Female Cultural Identity in the Formative Years of Hip-Hop Culture, 1975-1985. (original) (raw)

Introduction: Savage and Savvy: Mapping Contemporary Hip Hop Feminism

2020

This special issue is dedicated to the bad bitches. The ratchet women. The classy women. The hood feminists. The "feminism isn't for everybody" feminists. Those women, femmes, and girls who continuously (re)present and (re)construct Black girl/womanhood. The creatives, the innovators, the women that are "often imitated, but never duplicated." This issue is dedicated to you and the ways in which you challenge us to (re)define what it means to be Black girls/women in this world and what it means to reclaim power over your own representation and images. This issue is for you, defined by you, and inspired by you. The Hip Hop Feminist Journey Fashioned from the work, tenacity, creativity, and strength of women in Hip Hop and the generation of women born from Hip Hop, Hip Hop feminism celebrates women's love for the culture and their battle for identity, representation, and respect. While women have been continuously breaking barriers in Hip Hop since its inception in the 1970s, scholarship at the nexus of Hip Hop and feminism can be traced back to Tricia Rose's Black Noise (1994) and Joan Morgan's When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost (1999), who both note the contradictory and complicated space Black women occupy within 1990's Hip Hop culture. 1 While some scholars may differentiate between scholarship that studies Hip Hop through a feminist lens and Hip Hop feminism scholarship, we contend that both authors represent the foundations of what we call today, Hip Hop feminism. Both authors remarked on the influence of Black feminist foremothers on the changes in women's relationships with themselves and the everchanging culture, while pushing for the need to craft a feminism that represents the women of the Hip Hop generation. Rose began her examination of feminism in Hip Hop with a discussion of Black women rappers' themes of sexual politics, racism, and sexism. Rose argues that Black women rappers revolutionized Black women's representation by challenging white hegemonic and male-centered dominance in Hip Hop culture,

Women in Rap Songs: A Difference between Male and Female Voices

2021

Studies on feminism is no longer novel in the area of research as several works of literature already established its relevance and implications especially in literary studies like a short story (Dials, 2017; Salayo & Macam, 2018; Salayo & Macam, 2020), poetry (Ika, & Aditya, 2018; Suhadi, Baluqiah & Mariansyah, 2017), novel (Fitriana, Tolla, Jasruddin & Mahmudah, 2019), and other literary-based criticisms. The richness of literary research has further proved that literature serves as a tool and platform to shape women's empowerment, representation, and identity. This makes literature a "silent but powerful form of activism for women" (Dadawala, 2018, p. 131). From literary to performing arts, music and music videos are also considered tools in investigating the position and role of women in society, which further establish womenrelated issues on empowerment. However, behind the growing literature on this topic, there Abstract Hip-hop has become a male-dominated indust...

Hip-Hop feminism: The Language of Hip-Hop

Hip-hop is a multi-faceted movement where art holds true to anti-societal, nonconforming, and feminist ideologies through various elements such as the expression of lyrics, identity, and performativity in dance, song, and theatre. The irony that follows hip-hop is the roots that which fuels the culture both ideologically and artistically; it is the very culture that creates the beautiful blend of melodies as well as creating a social testament of street poetry and therapy. Therefore, the music of hip-hop serves as a feminist pedagogy, a form of street literature and education, and a revolutionary tool to the new literary generation of social and cultural politics. To elaborate in this brief essay on hip-hop feminism, it is best to clearly define what I mean by feminism as it pertains to the music industry and how it is perceived in the Black and Latino community as the main consumer of the hip-hop scene. The following will elaborate on the definition of hip-hop feminism and specifically what aspects of feminism are illustrated through the various art forms of hip-hop.

The Position of Women in Rap Music in the Context of Gender

Motif Akademi Halkbilimi Dergisi, 2024

Rap music has become very popular and has managed to fascinate its audience, recently. Rap music draws attention the problems with its rhythm it addresses as well as the social issues. It is not only entertains its listeners but also informs them. One of the subjects that this genre of music deals with is women. In a way, it shows the position and importance of women in society. Women in rap music lyrics are analysed in the context of gender. This study is a qualitative research. The findings were found by the method of literature review on the themes of gender norms, humiliation of women, women's roles and sexism within the framework of gender by examining the women mentioned in rap music lyrics, and women in rap music lyrics were analysed by content analysis. From the Rap Music 2022 Playlist of May prepared by the Youtube platform, 10 of the songs with the highest number of listeners and dealing with the theme of women were selected as samples. The findings of this study show that there are women stereotypes and violence in the framework of gender in rap songs analysed as in daily life, and their bodies are prioritized, not a social problem of women.

Schoolin women_ hip hop pedagogies of black women rappers.pdf

iii For my mother Linda Espree and my grandmother Lovenia Espree I extend my appreciation to my other-mothers: Lucille Woodard, my favorite "aunt"; Easter Bennett, the world's best mother-in-law; and Maude Minnis, my newest other-mother. They are all wise women who continue to teach me the value of patience, humility, and faith in God. v I thank my dear friend Patricia Brazier-Carter for giving me an office with a computer all to myself. They saved my writing. Thanks to Tyler and Tysyn Brazier-Carter who keep me laughing and hopeful. I thank Angela Newman, my neighbor and friend, for lifting my spirits with her thoughtfulness. I thank Melonee Wicker for always making me feel calmer and more confident about writing my dissertation. I thank Tonia Williams-Horton for listening, listening, and more listening. I am very thankful to my LSU family, especially Brian Casemore, Tayari kwa Salaam, and Eugena Whitlock, who served as peer readers,

Explicit Content: Hip Hop, Feminism, and the Black Woman

Governors State University, 2017

This work uses grounded theory and the framework of Black feminist thought to analyze the messages in contemporary hip hop music. Grounded theory was chosen to create an unbiased setting that allowed the themes to emerge rather than looking for specific occurrences. The beginning sections focus on the history of hip hop music, Black women in media and hip hop culture, hyper-masculine blackness, before reviewing key points in Black feminist thought. The top twenty hip hop songs from 2016 were studied lyric by lyric and coded into various themes resulting in three main areas of study: Formation of Black Femininity, Hyper-Masculine Blackness, and Foundations of the Hip Hop Community. These areas are specifically connected to the history of both the hip hop and Black communities. Following the analysis of lyrics, the real messages portrayed in hip hop will be discussed and what these messages could potentially mean for the hip hop community presently and going forward.

A rhetorical analysis of the meaning of the “independent woman” in the lyrics and videos of male and female rappers

ts-si.org

Using the concept of intersectionality, this rhetorical analysis combines feminist and critical cultural theories to explore the meanings of the -independent woman‖ in the lyrics and respective videos of male and female rappers. Findings indicate both groups use misogynistic language to describe women and juxtapose images of independence with material wealth. However, male rappers are more likely to include messages of beautiful, overachieving women paired with average men while female rappers focus on their own sexual prowess. Also worth noting is while male rappers highlight domestic skills such as cooking and cleaning, female rappers do not mention them at all. Based on viewer feedback, it appears very few viewers explore the true meaning of independence and relationships. This study is of significance because rap music is a large part of popular culture that scholars must continuously analyze for new messages and meanings.

Oppositional consciousness within an oppositional realm: The case of feminism and Womanism in Hip Hop, 1976- 2004

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, through the examination of women’s rap music from 1976 to the present, that women in rap have maintained a dually oppositional stance within hip hop culture. On the one hand, this stance has allowed Black and Latino women to critique the sexism of men of their same race or ethnicity, using hip hop as a platform. On the other hand, this stance has enabled Black and Latino women to express solidarity with men of their same race or ethnicity in their critique of and struggle against mainstream society’s racism, classism, and race-d sexism (which affects both women and men of color). One feature of the second aspect of women’s oppositional stance in hip hop is that it has allowed “everyday” women of color to critique and contest certain aspects of mainstream (including academic) feminism. After presenting a brief historical overview, we will buttress our central thesis by advancing three major propositions: (a) hip hop presents feminism and w...