Women in Hip-Hop Blog Post 8

Gina Lagrotteria

March 27,2015

Blog Post #8

Women in Hip Hop

            Hip-hop music has always been a place for many to express themselves and their ideas. There are many women in hip-hop that are positive role models and send positive messages through it. Three of the ones that were discussed in class this week were Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé and Miss Elliot. Each of them are their own unique person and show their positivity in different ways but they all show qualities of a positive role models.

            Nicki Minaj is someone that is popular in today’s society. She is known for her controversial outfits and her booty that is shown in her music video. Her music videos are highly sexualized, as she is barely clothed in them. One of her most controversial music videos is to her song Anaconda.  She still continues to send a positive message though as lately she has toned down her outfits in public, and when she is not being shown in music videos. She wanted to tone down her outfits as she said that she did not want little girls that looked up to her to think that everything has to be sexualized and you have to dress in a sexual way. She did not want to set that impression for generations to come and I respect her for that.

            Beyoncé is another role model that is highly respected in society. Not only is her music have powerful meaning behind it but her actions do also. She is someone that is not afraid to show her true self. She is someone that represents feminism and the different classes of society. Her music videos are not made to be highly sexualized, she is just showing her true self and showing that it is okay to be comfortable in your own skin. In the article “Check on it” Beyoncé, Southern Booty and Black Femininities in Music Video it states ““Beyoncé is a key figure for contemporary feminist media studies because she represents the production of celebrity, gender politics presently defined by hip hop and the complex negotiations of self image and sexuality for young women coming of age during post feminism.”(36) Beyoncé’s nickname is the  “Queen” because of the positive influence she leaves in society.

            The third hip-hop artist that was discussed was Miss Elliot. She is not as well known to people know a days as she was popular years ago. Her music videos are not what you would typically see as a music video now a days. In her music video, she did not wear skimpy clothes, she actually fully clothed in baggy clothes. Her music video focused more on the lyrics on the song and the dancing rather than the clothing and body type shown in the video. Her positive message that she sent was that it is not all about how you dress or the body shape you have, you can be comfortable in your own skin no matter what type of clothing that you wear. Missy Elliot got a lot of backlash for the way she dressed in her music video, and got questioned many times if she was a lesbian because she wore baggy clothes. She never let the media change the way she dressed though and that is one of the many positive qualities about her.

            All three of these women of hip-hop are different but they all have one thing in common, they each show positive qualities of a role model. They each have an impact on hip hop in some way. Hip hop is not the same as it used to be as it more focused on the music which had more powerful messages to them rather than the sexualized music videos.