Unfortunately, I have a case of terminal whiteness (Things Ozy Has Literally Said: “That 99 Problems is a nice song!”), so I haven’t talked much about rap music here, what with the not knowing anything about it or anything. However, recently, a couple of interesting anti-kyriarchy and rap music things have shown up on my desk.
First, this is a very interesting analysis at Racialicious by a hip-hop fan about sexism in rap music. In particular, I really like her avoiding a simplistic “gangsta rap is misogynistic!” argument (which, of course, it all too often is)* and instead looking at the reasons that gangsta rap is misogynistic. Within an environment of anti-black racism and without positive male role models, all too many black men and boys fall prey to femmephobia and oppositional sexism: to be feminine or female, to have emotions and nurture others and respect women and avoid violence, is lesser. All of that, of course, combines with already existent problems: racialized misogyny against black women, the appetite of some white boys for endless amounts of angry misogynistic music, and the tendency of kyriarchy to recommend as the solution to every problem shitting on the head of someone more oppressed than you. Read it. It’s good.
Second, the rapper Murs has talked about homophobia in one of his songs. (Transcript available at link; trigger warning for a murder-suicide at the end of the song.) It’s… not exactly subtle, but sometimes that’s exactly what we need.
Third, a friend showed me this mashup of Beethoven’s Fifth and Golddigger, and I am pretty sure it is the most brilliant thing on the entire planet.
*Does anyone else find it amusing that a bunch of white people are always like “holy shit, gangsta rap is misogynistic, WE CAN CRITICIZE BLACK PEOPLE NOW WITHOUT BEING RACIST!” As if gangsta rap is more misogynistic than, you know, metal. Take out the beam in your own eye, white people.
To comment on one small part of this excellent and illuminating article (the first link of which was very interesting and led me to more interesting reading), I feel your footnote is an interesting invitation for me to look at the music community I am part of (metal) with regards to sexism. I have to say that I have listened to metal of various sub-genres for a while, and the majority of songs that are overtly misogynist can be found in the glam rock and hair metal sub-genre, which are not genres that are particularly strong these days. (Steel Panther… Read more »
Wait, metal is misogynistic? Maybe I am just incredibly mainstream in my tastes, but most metal I’ve listened to is either about body parts, vaguely breaking the law, testosterone-powered perseverance, or history and religion. Apart from the conspicuously self-aware Mindless Self Indulgence most of them don’t even venture into the same zip code as gender issues. Have I completely missed something or is my taste in metal just incredibly PC?
No, you’re right; I’m a big metalhead and I don’t really understand the dig at metal either.
Now, granted, I have definitely seen misogynistic metal before, but then again I’ve also seen this song, so I don’t think that shit is generalizable.
There IS a problem with 99% of metal musicians being dudes (and, if one of them ISN’T it’s always the singer), but that seems like a different problem.
Female metalhead here also bewildered. The closest I can come is some of the more recent Marilyn Manson albumns where he’s still cut up over his divorce and it kinda come out, and even then it’s pretty vague.
Yeah, a bit lost.
““gangsta rape is misogynistic!”
Um, that’s quite the typo…
Actually, i’d say that gangsta rap [i]is[/i] more misogynistic than metal – at least in terms of the topics covered, lyrics and videos. I don’t feel qualified in comparing attitudes in the actual communities, as i’m rather outside both of them. Otherwise, that is a very good point – it does seem that there’s a certain set of white people who jump onto any opportunity to ‘legitimately” criticize black culture rather… gleefully.
Within an environment of anti-black racism and without positive male role models, all too many black men and boys fall prey to femmephobia and oppositional sexism: to be feminine or female, to have emotions and nurture others and respect women and avoid violence, is lesser. All of that, of course, combines with already existent problems: racialized misogyny against black women, the appetite of some white boys for endless amounts of angry misogynistic music, and the tendency of kyriarchy to recommend as the solution to every problem shitting on the head of someone more oppressed than you. Way to infantalize rappers… Read more »
Personally, I think that understanding the reasons behind someone’s behavior and excusing that behavior are two completely different things. For instance, if I say that one of the reasons that rapists commit rape is that we live in a culture that systematically disrespects consent and bodily autonomy, that does not mean that I’m saying that rape is excusable. It means that people do not do things For The Evulz, but for reasons that make sense to them. My opinion is that all men, all people, grow up in an environment of sexism, misogyny, and femmephobia, and this leads to a… Read more »
It begs the question of why you didn’t explain how those reasons differ from that of metal. Is metal worse (reading your sarcasm) because the content is worse, or because it’s white people committing the same (or lesser) lyrical offenses? If so, how isn’t that excusing bad behavior?
One thing is that rap seems to be more popular at least to me. Also, rap has the interesting race element that metal deos not.
Another interesting article on homophobic lyrics in hip hop, this one by Twin Cities artist Brother Ali: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brother-ali/hip-hop-homophobia-_b_1864676.html?utm_hp_ref=arts&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008