Black Women in Rap Essay -- Essays Papers

Back That Ass Up A Discussion of drear Women in Rap You can put it in your rima oris I said your mothafuckin mouth I said your mothafuckin mouth And you could just eat me out What do ya choose to lick? You could eat me out septic or dick? Within the booming business that has become the rap macrocosm, certain musical themes and issues are more prevalent than most. In addition to such topics as drugs, alcohol and police brutality, a dominant theme within rap music is the denigration and derision of women. Indeed, as the above lyrics to Akinyeles song drift It in your Mouth illustrate, many male rappers use violent and misogynistic lyrics to create an image of women that is both degrading and disgusting. The graphic and shocking nature of this particular eccentric of rap causes it to be widely publicized, and thus it serves as a definition of rap for a majority of people today. However, there are a bout of distaff artists within the rap music genre spreading messages of female empowerment and respect, not denigration. These female artists, often ignored due to the hype ring their male counterparts, use their lyrics to create raps which focus on life as women dealing with issues of love, power, and discrimination. The face of women in rap culture is both multi-faceted and contradictory. The rap world has many different dynamics, including economics, racism, sexism, and violence. How do these relate to black female rappers? What is the role of the feminist rapper within rap culture? What is the message of black female rappers and how is that conveyed within their music? Why are women exploited, i.e. verbally demeaned and abused within rap songs being turned into objects of sexual violence and denigratio... ...Music in African American Culture. Mediated Messages and African American Culture Contemporary Issues. Ed. Venise Berry, Carmen L. Manning-Miller. Thousand Oaks Sage Publications, 1996. Mies, Maria. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scal e Women in the International Division of Labour. New York Zed Books, 1998. Roberts, Robin. Ladies First Queen Latifahs Afrocentric Feminist Music Video. African American Review. 28.2 (1994) 245-257. Rose, Tricia. Black Noise Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America . Middletown Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile. Black Feminist Cultural Criticism. Ed. Jacqueline Bobo. Malden Blackwell Publishers, 2001. Ya Salaam, Kalamu. It Didnt Jes Grew The loving and Aesthetic Significance of African American Music. African American Review 29.2 (1995) 351-375.