Rap's Misogyny · Monday June 12, 2006
It seems cliché to talk about the misogyny in today’s hip hop scene, but dammit, it’s so widespread and prevalent!
I went and saw Kool Keith at the Nightlight Lounge in Bellingham on Saturday, and although some of the opening acts were positive and supportive of women (particularly Seattle’s Universal Crew), Tash’s set was filled with degrading speech and liberal use of those old rap standbys, “hoe” and “bitch.” Care for some lyrics?
And of course, Kool Keith has built a career around rapping about sex, although in his case, it seems less of a dis toward women and more of an addiction to anything sex related, which is not really my realm of expertise. I’m no psychoanalyst!
According to his frequent shout outs, Keith prefers “amateurs” and “naughty neighbours” to the fake, airbrushed women that grace the pages of various adult publications, which I suppose is a more “real” approach to sexuality, but pulling up girls from the audience and going on and on about what’s going to happen at the afterparty isn’t really my idea of a respectful dialogue.
I don’t really know why I am posting about this, except that I vowed to put something up every day this summer and it appears that I reneged on my duties yesterday. And the fact that hip hop music could be such a positive force in society if mainstream rappers would stop glorifying violence, misogyny, homophobia, and all the other rubbish that you find on so many rap albums today.
Stop listening to so much fiddy and get into some Chuck D!
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Azure writes:
No more disclaimers!
This is worth posting about.
Race, gender, music, politics surrounding and within subcultures. No reason to apologize.
I have to go in to work now, but later we should talk about misogyny and hip hop.
For instance, why is it that I don’t care?
I can get myself to care on an intellectual level, but when I’m listening to it, the extreme misogyny doesn’t actually bother me. At all. Sometimes it does, but genereally I don’t feel offended. Is it because it is theatrical? Is it because gender politics are just different in hip hop culture? Is it because I am desensitized to that kind of language in that medium? Is it because the rhymes and the beats are just too good?
Also, I just went to the dentist and had an extremeley unpleasant teeth cleaning with SONIC WAVES. Worst teeth cleaning ever. It was like Merzbow freaked out and violently invaded my mouth. NOT RECOMMENDED.
posted Jun 13, 11:10 AM ~ #