Masculinity in Rap and Hip Hop Essay

Music and society have always been closely related. For years now music has been apart of people’s everyday lives all around the world. Having so many different genres out there, it makes it easy to be appealing to so many different ethnic backgrounds. However, one type of genre in particular has seemed to grab the attention of a younger generation. Rap music has undoubtedly had its utmost impact on African American youth, since many of the performers themselves are African American. An overtly masculine culture dominates rap music and creates gender stereotypes that become abundantly popular to the youthful audience. Three constant themes that are found within the rap culture are encouragement of violence, the misogynistic representation of women, an extreme hatred of homophobia. Each theme plays a detrimental role in the process of defining black masculinity as well as shaping the values, morals, and beliefs that its younger audience adopts after tuning into this “gangster lifestyle”.

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes is a documentary created and produced by Bryon Hurt. The documentary challenges the dominant discourses of hyper masculinity and the misogynist treatment of women in commercialized rap. Of the many mainstream phenomenons that are discussed by Bryon in the documentary, the issue of hyper masculinity in Hip Hop is questioned greatly. Throughout the film, the producer was able to show the wide acceptance of hyper masculinity not only in Hip Hop but also American culture as well. He defined America as a hyper masculine and hyper violent nation for the reason that using a gun to defend one’s family became a metaphor for masculinity and a tool for widespread violence. The issue of issue of hyper masculinity can be

McLune also believes,“many hip-hop rappers are sexist and materialistic singers”(222), and not many rappers sing about equality and respect between the sexes. Even female rapper’s follow in the male rappers footsteps of disrespecting black women. Female rappers follow this path to keep from being “targeted, slandered, and ignored”(223). Female rappers who take a stance against the norm risk being called “bitch, a ho-or worse, a dyke.” McLune states that she wants the sexism to stop and until it does hip-hop will fail. According to McLune, Kevin Powell excuses sexism because of poverty. Experience has shown us that any man, rich or poor, can be sexist regarding women. By allowing the behavior to continue black women will always be the victim.

Rap music is really popular to us, young people, and sometimes adults, too. In my opinion, I think that rap is a way to allow all of the rappers to express themselves, their voices, their experience, and their feeling from their life. And in some other people opinion, they also describe rap music as the story or the voice of the streets. According to a music articles “The birth of Rap: A Look Back” from NPR.org website, rap music was born and began to develop in the middle of year 1970s. They are firstly formed and played by the Black communities, and then slowly spread out to the world. In rap world, at first they are only male rappers who use music to express themselves and their pain towards the world. Then, women also began to rap to be able to express their thoughts more and more. Female and male rapper are sharing the same purpose of express themselves through their song but they are different in the way they use their lyrics, the subject they choose to rap on and the feeling they express to their fans and their songs’ listeners.

They are taught to be tough and have a “manly front cover” in everything that they do. If you ask most fathers they would not appreciate their son wearing pink and playing with dolls because it’s “gay” and not masculine. Any sort of display of stereotypical effeminate behavior, dressing nicely, sensitivity, and being emotionally expressive, is perceived as being gay. If a guy walks, talks, and acts in a manner that is different from someone who is gay he will be a man. In Hip-Hop, the worst thing one can do is take away someone’s manhood or associate him with anything to do with being feminine or gay by referring to them as a “faggot” or “bitch nigga”, not only disrespecting the homosexual community but women also. Eminem often use the word “faggot” in his when he is battling someone. It doesn’t necessarily mean gay, it’s just taking away his opponent’s manhood (612) Hip-Hop artists often portray images that are “hyper masculine” and over exaggerated to be far from the effeminate behaviors that contribute to being mistaken for being gay. Instead, they attempt to be thugs and gangsters.

Since its emergence in the 1980s, hip-hop has taken the world by storm; it has impacted and revolutionized the way people behave, dress, and think. Hip-hop music enables people to connect in a way they would never be able to with any other genre of music. Although, hip-hop has swayed different generations over the years, its influence has not always been positive. In the past, hip-hop focused more on current events in society, personal struggles, life experiences and serving as a voice for the youth. However in recent years, hip-hop music has begun to promulgate a lust for material affluence, and in doing so romanticizes violence, drug usage, and the exploitation of women. No longer is hip-hop about what moves the audience rhythmically and makes them think; today it’s all about what sells, sex. In the past, sexual content and appeal was simply i in lyrics and music videos to spice things up, but now it is virtually an essential.

In an article called ‘ladies first’: Queen Latifah’s Afrocentric feminist music, it talks about issues raised by feminist rap; rap that focuses on women’s importance, and the demand for equal treatment, and for the need to encourage each other. “Queen Latifah's feminism draws on the patterns of rap to assert the importance of women promoting themselves and other women. Rap, like all other forms of popular music, is not inherently feminist, but in this genre, as in other popular genres, female performers use specific generic qualities to promote a feminist message. Rap is noted for its emphasis on lyrics, and through the lyrics, female rappers make explicit assertions of female strength and autonomy.” Women talk about how they need to be seen as equal to a man through their lyrics and for women to encourage other women. That will push back the negativity from the male rappers toward the female rappers. For an example in a song called U.N.I.T.Y by Queen Latifah she said “Every time I hear a brother call a girl a b*** or a h*, trying to make a sister feel low, you know all of that got to go” Throughout her song she is letting male rappers know that they can’t be calling women those types of names, no matter what. Through time, the hip hop community is and will keep pushing back the misogyny and violence that rap

One of Rap music's greatest criticisms is that it is sexist in its portrayal of women. Some argue that Hip-hop music teaches young children to look at women as "bitches" and "hoes", as women are often called in various hip-hop songs. It is this negative message that has constantly kept rap music in a national spotlight. Critics view sexism in rap as a symptom of an increasingly crumbling set of social values in the black urban community.

This is more of a personal question, but how do you define masculinity and more specifically black masculinity? What does it mean to you? In our earlier reading for black masculinity, we learned about different definitions of black masculinity through different lens. For example, authors such as Byron Hurt and Kathleen Brown state that black masculinity can be rooted in many from expressionism to violence. With every reading and every discussion in class, I consistently have to return to these questions in order to remind myself what black masculinity should look like and how it is portrayed to be in society. On that same token, do you believe masculinity and black masculinity should be separated as two different concepts.

Connecting Masculinity to Hip Hop as an entire movement Hip Hop originated in the 1970’s, and during that period the genre was known as a means through which African Americans could speak their minds and state their opinions and concerns about important issues in their communities and society. However hip hop has immensely changed since its creation to what it is now, as a result of its profit-oriented nature. Even though a few aspects of the original old school hip hop are still recognized and practiced in today’s mainstream rap, the genre as a whole has come to be known for revolving around the common themes of violence, drug use, promiscuity, fashion, and materialism. In reality, today’s mainstream hip hop is based on the beliefs of what

Hip-hop culture and culture’s misogyny can be traced back to the golden era of hip-hop. In hip-hop, culture terms for men created an image of a “big-man persona” such as “baller” “pimp” and derogatory phrases such as “bitch” “ho” became common phrases to distinguish women. The rapper persona was to have a macho attitude, extravagant living, and having multiple women beside them was the way to express the Hip-hop lifestyle (Layne 1). Artists such as N.W.A., one the few pioneers of 90’s gangsta rap has associated their music with misogyny. The song titled “A Bitch Iz A Bitch” in the album Straight Outta Compton revolutionize

Rap music as a genre is complex and diverse containing multiple subgenres. The way masculinity is presented within rap music could vary widely from artist to artist. In fact the way masculinity is presented could vary widely on different albums by the same artist, on a single album from an artist, or even within a single song. Rap music, particularly the subgenre of gangster rap, has been criticized for its one dimensional and negative portrayals of masculinity. These portrayals are mostly of black men, although there are some popular rap musicians that are not black and are not male.

Out of twenty rap songs previously analyzed, the word “bitch” was said thirty-eight times. Irrespective of those twenty, a striking majority of rap songs sung by men speak of women in an unfavorable way, often reducing them to sex objects. Rap has had a dramatic rise in popularity in recent years, due in large part to the fact that sex sells. The unintended consequence is that female subjects featured in this kind of music are often the ones that suffer the most. Most of the rappers with the greatest influence are ignorant to this issue, however others have openly acknowledged it. Snoop Dogg, a renowned rapper, has admitted to given women a bad rap in his music by using the word bitch and saying other negative things about women (Elks,

In the hip-hop industry, women are elements of success but yet they are treated as objects. Why? Artist always try to have the hottest girls in their videos which makes people, especially children, think they have made it in life. The purpose of all this is to make money but rappers don’t realize that the younger generation are being influenced negatively through their music. It is very unfortunate that sex sells and the media is using this to draw everyone’s

A lot of artists came from poor beginnings, and tell of the common experiences of young, working-class African Americans. This gives rappers the ability to tell a story that the listener can relate to, therefore making it meaningful to someone. When a listener understands the experiences, it’s easier for them to understand the deeper message. A lot of rap music just has the typical themes of crime and drugs, yet some artists are able to incorporate deeper meaning in their talented lyrics. Through a variety of creative beats and clever words, rappers are able to entertain the listener, while also conveying a deeper influential message.