Blog 7

Faith Beglane

March 20, 2015

Rap Music

                Rap music is one of the most popular genre among teens and young adults. Most artists sing about the same thing: women. They portray women based purely off their looks and their sexuality. Almost every rap song will call a women a “hoe” or a “bitch “or something else that is degrading. Because rap is so popular, I think that men of this century believe that it’s okay to call women these names. While watching music videos from the late 80’s and 90’s, it was clear that rap had much more meaning than it does today. The female rappers of that century, were fearless and said what was on their minds while also talking about issues that needed to be talked about such as domestic violence, and women power. Today there are very few songs that discuss these issues, or any other issues of today’s society. Although they don’t talk about relevant issues, they talk about sex and violence because it’s what sells. One of the main points that Amanda Moras talks about in Black Women and Black Men in Hip Hop Music, is the fact that black women are stereotyped as angry, violent, or dangerous creators. They are then portrayed through rap as exotic, erotic, or oversexed. The problem that I face with this, is that women really have little say as to how they actually are, and can’t sing about men the same way that men can sing about women. Men are more widely listened to than women are, making it easier for them to make up these stereotypes into whatever they want. They know that people will listen and it will catch on.  Women of the 80’s and 90’s had a better chance of fighting back than we do now. Although the feminist movement is stronger now than it was then, I think that the female rappers were more influential than they are today.