With the release of her single off her second album ‘The Pink Print’ in 2014 Nicki Minaj dropped the anticipated video for her single ‘Anaconda’. The video not only captivated the minds her massive fan base but it also disordered both the hip-hop culture and the community of individuals of feminist political movements. The lack of credit presented to Minaj was overwhelming; many have forgotten the path in which she has caved for many upcoming artists who chose to become rappers. She has proven her ability to be an outspoken woman in the world of rap and hip-hop, an industry that finds itself in constant battle with ideas of women and sexuality. By conquering a genre made up of male figures while exploiting her lyrical skill, Minaj has …show more content…
In only the spam of 24hours, 19.6 million people around the country watched the music video to her single ‘Anaconda’, while generating debates of sexuality and empowerment. It shouldn’t come as a surprise when Nicki is seen parading her body around in a music video, the way in which celebrities are still relevant is through the ability to produce revenue and have people talking. Nicki doesn’t shy away from criticism and stereotypes, in the very first shot of the video she appears from the jungle, calling on the idea of how society places judgement and ideals of a black women being of an “exotic and animalistic” beast. Her body alone is a statement within itself, not only is she reclaiming the idealistic images of a curvy women but she is also reclaiming it to fit the realism of how females come in different shapes and sizes.
There is a perception and ideology among consumers who are exposed to the content in which certain artists choose to demonstrate through their music. It is a simple determinist view to place the notions that entertainment moguls like Nicki Minaj are using their overexposed sexuality to increase sales in all revenues they may be apart of, but there is also a deeper meaning entailed that incorporates an empowering margin of women that is not always shown in the media industry. Nicki Minaj actions may not be those of a traditional approach to feminism,
The Hip Hop music industry is infamous for being controversial. In the article Hip Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women there’s a debate on whether the exploitation and constant verbal slander of women should be acceptable just because it sales records. It presents the question that why is it that male poverty breeds sexism? Even though women may have lived in the same environment males still see women as the enemy in their music in an effort to sell records.
Her clothes accentuate her cleavage or have a sexual shock factor, such as wearing “sequined pasties…[that] coordinate with the rest of her attire”. The vulgar, sexual nature of her raps makes it impossible for her to not receive attention from the media. Another artist, Eve, dresses sexually to accentuate her body and appears in videos with music video models but raps about social issues like domestic violence. By comparing the nature of these artists and their music, Perry tries to show that young girls have very few role models in hip hop that promote positive feminists values and body images. But, she neglects to discuss other feminist artists she mentions in the essay such as Destiny’s Child and Mary J. Blige and how their lyrics and actions in the media allow young black girls to have positive role models that show a woman can be independent, strong, and beautiful in their own way. Perry’s focus on the more sexualized female artists in hip hop and how their shocking appearance and lyrics allow them to be as successful as their male counterparts took away from the development of her argument about conservative artists and their success. By leading the reader to believe that artists are either overly-sexual or conservative, Perry limits how the reader forms an opinion on why or why not young girls’ body image may be threatened by the media and the hip hop
Director Sut Jhally, in his documentary film, “Dreamworlds 3: Desire, sex, and power in music videos”, analyzes the issue of how women are portrayed in the music world. Jhally, in his film argues how music and media has become a proud industry when it comes to advertising women, all for the benefit of popularity and record sales. Jhally believes these videos both inform and misinform our culture about our dominant attitudes regarding femininity masculinity, sexuality and race. He uses an empathetic tone in order to appeal to pathos, the feelings and experiences in women when he presents video clips that are somewhat offensive to watch as proof that women have become a common necessity shown in music videos. Often presented as being sexually aggressive and submissive, being objectified by men. He also intentionally wants to try to stir up emotions as he introduces song lyrics of women being called inappropriate names and images of women being fondled by men throughout the film. Sometimes, aggressively without consent.
The misogynistic treatment of women in commercialized rap has become a widespread phenomenon which as a result has become commonly accepted by majority of the individuals in society. Rappers, in general, nowadays use women in their videos in a way which is both derogatory and exploiting. Black men in today’s society, especially in the entertainment industry, do not see women as their equals; rather they objectify them as being nothing more than sex objects. People in the Hip Hop industry do not believe that sexism and misogyny is as big of a deal as racism, thus they push this issue to the side by simply ignoring it and learning to accept it. This misogynistic portrayal of women is ruining the image if Hip Hop as both an industry and a form of expressive art. However, instead of taking action against this atrocity, many women simply believe that the images of women and their portrayal in rap videos does not represent nor refer to them as an individual and the type of woman they truly are. By being silent these women are allowing themselves to be victimized by the men of not only the Hip Hop industry but also general society. By not having a say in this matter of the false classification and portrayal of women, they are voluntarily allowing men to do whatever they please to do so, in any given time and with any approach they feel is necessary. They do not
Feminists that approach analyzing popular culture proceed from a variety of theoretical positions that carry with them a deeper social analysis and political agenda. Popular culture has been a critical part of feminist analysis. “Cultural politics are crucially important to feminism because they involve struggles over meaning” (Storey, Intro 136). Analyzing a piece of pop culture through a feminist viewpoint, whether it be a music video or any sort of media, opens up a broader discussion about the structure of our patriarchal society and the ways in which politics are constantly portrayed and
In her article “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women,” Imani Perry argues that the objectification of women in the music industry is normalized in our society. Her purpose is to persuade us that most feminists who fight against the objectification and exploitation of women are ultimately colonized by the sexual fantasies of men. As a law professor at Rutgers Law School, Perry structures her text in a very effective manner. Using a general-to-specific organization scheme, she begins by outlining the recurring image of sexualized women in music videos, then presenting various cases of prominent feminist figures in the music industry.
Hip-hop is a cultured style that started in the 1970’s. Majority of different funk groups began playing disco music at that time it was popular. During this time funk music was technology driven more electronic sounds were being used on the drum machines. Funk was the new dance in the early 70’s. This particular style of singing in which was being used is called rapping, this begun in African American, Urban Areas, Jamaican American, Latino American and many others cities of the United States. The group of artist or singer say words with a rhythm that rhymes. Some hip-hop music lyrics are about violence and illegal drugs. Often time lyrics are about the life of urban people who stay in big cities. Other styles that hip-hop uses come from
(BBC network, 2014). It can also force people to change in character, which is a growing concern. Sexualisation in our society has become extremely prevalent within the younger female gender. Some may dismiss this issue as no more than yet another moral panic situation between sexuality and young girls, but some see this as a serious subject and some of these people are in fact the girls being targeted (Church, 2014). The music industry with their music
Joan Morgan, a self proclaimed feminist, loves the power that rap and hip hop offers. Joan, also a music writer, is exceptionally troubled by the disrespect of women in not only in the musical lyrics but also the music videos. In the June 1990 edition of Ebony Magazine, Charles Whitaker wrote an editorial addressing the problems American culture brought on by the hip hop industry. Even though, his editorial was published in the 1990’s, it is extremely clear Charles Whitaker saw the negativity brought along with “The Hip Hop and Rap Revolution.” Both authors loved the powerful energy the new hip hop movement brought along with its beginnings, dating back to the mid to late 1970’s. With that being said, the two authors, both had one recurring theme within their respective works, the evolution of hip hop and rap. In other words, both Joan Morgan and Charles Whitaker addressed the issues brought on by the change in the rap and hip hop industry over its short exists. Change is the absolute most constant thing in our world, whether it is positive or negative change that is uncertain, in both of the articles that change in hip hop and rap is demonstrated
“I said the hip hop, Hippie to the hippie, the hip, hip hop, and you don’t stop, a rock it to the bang, bang boogie, say you jump the boogie, to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.” “Rapper’s Delight” is a song recorded in 1979 by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. It was the original 12-inch single was 15 minutes of incontestable urban-playboy bragging. “Rapper’s Delight” was not the first single but, it is generally considered to be the song that made hip hop in the United States popular and around the world. “Love, love me do, you know I love you, I’ll always be true, so please, love me do, whoa, love me do” The Beatles. “Love Me Do” was recorded in 1962 by The Beatles. “Love Me Do” a favorite for the lovers of oldies music. The
Breaking through in the heart of the Bronx, Hip Hop was designed to empower and teach the youth, while providing them an outlet for creative expression. Developed on five essential pillars, all working towards: giving African Americans knowledge that they didn’t have access to, inspiring them to read and acquire true knowledge of self, and to understand the role that self has in America in relation to the actual worth of self. Since the inception of Hip Hop, the genre has evolved through the times while transcending new depths aligned with its original pillars.
1. My redefinition of Hip hop feminism differs from the “normal” definition of feminism, to me hip hop feminism is a way of living and thinking. Hip hop feminism is connected to the Liberation Movement although this movement focused on advancing women rights than civil rights I still believe it played a part with the Hip Hop feminism movement which focused on the rights for young black women in the hip hop industry. I believe this because both movements give women a new definition of what it is like to be a women and both fight for the women cause although they may not hit the exact issues they promote change. Hip hop feminism should fight for the rights of women in hip hop who don’t receive respect due to their sexuality and gender. Women’s perspective in hip hop should be changed and embraced as a powerful persona rather than sexual perspectives. In order to make my definition of hip hop feminism happen in the industry major change must be presented. First, we must create respect towards hip hop women and shut down the suppression of female power. The way in which this would happen is to stop the secularization of women in this industry and not support the hypermasculan culture hip hop is. Although I understand that not all sexualization will be abolished completely from hip hop due to it being part of the culture . However I feel if women were to maybe not givein to the
It is suggested that one of the reasons why artists use misogynistic lyrics in their music is that they have internalized the negative stereotypes about women that are prevalent in American society. African women were historically portrayed as animalistic sexual beasts and African males in a submissive role, giving in to wild instinct or bodily impulses. The internalization of such stereotypes may be a possible explanation of the hyper sexuality within certain hip hop music. Various authors have argued that misogyny is merely an outgrowth of the cultural acceptance of misogyny at large.
Within popular culture today, objectified female bodies can be represented everywhere from advertising images to magazine covers, television, music and many more. Through these media institutions, we allow them to construct social identities in ways that allow us to understand what it means to be black, white, Asian, male or female etc. Within many popular culture mediums such as music, stereotypical representations of racially marked female bodies are often formed. Thus, these representations also have the ability to create stories about a certain culture. In music videos, it does not go unnoticed that women are portrayed as objects whose objectives are to pleasure men. In this paper, I will argue how racially marked female bodies are represented. This paper will mainly focus on how these racially marked women are depicted in the hip hop culture. To demonstrate this, I will draw examples by using award winning music videos by Nicki Minaj, R.Kelly, 50 cent to exemplify representations of the female body and how they are objectified as sex objects. In conclusion, we will be able to see how the female bodies are used in mainstream hip hop videos to convey seductively.
“I said the hip hop, Hippie to the hippie, the hip, hip hop, and you don’t stop, a rock it to the bang, bang boogie, say you jump the boogie, to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.” “Rapper’s Delight” is a song recorded in 1979 by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. It was the original 12-inch single was 15 minutes of undeniable urban-playboy bragging. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. “Love, love me do, you know I love you, I’ll always be true, so please, love me do, whoa, love me do.” “Love Me Do” was recorded by The Beatles in 1962. “Love Me Do” an irresistible favorite for lovers of