It has been around three decades since hip hop emerged on the American cultural scene. The music genres which are associated with hip hop cultural phenomenon, especially gangsta rap and contemporary R&B are believed to define \u201cstreet\u201d youth culture. These two hip hop music subgenres seem to be more influential than the other as there is more emphasis put on lyrical content than the music itself. The abundance of offensive words and messages in the songs makes them also controversial. Before listening to gangsta rap songs, one must be prepared most of all to hear extremely explicit language. The great number of derogatory terms embedded in the song lyrics is especially disturbing as they are greatly addressed to women \u2013 women of color in particular. Most of the cases involve name calling and violent attitude directed more likely at women in general than a particular person. Women in those songs are mostly placed in a sexual context and called e.g., bitch, whore, hoochie, slut. Promoting violent sex theme was well documented in the Kubrin and Weitzer\u2019s research on the sample of 403 Amercian hip hop songs produced throughout the 1992-2000 but also noted in other articles\/books etc. on the songs from the period 1987 \u2013 1993.The scholars have found that the main purpose of such songs is to justify violence against women and make it a legitimate tool of social control.In such a view hip hop music promotes a set of gendered norms and enforces sanctions for those who do not abide those set up rules. Eminem\u2019s song Kill You,for example, describes women as \u201cvile, venomous, volatile bitches\u201d. Many other popular rappers, like Redman, Outcast, degrade women to being a \u201cchickenhead\u201d \u2013 coined by association with giving oral sex.<\/p>\n
Whilst such terms are commonly perceived as pejorative, there are instances they may sound somewhat positive. One of the most successful rappers, Ludacris, in his hit song \u201dPimpin\u2019 All Over the World\u201d raps: \u201cI used to think that it was way too cold, til I went to Canada and saw some beautiful hoes\u2026\u201dAnd according to Ja Rule \u201cevery thug needs a down ass bitch\u201d, i.e. a girl who is tough, and demonstrates her solidarity with her man and the gang they belong to. While these terms may not carry derogatory connotations in these songs, women are still positioned here within the sexual perspective. Interesting to notice is a fact that offensive terms aimed towards men are usually words with feminine connotation (bitch, pussy): \u201d I\u2019m slick and slippery\/ On a high-speed chase all the way to the victory. \/ Y\u2019all niggaz is stone cold mysteries. \/ Too weak, can\u2019t stand in the ring with me. \/ Put a pussy back in his place, straightlaced.\u201dIt also seems like to humiliate women goes hand in hand with getting respect from the other men. Men are referred to be \u201cpimps\u201d who can get a lot of \u201choes\u201d. (\u2026) Legalize pimpin for all the pleyas, puttin\u2019 fine ass bitches in the streets and the hood.\u201dWhile in most of the songs a degrading women motif would appear randomly throughout the song, there are also cases in which that would be the main theme. The best example is Too $hort\u2019s \u201dAin\u2019t Nothing Like Pimpin\u2019\u201d: \u201cAin\u2019t nothing like a mother fucking bitch! \/ You nasty, once a month bleeding, mother fucking, nasty ass, mother fucking bitch! \/ I hate your mother fucking ass.\u201d To justify their attitude towards women, many rappers give many reasons for doing so, such as women being too shallow: \u201cWe couldn\u2019t get no play from the ladies. \/ With seven niggas in a Nav [Navigator] is you crazy?\/ So we all said \u201cfuck you bitch\u201d and kept rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes verbal disrespecting turns into violent threatening. According to Kubrin and Weitzer aggression towards women appeared in almost 18 percent of the hip hop songs analyzed by them.Extreme hostility towards women represent the songs of Eminem\u2019s where he attacks his relatives, especially his mother and ex wife in\u201cUnder the Influence\u201d: \u201call bitches is hoes, even my stinkin\u2019 ass mom.\u201dIn the song \u201cKill You\u201d he even threatens to kill them: \u201cBitch I\u2019ma kill you! \/ You don\u2019t wanna fuck with me. \/ Girls leave \u2013 you ain\u2019t nuttin but a slut to me.\u201d He also seems to be perfectly aware of the fact his lyrics cause controversy. In the same song he admits to that: \u201cOh, now he\u2019s raping his own mother\/abusing a whore, snorting coke\/ and we gave him the Rolling Stone cover?\u201d<\/p>\n
Violence covers a broad spectrum in hip hop. Not only is it perceived as a legitimate tool of manipulation between men but also serves as an answer for disobedience of women. Such insubordination is interpreted in many ways. According to the rapper Dr. Dre: \u201csnobby-ass bitches get slapped out of spite\u201d.Another popular performer \u2013 Mase warns his potential sex victims to get tested on sexually transmitted diseases beforehand or else: \u201cIf she make my nuts itch, I kill that slut bitch\u201d.Eminem seems to have issues with women in general and promotes violence as the only communication means between men and women. Usurpingand assuming power on women in hip hop songs are often represented by descriptions of rough sex: \u201cHit you with the dick, make your kidneys shift\/ I\u2019m guaranteed to fuck her till her nose bleed.\u201dThe myriad of misogynistic American rap songs mainly present four recurring instances of violence. Rappers pride themselves on sex acts that are harmful to women. They justify other acts of violence and threaten women who try to defy male supremacy. They also seem to encourage other men to resort to violence acts whenever they find it suitable. Violence seems to be the most appropriate response to women who abuse such gendered protocol, i.e. don\u2019t \u201cknow their place.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the most characteristic features of misogynistic rap lyrics is sexual objectification of women. This notion means that a person is perceived through the prism of physical attractiveness with disregard to the person\u2019s intellectual abilities.Kubrin and Weitzer, in their paper on the misogyny in rap music stated that sexual objectification of women was noted in 67 percent of the songs analyzed. The main conclusion drawn from these lyrics is that women are only good to satisfy men\u2019s sexual pleasures. The title of one of the N.W.A songs, \u201cFindum, Fuckum, and Flee.\u201d may serve as creed of the street code, according to which men\u2019s goal would be pursuit of pleasure and sexual exploitation of women.Puff Daddy\u2019s intentions are brazenly blatant in: \u201cCall me Sean if you suck, call me gone when I nut. \/ That\u2019s the end of us, get your friend to fuck\u201d. While his fellow rapper, Too $hort, honestly admits the only thing he would try to get from women is sex without strings attached: \u201cI ain\u2019t Romeo, Prince Charming, or a knight in shining armor.\/ I\u2019m only out to fuck a bitch, fuck tryin\u2019 to charm her. I treat a fine ass bitch like dirt.\/ No money in her purse, a fuck is all it\u2019s worth.\/ \u2018Cause Short Dawg\u2019ll never cater to you hoes.\/ And if you ain\u2019t fuckin,\u2019 I say \u201clater\u201d to you hoes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pretty disturbing fact surfaced in this Xzibit\u2019s song. Judging by the lyrics, women are considered to be men\u2019s property: You got titties and ass.\/ But I got a dick and some cash.\/You ain\u2019t talkin bout shit.\/ Then I\u2019ma smash, bitch.\/ On three, on me, bitch, you my property.\u201dThis brings back to life one of the atrocities of slavery, when black women were often forced to keep exploitive sexual relations with their slave masters in exchange for better treatment, food, or simply to satisfy the oppressors\u2019 urge.It seems that even though the American society has come a long way from the times of slavery, black women are nowhere near to being treated as free, independent individuals. As the American culture critic bell hooks points in her book Ain\u2019t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, black women in America have been oppressed from the 17th century till today by white men, black men as well as white women. She argues that women of color have been omitted by the white feminist movement as well as the civil rights movement. The author perceives feminist movement as being a white middle and upper class struggle which showed no interest in issues of women of color. Black women found themselves trapped into confines of both gender and race. Thus, they have never been liberated from the institutionalized sexism \u2013 patriarchy, and racism. Additionally, in bell hooks\u2019 opinion the Black Power movement was both patriarchal and misogynistic. As much as it aimed to overcome racial divisions it also sought to reinforce the sexist ones.Black male attitude towards their female counterparts presented in number of hip hop songs manifests their pursuit to keep women subordinate. Nowadays many rappers often express how they would put women in the right spot, as Too $hort: \u201cHoes be nothin\u2019 but slaves for me, \/ ready to go to their graves for me.\u201d, or Xzibit: \u201c (\u2026) I\u2019m hard on my hoes that\u2019s how it goes.\/ Bitch, get up off your toes, and get my six-four [Chevrolet]\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an American politician and sociologist, in his report The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, also known as Moynihan Report, released in 1965 analyzed the data from the U.S. department of labor and drew a conclusion that black women had significant advantages over black men to be employed thus they could provide for the family more effectively. He also suggested that the traditional African American household is ruled by the matriarchal and emasculating women, an archetypical Mammy, which would imply that black men were symbolically castrated by their female counterparts. In order to stop degradation of the Negro family, black men need to seek the ways to restore their manhood.The lyrics of contemporary hip hop songs suggest that by degrading women, rappers may seek to regain their manhood. They suggest that the only desirable image of a black woman is the promiscuous and oversexed one as in Redman\u2019s: \u201cI turn an independent woman back into a hoochie.Notorious B.I.G. humiliates educated girls: \u201cI like \u2018em educated, so I can bust off on their glasses\u201d.<\/p>\n
These stereotypical images have their roots in the times of slavery in America. Southern white males would consider black men and especially women as possessed by their hypersexuality. The reason for such supposition might be cultural differences between Western Europe and Africa of the time. European travelers who visited Africa were often stunned to see semi nude native black women and commonly accepted polygamy. Nakedness in that time was perceived as a manifestation of indecency. The travelers embraced such a shocking experience by assuming that all black women are promiscuous by nature. Later on the contrast between the clothed Victorian ladies and half-naked native African women may have prompted assumptions that white women, on the contrary to black women, are civilized and sexually pure. Hence the symbol of black women reinforced by such depiction was \u201cJezebel\u201d.It seems that African American women could not escape from the image of an instinctively promiscuous Jezebel assigned to them back in the slavery era. Stereotypes that were set at that time still affect black women nowadays. What is more, the stereotype of a seductive and lewd black woman has been perpetuated by their male counterparts. As the Jezebel image applied to black slave women might have been a way to justify maltreatment they were given, such reasoning applies also today.<\/p>\n
Another justification for disrespecting women may be a fierce peer pressure on young men in ghettos. Male promiscuity is highly valued there.Casual sex with no commitment gets a man proud patch of a player, proves of his masculinity and helps to get respect from the others:\u201d I had niggas making bets like, did he fuck her yet?\/ Ask her did he touch her bra, when I say nah they say ahh \/ So tomorrow I use that pressure to undress her.\u201dThe Kubrin and Weitzer\u2019s research shows that bragging about sexual achievements was present in 58 percent of the songs.Most of it implied how easy for a player is to talk a girl into having sex: \u201cYou see I order one bottle, then I fuck with one model\/ Then I order more bottles, now I\/ got more models\/ I\u2019m from that city where them niggaz don\u2019t play mayn\/ I take a chick to my\/ room like caveman\/ So ask your girlfriend my name (\u2026).\u201d<\/p>\n
Women, especially attractive ones, are also treated as a symbol of achievement. Having a lot of casual sex proves that you are either a player or have a lot of money. As these seem to be the only means of getting a girl into sexual intercourse in the ghetto: \u201cSay dog, what kinda nigga be on top of the world?\/Million dollar status got me on top of ya girl.\u201dAbility to sexually please a girl is perceived as a symbol of one\u2019s high status. Below there is an example of how the rappers fondle their ego in that matter: \u201cWhile your bitch be crying \u201cplease don\u2019t stop\u201d. . . I fuck her like I know you won\u2019t.\/ If that\u2019s your bitch, homeboy you\u2019d better keep her \u2018Cause she won\u2019t stay off my beeper.\u201dThe female is used here just to partake in a sexual competition between men. Women cannot be granted any respect from the rappers, as they are described to be as much interested in heavy drinking, sex, and money as men. The only difference here is that a man will be positively referred to as a \u201cplayer\u201d or a \u201cpimp\u201d but a girl will be always called a \u201cbitch\u201d. Lyrics also imply that if a girl is being promiscuous and greedy it also justifies the maltreatment she receives from men as in hit song \u201cThe Gangsta, the Killa, and the Dope Dealer\u201d: \u201cAll on the grass [marijuana], every bitch passed [out]\/ A first not last, when we all hit the ass.\u201dWomen are treated as a commodity which can be consumed, used, passed to someone else and given out: \u201cI know the pussy\u2019s mines, I\u2019ma fuck a couple more times\/ And then I\u2019m through with it, there\u2019s nothing else to do with it.\/ Pass it to the homie, now you hit it\/ Cause she ain\u2019t nuthin but a bitch to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prostitutes are the classic example of sexual objectification and exploitation. Such image of a woman is to be expected in hip hop music since it has emerged out of ghetto setting. This theme has been found present in one-fifth of the songs analyzed by Kubrin and Weitzer.Prostitution and pimping are celebrated by rappers and classified as a justifiable means of economic achievement.These themes do not seem to be taken into consideration by any other music genre. Some rappers to get more credibility claim to have been a real life pimps ( Ice- T, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, K-Luv). Pimping has a broader meaning in hip hop than just managing prostitutes. To \u201cpimp\u201d something can mean to sponsor it or to accessorize it. The term pimp is often used as a substitute for \u201cplayer,\u201d a man who mastered in seducing women or hustlers who show off with their nouveau riche assets. This kind of a pimp chic imagery is a popular topic among rappers. Some even devote the whole songs to glamorize such lifestyle: \u201dThe fancy cars, the women and the caviar. \/You know who we are\/\u2018cuz we\u2019re pimpin all over the world.\u201d There is also a number of rap songs in which we can find a lot of references to the \u201cstandard\u201d definition of a pimp \u2013 man who headhunts and employs prostitutes.<\/p>\n
Kubrin and Weitzer\u2019s research takes into account the standard definition of a \u201cpimp\u201d and notes that this theme was detected in 20 percent of the misogynistic songs. Most of them contain the same message that women are good only to sell sex and men can usurp the right to access to their bodies:<\/p>\n
\nNo need for rest haven these hoes<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s show \u2018em what they pussy made fo\u2019<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s me and you lay in these hoes<\/p>\n
And show \u2018em what they pussy made fo\u2019\u2026 .<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s leave without payin\u2019 these hoes<\/p>\n
And show \u2018em what they pussy made fo\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The misogynistic images of women are also present in many contemporary R&B hits, even though this genre has been perceived as less provocative and explicit: \u201cAce mizzy get all the hoes. \/Gonna teach them shit they want to know. \/ Like fuck that pussy ass 9-4 girl.\/ Make that bucket a pot of gold\u201d. These lyrics convey extremely disturbing misogynistic messages especially that hip hop aspires to be considered as a true voice of the urban ghetto. In that case, judging by the lyrics, the ghetto seems to inhabit pimps, pimps in training and prostitutes. While women are being described as sexual objects, men get the message to cherish the life of a pimp. Women seem to be \u201cpainted with the same brush\u201d and not considered as an individual human beings. The only interaction between these two parties boils down to a scenario of what a pimp would do to a prostitute.<\/p>\n
Another piece of advice, recurring in many hip hop songs, is the one that a man has to be careful of whom they put trust in. And women seem to be the least trustworthy. Among the representative sample of 403 rap songs, Kubrin and Weitzer extracted the misogynistic ones and noted that almost half of the misogynistic songs exposed such attitude of distrust towards women. Another fact worth noticing here is that the lack of trust is directed at all women with no exception. All women in general are considered tricky evil creatures. For some rappers a question \u201cHow could you trust a ho?\u201dis rather a rhetorical one. Others unveil specific reasons why they \u201ccan\u2019t trust\u2019em\u201d. In a song \u201cI Need to Be\u201d by Mase, a young girl is not only promiscuous but also will surely lie about her age which will get her admirer in trouble and most likely put him in prison: \u201cSee nowadays man you got to know these bitches age\/ \u2018Cause they ass be real fast when they be goin\u2019 through that phase. \/ You fuck a girl that\u2019s young, and you gonna end up in the cage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many rappers in their songs criticize women\u2019s gender solidarity oftentimes confusing it with women just being loyal to their family. For example, in previously quoted song, Mase advises his male listeners that defending is useless: \u201c\u2018Cause her mom ain\u2019t tryin\u2019 to hear that you never knew her age.\u201dA mother will be on her little girl\u2019s side choosing to be loyal to her family. According to other rappers like Nas, not only do women stand up for one another but will also try to get some material compensation from men. Nas warns his male counterparts that it is a bad idea to force women into having sex, not because of the atrocity of this act, but rape accusation that may follow: \u201cDon\u2019t take the pussy, if she fightin\u2019\/ \u2018Cause you saw what happened to Tupac and Mike Tyson.\/ \u2018Specially if you large [famous], some hoes is trife [petty]\/ Get you on a rape charge, have you servin\u2019 your life.\u201d<\/p>\n