Somehow, the hip hop culture has evolved from “From the heart it’s a start, a work of art, to revolutionize, make a change nothings strange people we are the same Redefined, Carlton)” by Public Enemy to “Spit on a pitch, punch on a pitch after I eat some steak, have her tug on my dice (Odd Future) by Odd Future. These new generations of rappers aren’t setting positive messages for their listeners. Exploiting women in hip hop through music and image Is wrong because it will lead to consequences Like Influencing young men to treat women bad, affect the self-esteem of young girls, and stereotypes of women of all kind.
In The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, Main Perry explains how hip hop exploits women. “Black men rapped rounded by dozens of black and Latin women dressed In bathing suits, or scantily clad in some other fashion. Video after video proved the same, each one more objectifying than the former. Some took place in strip clubs, some at the pool, at the beach, or hotel rooms, but the recurrent theme was dozens of half-naked women (Perry, 135). ” Hip hop has taken the wrong turn. Hip hop has come a long way and if it continues to diverge in a negative route by degrading women, it can affect young people’s actions and behavior.
A young generation of boys may feel it is okay to all a woman out of her name and treat her as if she’s a toy to run around and play with. Equally, a young generation of girls may feel as if It’s okay to be treated and spoken to Like an animal. Young women also may feel entitled to walk around In small tops and tight skirts which later leaders to other things Like engaging In physical actively. Things Like this occur at the wrong age because of someone they saw on a music video or heard in a song lyric doing the exact same thing. These values are being put into the minds of youth’s as something that is deemed acceptable by society.
In the hip hop culture, women appear to be sex objects paraded around by the men of this industry. Although this is not the only genre that displays women in a negative light, it is a popular topic. If society continues to accept this cultural issue, this conceptual image people have about women will continue to live on. Women are treated like trophy pieces and arm candy. Artists like the 2 Live Crew and Newly have paved a path for young men to believe it is acceptable to treat women in such a demeaning manner. The 2 Live Crew was a Miami based group which featured a popular artist known as uncle Luke.
The 2 Live Crews album As Nasty as They Want Be was so obscene, federalist district Judge Jose Gonzalez wanted to ban It In certain Florida counties. The album cover features four women on the beach In provocative swimsuits standing over the heads of the 2 Live Crew members. Images like this soak objectifying women is something they are supposed to do. In addition to Uncle Luke and his crew, hip hop artist Newly has also participated in exploiting women. In his video “Tip Drill” (Haynes, Cornell), one of the most misogynistic videos of all time, he slides a credit card down the crack of a woman’s butt.
That was one of the most offensive and most ignorant acts of all time. In fact, that is another prime example of women being treated as objects. Equally as bad, In Ill Wane’s video “Every Girl” (Carter, Deanne), there are cartoon arrows pointing at females and speech bubbles saying very offensive things like “Blackness” and “She from the hood. ” The lyrics were already unpleasant enough but the video was no better. Lyrics and images like this could make women feel as though they’re not beautiful enough and cause low self-esteem. Also, young girls would think they need to look and act how he women in the videos portray themselves.
This puts stress on our children and it is probably the explanation to why the teens of today look as if they’re in their early twenty’s. It is time to change the way women are displayed before it gets too late. Through music and image, stereotypes are created. Fairy tales are placed in the minds of men that they can find the perfect woman in a bar or a strip club. For example, stripped, Black China and rapper, Tag are now dating and raises a child together; it all ended in a happily ever after tale but, in most cases it won’t happen.
This causes young women to think it is okay to pursue a Job in striping or go to the club all the time rather than going to college to pursue in a career. Most young women will also lack independence and wait on a man to do for her instead of trying to do for her own. Even though women don’t come out and say it exactly some do marry for money. Women like Kimono Lee Simons have married for money. Kimono married to Russell Simons part owner of Deaf Jam Records. According to the Biography channel website “At 17, she met Russell Simmons. They married in 1998.
Her fashion design career started shortly after. In 2003, she worked as executive producer of the Deaf Poetry Jam. In 2007, she started appearing on Kimono: Life in the FAA Lane, a reality show (“Kimono Lee Simons Biography’ 1). ” Everything began to take off for Kimono as soon as she met Russell. In the hip hop community, women are portrayed as irritable, money hungry, gold diggers and angry. This is exactly what Kimono displays for the world to see. This is causing young women to be negatively influenced greatly and feel that these types of actions are acceptable.
However, not all rap songs are exhibiting hatred towards women and not all hip pop artists speak about women in a negative way. Artists like J. Cole shed positive light on women. In the song “Crooked Smile” J. Cole says “l feel for you killing yourself to find a man that’ll kill for you, you wake up, put makeup on, stare in the mirror but it’s clear that you can’t face what’s wrong, no need to fix what God already put his paint brush on (Cole, Carmine). ” J. Cole is letting women of the world know that the looks you were blessed with are good enough. Everyone is perfect the way they are. In addition to J.
Cole, Tuba Shaker also showed a soft spot for women of America by rating the song “Keep Yea Head Up. ” In “Keep Yea Head Up,” he says “And since we all came from a woman and our game from a woman, I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? (Shaker, Tuba)” Tuba have the audacity to disrespect them? Both artist acknowledge the struggles that women go through and expect them to embrace they’re hardships and overcome them. Hip hop has betrayed women for many years now and it’s time for a change. Hip hop’s influence and revolution of today’s young culture has dwindled compared to years ago.
If the artists that continue to push out negative messages about women untie to get support, then the art of hip hop will continue to lose its true value. Hip hop has evolved from more than Just music. It represents a culture of young people if the young people of this generation continue to flood their mind with these negative songs, the next generation to come will be in lots of trouble. If more people stop supporting these rappers down talking women in their songs, it may bring change. There would be no value in hip hop and rappers would have no choice but to change the way they carelessly use women in their lyrics.