Sunday, 25 March 2012
Siya and Khaos da Rapper - Were you wanna be
Wow. I'm impressed. Lesbian rappers Siya and Khaos breaking through the scene... comment more on this later.
MC Lyte - Poor Georgie
Among the most influential emcees of all time, across
genders, MC Lyte’s critically acclaimed 1988 debut (full) album, Lyte As A Rock, was the first solo female rap album
ever released. Only seventeen with
the record dropped, the Brooklyn native who had been rapping since the age of
twelve carried on to become a hip hop (feminist) legend, busting open new space
for female artists and bringing messages of female respect to the masses. Her lyrics
are smart and witty, often taking on critical social issues such as misogyny,
poverty, violence, sex, drugs, money, death, government and love with a smooth
tomboyish charm. Her rhymes are always pragmatic, never pedantic. In 1993,
popular single, "Ruffneck," earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap
Single and turned out to be the first gold single ever achieved by a female rap
artist. Her second gold single, Keep on Keepin on (1996), appears later in this
compilation.
As one of the pioneering women of hip hop, MC Lyte made her
way into the hall of fame through flashing her skills, not her skin. She often
donned power suits, sports apparel, baggy jeans, and oversized jackets,
projecting a fierce no-bullshit femininity comin’ straight from the hood. In
many of her videos she alternates between girlish-styles and more G-styles,
exemplifying her ability to transition through a wide range of personas seamlessly
and without hesitation. As a straight woman, it’s so refreshing / empowering to
see a fly (hetero) female emcee dressed in baggy clothes, a style which today
would be considered highly unfeminine or even queer, rapping about what she
expects from a man who wants to get with her. I can’t think of any white women
who exemplify an equivalent type of female power, strong, bold, rough, fierce,
independent, sexy, and in control of her sexuality. Lyte oozes self-confidence
and technical prowess; after a short time of listening to her lyrics, “the
fiction you been living (she’s) gonna fill with facts!”
Heather B - All Glocks Down
"Long lived the rugged female Heather B.
So all you gun waving niggas put down your glocks please
No need for playing the hard anymore
The bulletproof lyricist is knocking at your door"
Monday, 19 March 2012
The difference between female sexual empowerment and female sexual sexual self-objectification
This music video, Dip It Low by Christina Millian features a light skinned, blond haired black woman dancing around in erotic costumes on a table in front of well dressed men at a party. While it appears that she may be in control of her sexuality, it's interesting that in early hip hop music, women would sing about men pleasing them, whereas in recent hip hop, women sing about pleasing men, such as in this song, where the punch line of the chorus of "dipping it down low" and "picking it up slow" is "I'm going to teach you how to make your man say oooooooooo".
The message in the music here is that women's sexuality is about pleasing men. While of course pleasing your partner is an important part of sexual relations, in a pornographic patriarchical post-feminist society which privileges and promotes men's sexual desires, it is vital that women promote messages about pleasing their own unique female sexuality, that women's music encourage men to learn to please women. It comes down to balance in the end. We need a balance of messages that promote sexuality in a rounded and complex way, instead of all mainstream music being about pleasing men. For example, have a listen to MC Lyte's s Keep on Keepin on...
IN this song Lyte raps about an incredibly sexy erotic encounter with a male partner, but it's about him pleasing her, about keeping up with her sexuality, about men vying for the privilege of enjoying her sexuality, as opposed to Millian's video about women working to be sexy enough to please your man. Lyte on the other hand has no question about the worth of her time, it's the men who need to earn her, not the other way around.
B-Boy, where the fuck you at?
I been looking for you're ass since a quarter past.
Hot peas and butter, baby, come and get your supper.
Before I make you suffer That's when you had enough-a
Can I get hot when you hit the jackpot?
Surely I can, if you the man.
I get loose and produce large amounts of juice.
Can you get used to that or do you need a boost of energy to enter me ang
get it on.
xox
Friday, 16 March 2012
Challenging Hip Hop's Masculine Ideal
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Kreayshawn has a slow and cutesy approach to rapping.
Kreayshawn has a slow and cutesy approach to rapping.
NY TIMES / Toure Published: December 23, 2011
HIP-HOP is primarily a celebration of black masculinity. Sure, there have long been significant black female and white male figures, but the majority of the conversation in hip-hop is and has always been about the actions, thoughts, feelings and ethos of black men. But this hegemony cannot last forever. Eventually the throne will have to be shared. The world of hip-hop has some diversity: Eminem, Mac Miller and Nicki Minaj now; the Beastie Boys, Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott in the past. We have respected rappers of South Asian descent: M.I.A. and Heems from Das Racist. But what about the American white woman? Could she ever rock the mic for real?
Bell Soto
Iggy Azalea, a highly sexualized M.C. in the tradition of Lil' Kim and Trina, is working at establishing her hip-hop bona fides.
Maggie Percell
K.Flay has a more melodic and semi-sung flow.
There are too many cultural consumers who love rappers and who love blondes to keep a collision of the two from occurring, especially when the dominant hip-hop consumer is the young white suburban male. Imagine if Pamela Anderson could flow, allowing him to get his hip-hop fix and his soft-core pornography fix at the same time. That would blow his mind.
There is nothing about the skills required to be an M.C. that makes it impossible for white women to rhyme. It’s not that their mouths can’t do it. The true barrier to entry is that there is an essence at the center of hip-hop that white women have an extraordinarily hard time exuding or even copying. For many Americans, black male rappers are entrancing because they give off a sense of black masculine power — that sense of strength, ego and menace that derives from being part of the street — or because of the seductive display of black male cool.
Black women and white men who have been successful in hip-hop have found ways to embody those senses and make them their own. But hip-hop coming from a white woman is almost always an immediate joke. Take Gwyneth Paltrow, for example, showing how much she loves hip-hop by earnestly rhyming the lyrics to N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” on a British television show or Natalie Portman furiously spitting rhymes in gangsta-rap style on “Saturday Night Live.”
As soon as white women start rhyming, no matter what they say, it’s seen as cute and comical, like a cat walking on its hind legs. Seeing them try to embody the attributes of hip-hop’s vision of black masculinity is a hysterical gender disjunction: they wear it as convincingly as a woman wearing her husband’s clothes.
Even when a talented vocalist like Lykke Li tried to make Rick Ross’s song “Hustlin” her own, she simply could not rise to the level of the song. The sense of danger or cool that black male rappers manifest so easily is hard for white women to display. Of course that won’t stop those who want to rhyme from trying.
If a group of white teenage boys conspired to construct their dream white female rapper they might come up with Iggy Azalea, 21, a sexy rapper with long blond hair, a model’s enticing looks and the detached, hyperconfident air of a dominatrix. She has an aggressive vocal approach and a silky flow. There’s nothing cute or comical about her rhyming. She lives in Los Angeles and grew up in a tiny Australian town idolizing Tupac and Grace Kelly. Now she’s a highly sexual M.C. in the tradition of Lil’ Kim and Trina. If the white women of the world can possibly produce one superstar rapper, Iggy Azalea could be it.
The best song on her mixtape, “Ignorant Art,” is all about her sexual power. It’s title is unprintable. There’s an ominous tone to the song, as if she could kill you in bed or turn you into a hopeless addict. “Hook ’em like crack,” she rhymes. “After shock/Molten lava drop/This should be outlawed/ Call me Pac.” Linking her bedroom potency to the power of the most important name in hip-hop is a bold statement but a familiar gesture in modern hip-hop.
The video features Iggy Azalea in yellow skin-tight, high-waist pants and high heels, flinging her ponytail and licking ice cream suggestively. It was shot in the same sort of South Central Los Angeles neighborhood we saw in the movie “Boyz N the Hood” and in Snoop Dogg videos, placing her in an area that is recognized by longtime hip-hop fans. She raps as she sits on a stoop and dances in front of an ice cream truck, surrounded by black people. The video begins with her eating breakfast as an older black woman watches. Although their relationship is not clear, all this proximity to blackness characterizes Iggy Azalea as a person who is no stranger to black culture and communities, suggesting it’s no anomaly for her to rock the mic.
Strangely, for a video so overtly sexual, she spends a lot of time with a black boy, maybe 6 years old, sweetly draped on her back or playing at her feet or making sexually suggestive moves on a toy horse. Is she bad at baby-sitting or does he represent a man she’s been with and dominated so completely she’s infantilized him? Iggy Azalea is unsigned, but she has high-powered management, so she won’t be for long. Expect a lot of noise to surround her 2012 debut album.
Where Iggy Azalea works at establishing her hip-hop bona fides, Kreayshawn, a 21-year-old from Oakland, Calif., plays with hip-hop signifiers but sees no need to establish her cred. She has black men in her video for “Gucci Gucci” but spends most of it with her white female D.J., who oddly looks like her twin, at her side. The first time I watched “Gucci Gucci,” which has become an Internet sensation with millions of views, my primary thought was “interloper.” Does she really understand or respect what hip-hop’s all about? I doubt it, but if her audience doesn’t, then it won’t hold her back.
She rhymes, “I’m lookin’ like Madonna, but I’m flossin’ like Ivana,” tying herself to rich white women as well as childishly simple rhyme patterns. The song is about a rejection of label worship. She says she doesn’t wear Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Fendi or Prada because everyone does, explaining that she’s liberated from the fashion establishment and able to create personal style without buying it from them. But in the video she hangs out on Rodeo Drive and at a party in a room at the Standard Hotel in Hollywood dancing in front of Warhol-print curtains. She wears a large Minnie Mouse-inspired bow on her head as well as the door-knocker earrings that were stylish decades ago in hip-hop, making her look like a retro caricature.
The song basically attacks a central tenet of hip-hop: Many rappers embrace labelism as part of their celebration of upward mobility as well as a postmodern sentiment that you are the brands you wear. Her rejection of that reeks of white-girl privilege. But similarly privileged people may find her message refreshing.
Kreayshawn has that slow, nasal, staccato, cutesy approach to rapping that you might expect if a white girl was making a rap song as a lark. She doesn’t come across as sexy or even very sexual. She’s more nerd chic. She calls her crew the White Girl Mob (as opposed to Iggy Azalea’s White Girl Team), and in her songs she repeatedly refers to women she loves as “bitch,” making certain we hear her doing what black rappers routinely do, using a pejorative slur in a transgressive way.
At one point in “Gucci, Gucci” she says, “I got the swag and it’s pumping out my ovaries,” which is intended to sound hard core but is kind of gross and self-satirical. She attended film school, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this were part of a guerilla documentary making fun of hip-hop.
More skilled and perhaps more interesting is K.Flay, 26, a Stanford graduate and a talented vocalist who uses rhyming as a sonic technique. Culturally she is not trying to push her way into hip-hop; she’s more of an indie rock chick. Her rapping is melodic and semi-sung, and on her most recent mixtape, “I Stopped Caring in ’96,” she samples indie groups like the xx and the Vines and talks about alienation:
Mind in a permanent state of flux
Mental double Dutch
Had a bag of Cheetos ate ’em up
3 p.m. and I’m still waking up
Wishing I could save myself, but I’m not brave enough.
She dresses like an un-self-conscious hipster, wearing T-shirts and Nike high-tops, little makeup and barely styled dark hair. K.Flay has no black people or hip-hop signifiers in her videos. She represents a generation of white kids who grew up with hip-hop but who weren’t obsessed with it so they feel rhyming is theirs to use without needing to pay homage to the culture.
Does the slight rise of white women pose a threat to the soul of hip-hop? Will this moment be recalled years from now as a crucial step toward the whitening of hip-hop, toward a world in which hip-hop looks the way rock ’n’ roll does: a neighborhood that’s been so completely gentrified that the kids have to be reminded that rock was once a black space? I don’t think so. It will take a lot more than a few white women to fundamentally impact hip-hop, which remains unbreakably connected to the spirit of black masculinity, for which America continues to hunger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/arts/music/white-female-rappers-challenging-hip-hops-masculine-ideal.html?pagewanted=all
(New School) k.Flay - We Hate Everyone
interesting representation of the sense of anguish and animosity that so many young people feel today...
Gillette ft. 20 fingers - Short Dick Man
I copy pasted this comment from youtube from user bettiboo21 in response to some comments that guys had written saying this was sexist and so on because I agree with her point:
Okay so It's okay for guys to say stuff like! I don't want a fat chick or I'm looking for a brick house. Or I LIKE BIG BUTTS!! But if a female says I don't want a little penis Oh she's a whore WOW!! Lol This is so double sided! truth be told most dudes that have a nice package laugh at this song and those who know how to use what they have. But I guess some guys prick are as big as there brains. WOW
Imani Coppola - Legend of a Cowgirl (1997)
"Spend all my money on absolutely nothing, need no man to pay for anythin"
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Jade - Don't Walk Away (1992)
While these lyrics aren't outright 'feminist', the 1990s trio Jade are worth a post, i just LOVE the fashion in this video. It reminds of Dangerous Minds, which influenced my own style when i was kid so much...
Saturday, 10 March 2012
The Multifold Goals of this Exploration into Hip Hop Feminism
1) to disseminate knowledge and awareness about the queens of hip hop whose intelligent and powerful rhymes send positive messages about women and about social issues;
2) to create an interactive forum where people can engage with the information and think about the critical subversive power hip hop and social justice and feminism social media;
3) to become versed in the history of women in hip hop and hip hop culture writ large, and produce both critical analysis and reflective writing accessible to mainstream audiences;
4) to engage other women in writing lyrics and learning how to produce music;
5) to challenge myself to overcome my insecurities about sharing my voice publicly and about creating music;
6) to collaborate with other artists who are using hip hop and electronic music to do meaningful and incredible work in their communities; and
7) to have fun doing it!!
2) to create an interactive forum where people can engage with the information and think about the critical subversive power hip hop and social justice and feminism social media;
3) to become versed in the history of women in hip hop and hip hop culture writ large, and produce both critical analysis and reflective writing accessible to mainstream audiences;
4) to engage other women in writing lyrics and learning how to produce music;
5) to challenge myself to overcome my insecurities about sharing my voice publicly and about creating music;
6) to collaborate with other artists who are using hip hop and electronic music to do meaningful and incredible work in their communities; and
7) to have fun doing it!!
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
MC Lyte (1993)
"I'm only here for the liking, not to be hit not slapped or kicked, so if you're coming my way you gotta be strong, strong enough to know hittin a woman is wrong.."
I'm a VIP with a MBA - MC Smooth
The shadow dancing ballerina dancers are soooooooo amazing!!
Brilliant lyrics.
"I weigh 140, but that's not much cuz its pound for pound and punch for punch"
" I never worry bout a man cuz a got my own..."
SO this music video is from 1990. The lyrics are about learning to stick up for yourself, not to stand abuse in a relationship, about how women deserve to be respected by men. Similar use of the neon colours in the black light was redone in 2011 in a Nikki Minaj video... sigh... i'll find it and post it here soon.
fyi. if anyone come across this blog it is far from "ready" .... i'm just posting vids so i dont forget them. analysis and commentary will be coming soon.
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