The Tip Drill Controversy and its Relation to Misogyny in Hip-Hop

2757 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Have women played a prominent role in hip hop essay

For a long time, the popular genre of hip-hop has been criticized for its frequent vulgarity; whether it be its lyrical content, its possible contribution to a violent subculture, its degradation of women, or its praise for hypermasculinity. Out of all of these criticisms, the one characteristic of hip-hip music that has arguably been the most prominent and commonly discussed is its negative and sexual portrayal of women, particularly African American women. In both lyrics and music videos, African American women in much of hip-hop music are sexually objectified in that they are viewed exclusively as a thing to be used sexually by men. Other qualities such as intellect, independence, and most importantly, respect of women are made subordinate. As hip-hop music continues to degrade women in such a way, much opposition and backlash has intensified. An example of such objection was present in the well-known case that occurred at Spelman College, a historically black institution for women, in 2004 when students protested rapper Nelly’s presence on their campus for a bone marrow drive soon after his controversial music video “Tip Drill” was released.
Though this controversy took place not that long ago in 2004 when I was in fourth grade, I was not aware of it until last year, my freshman year of college, when I was taking a course in African American Studies titled AASP 202 Black Culture in the United States. Near the end of the course, we explored the history of hip-hop and its transition up until today. One of our assignments involved watching the 2006 documentary Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes directed by American activist Byron Hurt, that took a closer look at the implications of hip-hop that include misogyny, violence, hom...

... middle of paper ...

...ege,
2002. Print.
Hill, Marc Lamont. Nelly Wanted To 'Kick Somebody's Ass' Over Spelman's Protest Of 'Tip
Drill'. Huffingtonpost. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/ nelly-kick-somebody-ass-spelman-protest-tip-drill_n_4262503.html.
Hurt, Byron, dir. Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhythms. 2006. Film.
Rose, Tricia. The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip-Hop—and Why
It Matters. New York: Basic Books, 2008. Print.
Watkins, Samuel Craig. Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement. Boston: Beacon, 2006. Print.
Willens, Kathy. "Black College Women Take Aim at Rappers." USA Today 23 Apr.
2004: n. pag. USATODAY.com. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-04-23-spelman-protest- rappers_x.htm.

Show More
Related

  • Public Enemy Addresses Problems of the Black Community

    2578 Words  | 6 Pages

    Watkins, S. Craig. 2005. Hip hop matters: politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Read More

  • Keeping Their Own Identity in Black Nationalism

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hip-Hop became characterized by an aggressive tone marked by graphic descriptions of the harshness and diversity of inner-city life. Primarily a medium of popular entertainment, hip-hop also conveys the more serious voices of youth in the black community. Though the approaches of rappers became more varied in the latter half of the 1980s, message hip-hop remained a viable form for addressing the problems faced by the black community and means to solve those problems. The voices of "message" hip...

    Read More

  • Homophobia, Violence And Sexism In Tricia Rose's Hip Hop War

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hip hop is a form of art that African Americans have been using to get away from oppressions in their lives and allowed their voices to be heard in some type of way. As soon as big corporations seen the attention hip hop brought to the scene, they wanted to capitalize on it. These corporations picked specific types of attributes that some hip hop artists had and allowed it to flourish. The attributes that these artists carried were hypermasculinity, homophobia, violence and sexism. In the book, Hip Hop Wars by Tricia Rose discusses some of these specific attributes. One of the most damaging attribute is when hip hop is used to sexualize and demean everything about being a woman. Tricia Rose writes about this issue in chapter 5 of her book

    Read More

  • Masculinity In Hip Hop

    1594 Words  | 4 Pages

    When looking at the landscape of Hip-Hop among African Americans, from the spawn of gangsta rap in the mid 1980s to current day, masculinity and an idea of hardness is central to their image and performance. Stereotypical to Black masculinity, the idea of a strong Black male - one who keeps it real, and is defiant to the point of violence - is prevalent in the genre. This resistant, or even compensatory masculinity, encompasses: the hyper masculinity rife in the Western world, misogyny, and homophobia, all noticeable in their lyrics, which is in part a result of their containment within the Black community. The link of masculinity and rap music was established due to this containment, early innovators remaking public spaces in their segregated neighbourhoods. A notion of authentic masculinity arose from the resistant nature of the genre, but the move to the mainstream in the 90s created a contradiction to their very image - resistance. Ultimately, this in part led to the construction of the masculinity defined earlier, one that prides itself on its authenticity. I’ll be exploring how gender is constructed and performed in Hip Hop, beginning with a historical framework, with the caveat of showing that differing masculine identities in the genre, including artists

    Read More

  • Hip Hop America

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    George covers much familiar ground: how B-beats became hip hop; how technology changed popular music, which helped to create new technologies; how professional basketball was influenced by hip hop styles; how gangsta rap emerged out of the crack epidemic of the 1980s; how many elements of hip hop culture managed to celebrate, and/or condemn black-on-black violence; how that black-on-black violence was somewhat encouraged by white people scheming on black males to show their foolishness, which often created a huge mess; and finally, how hip hop used and continues to use its art to express black frustration and ambition to blacks while, at the same time, refering that frustration and ambition to millions of whites.

    Read More

  • Racial Stereotypes Associated With Rap and Hip Hop Music

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    A race issue that occurs within the rap and hip-hop musical genre is the racial stereotypes associated with the musical form. According to Brandt, and Viki rap music and hip- hop music are known for fomenting crime violence, and the continuing formation of negative perceptions revolving around the African-American race (p.362). Many individuals believe that rap and hip-hop music and the culture that forms it is the particular reason for the degradation of the African-American community and the stereotypes that surround that specific ethnic group. An example is a two thousand and seven song produced by artist Nas entitled the N-word. The particular title of the song sparked major debates within not only the African-American community thus the Caucasian communities as well. Debates included topics such as the significance and worth of freedom of speech compared with the need to take a stand against messages that denigrate African-Americans. This specific label turned into an outrage and came to the point where conservative white individuals stood in front of the record label expressing their feelings. These individuals made a point that it is because artists like Nas that there is an increase in gang and street violence within communities. Rap and hip-hop music only depicts a simple-minded image of black men as sex crazed, criminals, or “gangsters”. As said above, community concerns have arisen over time over the use of the N-word, or the fact that many rappers vocalize about white superiority and privilege. Of course rap music did not develop these specific stereotypes, however these stereotypes are being used; and quite successfully in rap and hip-hop which spreads them and keeps the idea that people of color are lazy, all crimin...

    Read More

  • Hip Hop: History And Elements

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hip hop is both a culture and a lifestyle. As a musical genre it is characterized by its hard hitting beats and rhythms and expressive spoken word lyrics that address topics ranging from economic disparity and inequality, to gun violence and gang affiliated activity. Though the genre emerged with greater popularity in the 1970’s, the musical elements involved and utilized have been around for many years. In this paper, we will cover the history and

    Read More

  • Hip-Hop as a Cultural Movement

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.

    Read More

  • Hip Hop and the Recording Industry

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    These articles depict the controversies of the hip hop industry and how that makes it difficult for one to succeed. Many of these complications and disputes may be invisible to the population, but these articles take the time to reveal them.

    Read More

  • The History of Hip Hop Music and Its Transition to Popular Music

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop itself often represents through music.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Objectification Of Women In Hip Hop Culture

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    The article discusses the fact that hip hop “provides a lens [through which white students and faculty at institutions] interpret Black culture” and that because of this not only is the Black female’s view of herself being manipulated, but black males expect what is being promoted by hip hop culture from them, and so does every other person (Henry, West, & Jackson 238). A professor at North Carolina Central University spoke about how he dislikes how hip-hop has influenced the way his students dress, he said “ They look like hoochie mamas, not like they’re coming to class” (as cited in Evelyn

    Read More

  • Hip Hop's Effect on American Culture

    3349 Words  | 7 Pages

    Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.

    Read More

  • Th Future of Hip Hop

    1612 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Total Chaos, Jeff Chang references Harry Allen, a hip hop critic and self-proclaimed hip hop activist. Harry Allen compares the hip hop movement to the Big Bang and poses this complex question: “whether hip-hop is, in fact a closed universe-bound to recollapse, ultimately, in a fireball akin to its birth-or an open one, destined to expand forever, until it is cold, dark, and dead” (9). An often heard phase, “hip hop is dead,” refers to the high occurrence of gangster rap in mainstream hip hop. Today’s hip hop regularly features black youths posturing as rich thugs and indulging in expensive merchandise. The “hip hop is dead” perspective is based on the belief that hip hop was destined to become the model of youth resistance and social change. However, its political ambitions have yet to emerge, thus giving rise to hip hops’ criticisms. This essay will examine the past and present of hip hop in o...

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In Hip Hop And Hip Hop Culture

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    Similarly to other industries, females are unequally represented within Hip Hop culture across the board. From the start, emcees were traditionally males, proving the struggle for a woman to pursue a career in Hip Hop difficult. In modern society, it seems the culture is obsessed more with how a woman is portrayed rather than if she is a talented artist. For advertising and recognition, it is almost imperative that a female artist wears tight, skimpy clothes and “give the audience a show” with provocative dancing and lyrics. For women, beauty is basically expected by society. Keyes might refer to most of today’s female artists as “fly girls” (2016). Salt N Pepa and TLC are prime examples of prominent female figures within Hip Hop culture that dressed in a way to attract attention. For these women, the outfits merely grab the attention of the audience so they can then focus on the message behind their lyrics. While women are already underrepresented in the field, they also have to work harder for the same success that male counterparts

    Read More

  • The Exploitation and Objectification of Women in Rap

    1182 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women have consistently been perceived as second-class citizens. Even now, in times when a social conscience is present in most individuals, in an era where an atmosphere of gender equality 'supposedly' exists, it is blatantly apparent that the objectification and marginalization of women is still a major social issue. In reality, progression in terms of reducing female exploitation has been stagnant at best. Not only is the degradation of women a major problem that to date has not been eradicated, but it is actually being endorsed by some music celebrities. There are a growing number of people who purchase rap albums that support the fallacy that women are mere objects and should be treated as such. As the popularity of rap continues to climb at unprecedented rates, so too does its influence on the perception of women. In the vast majority of hip-hop songs, the depiction of women as sexual objects, the extreme violence directed towards them and the overall negative influence these lyrics have on the average adolescent's perception of women make rap the absolute epitome of female exploitation.

    Read More

More about The Tip Drill Controversy and its Relation to Misogyny in Hip-Hop

Open Document