Now and Then

Is it just a coincidence that most contemporary popular black female singers and emcees all share a striking resemblance to blonde-haired, white skinned Barbie?? Or does the white supremacist process of commodification have something to answer for?
Clockwise from top left: Lil’ Kim, Beyonce, Nikki Minaj, Eve, Rihanna.

In the golden age of hip hop, black female emcees exemplified a range of personal styles, from the sexy and fresh looks of Salt n’ Pepa to the African queen look of Latifah, complete with a crown, to the baggy ‘hood’ look of conscious daughters. Note the more natural, less chemically treated hair(styles).

Left to Right from top: Salt n’ Pepa, MC Lyte, Mia X, Roxanne Shante, Queen Latifah, Conscious Daughters.

Sista Souljah... just watch it..

I found out about Sista Souljah in a chapter of Why White Kids Love Hip Hop by Bakari Kitwana explaining how Bill Clinton publicly repudiated her statements about racism in America. Interested sparked, by the story and by her name alone, I came across this video along with a few others of her speaking in interviews and discussions... WOW!!!! THIS WOMAN IS ON FIRE!! I am in awe.. her clarity, her poise, her courage, her articulation, her passion, her truth, SHE SPEAKS!! I oftern feel a voice like hers is inside of me, a voice unafraid to speak the truth, the truth that makes so many white people, so many men, so many people sooooo uncomfortable...

My skin is white, yes. But this does not make me an enemy. It makes me accountable. It is my responsibility to learn as much as I can about the history of my people, and the horrors they have inflicted upon other people, and do everything in my power to try to make right these harms. I don't know enough of her to know whether her politic is strictly racial, or if it is intersectional, if she breaches racial borders and speaks to issues of gender, of class, of sexuality... Regardless, the pure fierceness / fearlessness of her voice inspires me to find my own truth and learn to stand behind it. I am afraid to speak our against patriarchy because I fear men will think I'm speaking against them, and I don't want to be misinterpreted. Something that Sista Souljah says in the beginning of one of her interviews to the white male interviewer really stood out for me: "I don't make work for you to interpret it. I make for black young people so they can understand that we are at war, that we have to be strong minded, that we have to be unafraid of expressing ourselves and gettting what we want in this society." Amen Sista.

Salt n Pepa - None of you business!!

My favourite verse from this song and my new relationship mantra: "I treat a man like he treats me!!"

When I was in high school I didn't want to date anyone because I was so put off by all the gossip and slut-calling of girls who were sexually active. I want(ed) my sex life to by MY sex life but I knew that would be impossible until I left school and entered the "real world." When it come to intimate details, I play my cards close to my chest and expect my partners to do the same.

Women's sexual histories have long been publicly scrutinized and used to discredit and shame them. In court, women who are raped are often presented as easy, as sluts, the argument being therefore they "must" have consented. Chastity and sexual purity is expected from "good" women throughout many cultures.

HEY!! FUCK YOU!!!! MY SEX LIFE IS NONE OF YOUR  BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!

The video feature intimate partners of mixed racial backgrounds and mixed genders, with one of the most sensual scenes featuring a stunning blonde Claudia Schiffer look-a-like nuzzling a gorgeous brown-skin brother. So the message is not only is it none of your business what I do, it's also none of your business who I do it with!!

Long Live the early 90s!!! Conscious Daughters

The Conscious Daughters, what a name, and what smooth beat... this track is an ode to the days where female rappers were valued as rappers, not as skirts / hot ass. The duo, Carla "CMG" Green and the late Karryl "Special One" Smith, both have deep voices tonally and dress in baggy pants and jackets, often colour coordinated. Hardcore rap, these ladies rap about real socio-political issues on their album Ear to the Street. For example, "Shitty Situation" angrily describes the plight of a young single mother who gets no support from the baby's father, while "Wife of a Gangster" paints a sobering picture of the violent world that a criminal's wife faces on a daily basis. "We Roll Deep," however, is memorable not because of its lyrics but because of its effective sampling of a Lonnie Liston Smith jazz-pop instrumental from the early 1980s. The Smith sample brings a taste of acid jazz to the CD, but make no mistake: Ear to the Street is a hardcore rap album first and foremost." (see review from All Music).

bell hooks - critique on the commodification of rap music

so what does it mean when white feminists criticize black male rappers for their misogynist and violent lyrics instead of going after their / (our) own white brethren who are the ones purchasing the music, the demographic the music targets? What does it mean that young white males are the primary consumers of the genre that has the most harmful and derogatory lyrics? That they get off on listening to lyrics / watching videos that objectify and demean women and perpetuate violence, black women for the most part, as a way to prove masculinity?

Interestingly, author Bakari Kitwana offers an alternative reading in Why White Kids Love Hip Hop, stating that the subversive socio-political critiques in much old school and underground hip hop lyrics resonates with many white youth who are disillusioned with the capitalist white supremacist society they have grown up in...

It's important to remember is that mainstream hip hop is VERY different from old school and underground hip hop, and to conflate the two by saying that hip hop is this or that is not a sufficient analysis. Hip hop generally just refers to music with a funky beat with a bpm around 90 and rapped lyrics... the content of such lyrics are highly variable.

Another thing that we see happening in mainstream hip hop videos is the reemergence of racial hierarchies, with the majority of "video vixens" being of a very light complexion with long straightened hair, sometimes even blond. Several hip hop feminist scholars have asked where are all the dark-skinned women?? Sharpley-Whiting, author of Pimps Up, Ho's Down, comments that "the vast majority of the young women in these videos are either fair-skinned, ethnically mixed, or of indeterminate ethnic / racial origins, with long, straight or curly hair would suggest that along with the stereotype of hypersexuality and sexual accessibility, a particular type of beauty is offered up as ideal, ... what historian Tiffany Patterson calls "ascriptive mulattas", that is those whose physical beauty transcends characteristics such as darker hues, full lips, and the like, historically prefigured as less than ideal (non-European)" (p.27). Sharpley-Whiting describes how the term "mulatta" is a pejorative one meaning "in between", and although it had typically been depicted as tragic, not fitting in to this race or that, film and literature annals also reveal that "the mulatta" is one of the most (secretly) sought after ideals of feminine beauty in the heterosexual marketplace of desire, mixing the "black" and the "white", the "sex" and the "physical beauty". The violent history of this racial mixing is often one of slavery and rape, as historically many mixed children, or mulattas, were born from white male slave masters raping black female slaves. It's interesting that mulatta women are presented to the white male youth for consumption in hip hop / rap music videos, women who at once stimulate erotic desires for the "exotic", the traditional appeal of European beauty standards, and the sadomasichistic fantasy of rape and racial domination.