The Culture Of Women In Hip-Hop Culture

“And I've been known to talk about women on a track or two I talk to women, I just can't talk for women...We need women for that, more women in rap There's no girls rapping so we're only hearing half the truth What we have to lose?” This quote is from a Canadian rapper that goes by the name of Shad, the song was released in 2010 titled “Keep Shining”. Shad has made previous songs with a messages to empower women, she is not alone. Other female rappers have released empowering songs as well such as Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.”, “But don't you be calling out my name I bring wrath to those who disrespect me like a dame.” Followed by Eve, “Love is Blind”, “How could you beat the mother of your kids, how could you tell her that you love her.” And

Hip-Hop culture can be traced from ancient Brazil, Jamaica and West African traditions, rap specifically got its roots from African Diaspora. Women have been in Hip-Hop culture since the 1970’s in South Bronx, New York when it was an underground subculture. Hip-Hop became more prevalent in the 1980’s when it was seen as more profitable and most would concur that Hip-Hop has worsened since capitalist values have taken control with programs such as BET, VH1 and MTV. That lead to the censorship of questionable language and images, however it started exploiting female rappers, misogynistic lyrics and rendering of a negative image of black women and their bodies. This essay will cover the controlling images black women play in pop-culture, the shaming of female bodies, misogyny in Hip-Hop, and the role feminism plays in Hip-Hop. Black woman started off as the mammie caricature in pop culture, but still in our present moment black women are portrayed as matriarchs, jezabels, having their bodies objectified and are the victims of misogyny in

Her body was displayed as a freak show attraction throughout Europe in the 19th century. She was described to have huge hips, a huge backside, and huge labia lips. Not much is known about Saartjie but it has been reported that she spoke 4 languages and died at the young age of 25 years old. It was rumored there would be a biopic about her and Beyonce would play as Saartjie, this caused a lot of controversy and opened the door for a lot of criticism and backlash. Beyonce’s representatives shut down the rumor that she had anything to do with the project, however it brought up the issue of how black women are body shamed, everyone questioned if this was to shine light on Baartman’s story or to once again dehumanized the black female body. At this moment in time, a different form of dehumanizing the female body has surfaced and that is hypersexualizing their body, which is still a popular agenda, and calling the black female body manly. First Lady Michelle Obama and the professional tennis player Serena Williams are often victims of this form of body shaming. Even young African American females are not safe from the body shaming. Gabrielle Douglas and Simone Biles two olympic gold medalists had their fair share of body shaming once they began