A Boys' Club- Hypermasculinity in Hip Hop Culture
"Women’s contributions to hip hop culture has been lost, or rather erased” -Gwendolyn Pough, Women’s and Gender Studies and Hip Hop Feminism professor at Syracuse University.
Hip Hop- A Boys' Club
Hip hop music, rooted in American culture is “anti-feminine in the sense that the male should be opposite of what’s considered traditionally feminine with an emphasis on sexual prowess, sexual conquests, and sexual aggression”, and states that minority males often overcompensate due to the lack of representation or misrepresentation of minority men in popular media (45).
Hip hop got its start in the streets, the nature of rap battles reflect that. The macho nature of rap battles represents the hypermasculine persona of the ideal male rap artist.
Why Does The Black Woman's Voice Hold Less Weight In Hip Hop Than In Other Genres?
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Many hip hop historians would argue that the bulk of “women’s contributions to hip hop culture has been lost or erased” (Pough 8). Hip historian Nelson George explains the reason Black women haven’t seen the success in hip hop as in other genres close to the Black community, such as soul and R&B where the success rate of Black women artists is the equivalent, if not arguably greater than their male counterparts is because “rap’s sensibility was molded in the streets where macho values have always dominated” and that the “competitive nature of hip hop has, with few exceptions, excluded women” (George 184).
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Excerpt from hip hop historian Nelson George's Hip Hop America.
The Majority of Rap Groups in Mainstream Hip Hop have little to no female MCs.
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Even with these few exceptions, a good portion of successful mainstream female rappers have conformed their persona to lean fit their hypermasculine counterparts. Mainstream artists like Trina, Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim, and Nicki Minaj rap with styles that resemble the over-macho rap battles. They've seemingly adopted the hypermasculinity rather than combat it i.e. bragging about sexual conquests and sexual aggression, equating their own worth as a woman to physicality, vulgar sexual lyrics, harsh "disses" to other female artists as well as male, etc.
These female rappers use their bodies and sexuality as one of their main marketing tools. |