MA 260 / Week Two Discussion: Hip-Hop Music
Hip hop music is praised as a way of empowering minorities in joining our cultural conversation. In the same time, some hip hop artists, such as Snoop Dogg, are criticized for demeaning women in their music. What's your take on this issue?
From what I've heard and listened to, more than a fair amount of hip-hop songs contain lyrics that are less than kind to women. Back in the late nineties, I heard one of our school teachers complain about how annoyed she was with her then, teenage son; all he listened to apparently was men rapping about beating up women. These days, however, I, in my narrow observation, hear less about physical violence towards women and more about objectifying them. Songs like "Blow My Whistle," by Flo Rida, and "Sexy Bitch," by Akon, are just two examples of hip hop songs that while most will say are catchy, probably aren't considered to be feminist anthems either.
ReplyDeleteThe majority aside, there are those hip hop songs out there that preach the opposite; "Same Love," by Macklemore, for example, which talks about the hatefulness of discrimination and homophobia. So like most, things if you look quickly at the vast majority of hip hop, old and new, you'll find a lot of violence, drugs, money, sex, things like that. But also, I don't think it's fair to judge the genre as a whole, because as I said, there are plenty of songs out there that contain positive, poignant messages as well.
My take on the issue of hip hop music, is that yes it is very demeaning to women but even though Snoop Dogg and other hip hop artists are criticized for this, the fact of the matter is is that it is still being sold and heard on the radio and sung along to just like any other songs we hear on the radio and nobody does anything about it. Yes we can complain but what good does that do? I take Sir Mix-A-Lot's song "Baby got back" for an example. It objectifies women with big butts and says that women who are skinny aren't attractive. That may make us big butted people feel better about ourselves, but what about those skinny people? No matter who much they complain about this song or artist, we are still going to sing along with "I like big butts" every time it comes onto the radio. And that is my take on the issue of hip hop music.
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