Opinion: Misogyny in Hip Hop
posted by Tyjahn Stokes | February 19, 2021 | In News, OpinionMusic, oftentimes, can be a reflection of society. And African American music genres can be a reflection of what Black people are dealing with during that time.
Look back at every era, whether it was Jimi Hendrix, N.W.A, Tupac Shakur, or even currently with Kendrick Lamar or Fayetteville native J. Cole. In every era, there was always a movement being spearheaded by somebody that is Black trying to invoke change.
Even now, with the murder of Breonna Taylor, another movement that is very huge is the “Protect Black Women” movement with Megan Thee Stallion performing on S.N.L., with those words staring at the S.N.L. crowd, as she performed her hit song “Savage.” However, in hip hop, which is a male dominated genre, do Black men do their best to protect their women?
One person who was very critical of the genre was former Pennsylvania Secretary of State C. Delores Tucker back in the ‘90s, who marched with one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr, and helped in the fight for equal rights. She was highly critical of the legendary Death Row Records, and specifically highly critical of Snoop Dogg and the late great Tupac Shakur for their lyrics. Her stance was against lyrics that demeaned Black people and was also against the misogynistic and violent lyrics during that time, according to ExplorePAHistory.com.
Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, professor of sociology and race relations at University of Pennsylvania, agreed with those criticism, writing in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education: “If a group of people want others to respect them, they have to respect themselves.”
This quote is interesting, as this quote can ironically go against women. Case in point, women calling themselves female dogs or any other derogatory words. Or even with the name of rapper Trina’s first album: “Da Baddest Bitch.” So why stop saying that word when women have taken that word which was initially negative and made it a positive word to wear on their sleeves?
FSU students also had some insightful thoughts about misogyny in hip hop.
Timothy Crumel, a hip hop fan said: “Hip Hop does contain some misogyny, depending [on] what you listen to… ” with artists such as, “Big K.R.I.T., Wale, Kendrick Lamar, Common, J. Cole, among others who have made songs about Black women. But the issue is not necessarily just one song being made about Black women, it is the overall umbrella and undertones and words, especially in a time where women are becoming more sexually liberated.”
Crumel continued: “The artist [is] the problem but not the actual genre of hip-hop. Our generation is overly saturated with sex and popular artists such as Cardi and Megan [and] they it to their advantage. The issue arises when women say that only male rap [artists] are misogynistic. No artist feels one way all the time. Hip hop expresses how an artist feels in the moment. I don’t believe it to be misogyny if lyrics were disrespectful to a specific woman.”
Thus, as society moves back and forth on this issue. Hip hop is very subjective and is a form of expression, so what means one thing to one person can oftentimes be different to the other person. One thing that can be agreed on if you are an African American male is they must always protect Black women against the common enemy, and stand up for Black queens. But how we can fix this issue simply comes from one person: ourselves. Only time will tell as a society how we decide to deal with this issue.
Photo courtesy of Judy van der Veldon
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.