mere objects to be used and abused by men as they wish. Misogyny in the hip hop culture supports, glorifies and normalizes the oppression

Some show African American women as strong to build them up and others show them as weak or needy exchanging sexual favors to obtain a particular lifestyle (Stephens & Few, 2007). Identities of African American woman are defined and perpetuated by those who have always held the power to create and distribute messages in the music business. Misogynistic views in hip hop are narrated by male Hip-Hop artists, but distributed for economic gain by record labels usually ran by wealthy Caucasian man —making the commodification of sexually scripted African American women highly profitable (Rebollo-Gil & Moras, 2012). The media has various methods of exposing the negative images of African American women such as mainstream rap to being heard on the radio, projected on television, downloaded on the Internet and consumed on YouTube. In the world of Hip-Hop and Rap, the sexual objectification of African American women is obvious, “bitch” and “hoe” are common labels used to describe women or to add insult to injury labels women call themselves.

Hipster sexism is commonly executed with a sexist insult but in a funny way making it seem as if sexism is acceptable because “its just a joke” which is different from classic sexism in which someone may say that being raped is the victim’s fault. Hipster sexism thrives on the idea that no one thinks like a real sexist anymore, therefor sexist jokes are tolerable. Overall, hipster realise that hipster sexism is a problem because sexism matters in any shape or form and it should be dealt

“Rap is the rock 'n' roll of the day. Rock 'n' roll was about attitude, rebellion, a big beat, sex and, sometimes, social comment. If that's what you're looking for now, you're going to find it here.” (Simpson). Hip-hop is considered to be today’s counterculture known for it’s explicit hip-hop music and the ‘thug life’ it portrays. Many people consider hip-hop music to be brutish and a decline in music.

The music industry have been exploiting rappers and other artist for a long time. The Genius/GZA has a song called “Labels” were here raps about these labels wanting to practically own these artists. This plays into the idea the black people’s labour has always been exploited. Def gives warnings to those seeing hip-hop as a get rich quick scheme, that it not what they perceive it to be. He has some criticisms about hip-hop culture and the industry.

His greedy, inconsiderate, and criminal past are all stereotypes black people in America face. On the contrary, men were not the only black people to be discriminated. Black women were also a target of stereotypes. Wilson saw that in order to be successful or seen as an equal blacks had to conform to the most popular race’s ideals. Any ideas outside of this were shunned.

Have you ever thought about how the hip-hop culture affects the society? The negative influence of Hip-hop on society. Hip-hop culture has been identified by the lifestyles of many. Hip-hop encouraged violence throughout society. Hip-hop songs promote violent behavior and some of them drugs.

In its current form, rap music is doing very little good for its listeners and can have a negative impact on those who choose to listen. The issue is especially present in male rappers. The lyrics in these songs contain messages about mistreating women, causing violence, and have an unnecessary amount of profane language. Rap music greatly affects society's values, arguably in a very poor manner. A very present issues in rap lyrics is how the rappers talk about women.