Online articles/links
Why do we tolerate
misogyny in music?
"Women are described only as "bitches" or
"hoes"; violence is a valid response to infidelity; and – most
importantly – there is an imperative not to take the lyrics seriously."
"That hitting women is the benchmark of misogyny –
words alone fall short of the standard."
"Over the past decade, both rap and hip-hop have raised
concerns about misogynistic, homophobic and violent lyrics and demeaning
videos."
"It is no surprise that OrelSan is being compared to
the king of these debates, the man George Bush once referred to as "the
most dangerous threat to American children since polio" – Eminem."
"In Eminem's songs Kim and '97 Bonnie and Clyde, he
fantasises about killing his estranged wife Kim in front of their daughter,
Hailie. In Kill You, the narrator threatens, "Slut, you think I won't
choke no whore / 'Til the vocal chords don't work in her throat no
more?!". In the final three seconds of the song, he laughs and says
"I'm just playing, ladies. You know I love you", as if to suggest
that the whole song has been ironic."
"Plan B's 2006
album contains songs told from the perspective of murderers, rapists and other
violent characters. Citing films such as Irreversible and Baise-Moi (in his
lyrics too Sick To Def), Plan B argues that he should be treated in the same
way as those films' directors and writers – as a storyteller and narrator of
disturbing events, not as a confessing criminal"
"His point is an obvious one: talking is not the same
as doing. And of course, we can no more extrapolate a confession of rape and
murder from a song by a rapper than we can conclude that all country artists
have seen their dogs shot, had their partners cheat on them, and finally become
alcoholics."
"The hypocrisy in the discussions is rarely raised.
Outrage about violence and misogyny in music is almost always confined to rap
and hip-hop, despite there being much to engage with elsewhere."
"Surely we should object either to none of it, or to
all of it"
My hip-hop love affair: 'its art, you fool'
'As Tupac Shakur once put it, I see no changes – even with a
black president.'
"Hip-hop began as party and club music "that once
gave us great joy and/or offered us inspiration". Now it's degenerated
into celebration of what he calls "prison culture". He names:
"Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Snoop Dog have perverted the American dream for black
youth."
"Namely that African Americans are often more likely to
get their higher education in jails than in college."
"By glamorising prison and violence the new hip-hop,
Whitlock argues, makes incarceration a rite of passage into true black
manhood"
"Whitlock declares himself a one-time lover of the
music and evidently values those early (let's call them "classic")
rap songs which are, typically, laments, not glorifications, of the destiny of
young black males. One of the founding texts of rap, Grandmaster Flash's The
Message, for instance, glamorises nothing. It's a bitter protest song – as
potent as Billie Holiday's protest against lynching in Strange Fruit"
Example lyric - Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't
care
I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far
Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car
"The fact that young African Americans shoot each other
is a social problem – not a by-product of any music."
"Hip-hop features rap with cheap, readily available and
easily mastered electronic systems for its musical accompaniment. Its core,
however, remains the archetypal drum and pre-eminently the voice –
"slanging" and "rhyming" and "flow"."
"And those words (I would particularly point to those
composed – often spontaneously) by Shakur, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg – can
legitimately take their place in what we regard as poetry, not music. The
antics of the some of the performers may disgust us (but no more than, say,
Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson) but it's a voice, and words, that should be
listened to before easy conclusions are drawn"
“Guns have been part of the baggage of hip-hop since 1988,
when Los Angeles's NWA released what was arguably the first gangsta-rap album,
Straight Outta Compton.”
“Its robust depiction of violence turned what had been a
party genre on its head - and opened it up to slackerly white teenagers who had
until then seen it as a black thing.”
“Two threads emerged from the ensuing debate, generating the
clichés that persist to this day. On one hand, NWA claimed their songs amounted
to simple reportage - the "we're just reflecting real life" defence.
Others, from the FBI to the black rights organisation NAACP, detected a
shocking amorality.”
“Kim Howells accuses "hateful lyrics" of inciting
violence, while the biggest British rap/garage act, So Solid Crew, argue that
gun culture is the by-product of escalating poverty, and they can't be blamed
if they are caught up in it on their south London estates.”
“Does anyone detect a get-out clause along the same lines as
the National Rifle Association slogan "Guns don't kill people, people kill
people"?”
“The situation is more complex than it was in the days of
NWA and Snoop Dogg (the former spiff-smoking scourge who has evolved into a
thirtysomething businessman with his own clothing range).”
“Some insist that envious "haters" make guns a
necessity.”
“What it boils down to is that teenage boys are
impressionable and always will be. Just reflect that the Sex Pistols once
persuaded fans that spitting at each other was fantastically cool.”
“It takes several leaps of the imagination to apply the same
logic to guns, but it happens. So no, hip-hop can't claim to be entirely
innocent here.”
Chicago hip-hop feud
deepens after death of Joseph 'Lil Jojo' Coleman
“A bitter feud between two Chicago hip-hop stars and their
affiliates has deepened with the launch of a new remix that warns of bloody
reprisals over the murder of one of the rappers.”
“The release has provoked concerns of further bloodshed on
the city's streets”
“The feud has led to fierce debate over Chicago's new breed
of "gansta rap" stars and calls for record labels which distribute
their material to drop those who advocate violence.”
“City’s police are struggling with a 38% spike in homicides
this year, which they say is caused by gang violence”
“Cozart's version of the track, which has been viewed 14
million times on YouTube, features frames of the rapper with a gun in his hand.”
"When the record companies come in and say they want to
do a record deal with these rappers, they want to create that aura of violence.
The record labels are feeding on that.”
"Social media is very powerful. What makes it even more
powerful is when the major record labels and the radio stations are pushing
that violence."
Bradley praised Jay Z and
Chicago-born Kanye West's track, "Murder to Excellence" for decrying
violence, but added: "Radio stations don't play it. But they need to do
all they can to prevent the senseless violence and killing."
“There have been other calls for more restraint from the
music industry over who it chooses to promote.”
In July, the Chicago Tribune described Cozart’s as the
"prince of violent Chicago rap". It noted that he had been on house
arrest for a gun charge earlier this year and quoted a South Side record label
director as saying that the Cozart's gun charge added to his
"authenticity" in the music industry.”
50 cent waded into the debate to defend the rapper. He said
the presence of guns in videos was indicative of the culture being portrayed
but did not necessarily indicate criminal activity.
Macklemore is being
used to paint the rest of hip-hop as 'uncivil'
Thanks to anti-hip-hop posturing and shallow-minded
generalizations, Macklemore is being used as an example of ground-breaking
"civility" for rap. A pseudo-gentrification that undermines decades
of artistry hip-hop culture has provided.
We're all familiar with the stigma surrounding rap music:
misogyny, homophobia, violence and drugs. Young African-American men
perpetuating the violent communities they grew up in by leading other
African-American men to commit crimes they hear in lyrics. And, naturally, there
is always a sector of the genre that offers nothing remotely positive to
society, but hip-hop is a vast genre.
For every Chief Keef promising to raise the murder rate with
his new album, there's a thoughtful artist like Dee-1 donating his video budget
to feed the homeless.
What if someone like Macklemore had hit it big 25 years ago?
Would hip-hop have still become a genre marked by homophobia, violence and a
mind-numbing obsession with weed, booze and bling? Probably.
Macklemore is the first non-homophobic, non-violent rapper
in the same way that Elvis was a ground-breaking initiator of the Blues.
Some mainstream rap has veered to the materialistic and
misogynistic, there have always been successful rappers who have rallied
against the vapid. Believe it or not, Kanye West's ultra-successful debut album
featured songs like "Jesus Walks" and "All Falls Down,"
which spoke out against materialism.
He’s being used as a sign post to paint the rest of hip-hop
as a wholly negative influence on society.
