The Role Of Sex In Rap Music

Music is a medium that reaches a wide number and variety of people. Some genres are marketed more towards a specific audience than others. Rap music has influenced the thoughts and behaviors of young African Americans since its creation in 1970. West African artists told stories with drum accompaniments which later on became popular with the urban youth on the east coast, who performed it as street art. Like everything else in pop culture rap music has evolved with the technology of today, however, there is still a solemn underlying tone in the genre that had been present for centuries.
Rap music and the message it sends has been embraced by African American youth since the beginning of its time. Sex has always been what attracts the most consumers no matter what product is being sold, music is no different. In the case of rap music, sex is one of the most controversial topics that have effects on both the female and the male population. The exploitation of the African American female comes in many forms from simple lyrics in a song, to having women half naked dancing in a music video. Many rappers over the last thirty years promote the dehumanization of women’s bodies. These songs paint images of women being nothing more than sex toys and play things for men simply because they

have money and status. A perfect example of misogyny in rap is a song “Tip Drill” by Nelly which is a music video that features multiple women without very many clothes on which implies that the only reason they are there is to please the men. At the end of the video Nelly is seen swiping a credit card in between a dancers buttocks and then she proceeds to shake them for him. Throughout the video, the women’s faces are barely seen and can only see their lower body which are hardly covered. The concentration of the women’s bodies is due to the song title “tip drill” which is a slang term for a female that has an unattractive face, but has a nice body. Nelly received a lot of backlash from many viewers including a protest of his video by Spelman University students.
Although widely inventive with words another big artist whose lyrics are hurtful to women is Detroit born rapper Eminem. From rape fantasy to emotional and physical abuse Eminem is one of the most known rappers known for his horrifying song lyrics. Although he is the father of a teen girl, he continues to churn out songs that describe the graphic abuse of girls and women. His lyrics have included descriptions of raping a young "fetus" with an umbrella, machine gunning a woman down and explicitly murdering his ex-wife who is the mother of his child. This past year he produced a song that made light of the domestic abuse case that Janae Rice experienced at the hands of her husband while also attacking a female celebrity at the same time “I’ll punch Lana Del Rey right in the face twice, like Ray Rice in broad daylight in the plain sight of the elevator surveillance, until her head is banging on the railing, then celebrate with the Ravens. This video has almost nine million views and over thirteen thousand comments with users showing both disdain and support for Eminem’s lyrics.
There are a multitude of artist who help perpetuate rape culture. While on a radio show New Orleans rapper Rick Ross discussed his lyrics to a remix of “U.O.E.N.O” “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it, I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” When asked about his choice of lyrics Ross denied that they were in connection with rape but that his words were wrongly interpreted. Rick Ross’ rape-y lyrics were also met with backlash as people on social media ridiculed him for putting that scenario in a song.
Among those who are emerging main stream musicians comes a group of hip hop skaters, led by rapper Tyler the Creator who is as charismatic as he is horrifying, is a group called Odd Future. The group is riddled with artists who talk about physically and sexually abusing women like those are normal things to do. The saddening part is that these artists often times show no remorse as if they don’t have female relatives or acquaintances.
Male artists use misogyny as a way to show that women are inferior to themselves, and in essence that shows that they are tough and deserve “street cred.” Rappers are often considered soft, or fake if they shy away from the hyper masculinity that the music suggests. Hip hop artists may also use tactics like innuendos or the defamation of women to help gain commercial success.
Social media has taken a front seat for feedback between artists and the fans that they make their music for.

Fans can now, within minutes or seconds of hearing a new song, let the artist know exactly how they feel about their songs. Rapper Tyga recently put out a song about his relations with Kylie Jenner called “Stimulated” which was received by disapproving ears mostly because Jenner was underage days before the song was put out. Twitter users immediately started bashing both the artist and Jenner for the song and video with most tweets full of disgusted users. Some even went as far as directing their distaste for Tyga and his song calling him a pedophile and a great deal of other

names.
In the last thirty years the hip hop culture has supported, glorified and normalized the objectification, exploitation, or victimization of women. It is a vicious cycle that will not be broken unless the artist take some responsibility in their work and try to change it. With more and more females emerging in the music industry that are promoting the feminist movement, and the fans finding a way to have a voice that reaches the artist, steps are being made to better hip hop and make it great once again.