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| Black
Female Rappers in American Culture
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Contents
1. Introduction
2. The role and images of black female rappers in American
rap music industry
3. Feminist’s discourse in rap music
4. The dominant sexual and racial ideologies in American culture
5. Conclusion: the future of black females in American rap
music
6. Bibliography
Introduction
American culture, being traditionally perceived as quite liberal
and democratic, is in fact paralysed by the overwhelming power
of stereotypes which shape the current image of culture at
large and its industries, including music, in particular.
Even the most innovative and advanced movements turn to be
submitted to the canons of the ideology that dominates in
American culture. Unfortunately, such a situation does not
contribute to the development of really free, liberal and
focused on spiritual, moral and intellectual progress of the
consumers of the culture.
Probably one of the most interesting, new and, unfortunately,
typical example of the domination of stereotypes in American
culture is the development of female black rap music, which
has become particularly intensive in 1980s and is still quite
dynamically developing. At first glance black female rap music
should be free from traditional stereotypes, it should be
innovative and contributing to black female emancipation and
increasing the role of black females in the society at large
but, in actuality, the situation is absolutely different.
Despite the fact that many female rappers pretend to be unique
at developing the new image of a free and independent black
female, it turns to be that practically all of them, or at
least the most popular of them, are ideologically dependent
on the male dominance in proper and figurative sense of this
word. It means that as a rule black female rappers tend to
create an image which can be well accepted by the wide audience
and which is created on the basis of the dominating ideology
in American culture, notably in American rap music that is
characterised by the male dominance and the role of a black
female is so to say secondary or subordinated to a male. As
a result, instead of a new image of a black female that could
be independent and free of male dominance, rap music industry
and the audience have got a negative image of a black female,
or an image of a black female that tends to underline her
sexuality.
The role and images of black female rappers in American rap
music industry
Speaking about black female rappers, it should be pointed
out that their role and the impact on the development of the
culture of African Americans and American culture at large
should not be underestimated. Regardless the fact that many
of black female rappers were created due to the male rappers
they still contributed to the progress of rap music industry
and introduced something new and founded a basis for further
development of rap music among black females on the professional
level.
The development of black female rappers as a strong power
in rap music and culture has started in 1980s and nowadays
it is still popular and interesting. Black female rappers
may be viewed differently but their importance for music and
culture cannot be denied. At this respect it should be pointed
out that many cultural and music critics “praise rap’s
role as an educational tool, point out that black women rappers
are examples of aggressive pro-women lyricists in popular
music, and defend rap’s ghetto stories as real life
reflections that should draw attention to the burning of racism
and economic oppression, rather than to question of obscenity”
(Rose 1994, 1).
At the same time, on analysing the development of black female
rappers, it should be said there could be clearly defined
two main trends, which have been typical for black female
rappers since 1980s. Initially, black female rappers had to
“wear the same clothes as men, curse with the same intonation,
and adopt a harsh mentality that didn’t place much value
on feminine instincts” (Nelson 1998, 188) that was actually
a natural consequences of male domination in rap music and
culture at large.
On the other hand, later a new trend has become popular. Black
females broke ground using sex or feminine image which was
deliberately underlined. As Nelson George points out, “most
commercially successful female group (and one of rap’s
best selling act of any gender) began as slightly chubby b-girls
who have evolved into glamour girls, and have been talking
about sex since 1986” (1998, 185). Quite noteworthy
is the fact that many female rappers used similar themes in
their songs.
Nonetheless, it is impossible to objectively evaluate the
role of black female rappers without analysis of the work
of the most outstanding black female rappers. One of the most
popular and well known black female rappers, whose contribution
in the development of rap music is undoubted, is Dana Owens,
better known as Queen Latifah. By the way her adapted Arabic
name Latifah is quite symbolic and means ‘beautiful’,
‘sensitive’, ‘kind’. She became popular
in 1989 with her hit single “Ladies First”. According
to Monica Lynch, the Tommy Boy executive who put Latifah on,
the song “signalled the empowerment of a new breed of
female MC’s” (Hip Hop Divas 2001, 52). In fact
this song arrived quite in time because at came at a period
in rap when many female rappers were just dissing one another
but not doing the same to their sexist male counterparts.
In such a situation her album “All Hail” was not
a sort of an album traditional for black female rappers of
that time but it was an album of a woman who was not afraid
to confront sexist and disrespectful behaviour. As the matter
of fact, Queen Latifah has managed to put the right messages
at the right time for, as many critics underlined, “the
topic of empowerment for the ladies made a big impact on many
socially, including capturing the attention of hip-hop journalists
debating and documenting the female perspective” (Hip
Hop Divas 2001, 53). Moreover, her trend to underline female
independence and equality often provoked discussions about
her heterosexuality and often she was asked whether she was
a gay or not.
However, Queen Latifah was not very successful from commercial
point of view for she has got only one gold record but financial
side of the business was obviously not the most important
in her contribution to the development of black female rap
music. In fact she is an excellent example of positive female
representation in rap music since her image is traditionally
perceived as positive. As Treach said “she represents
black women power. That’s why all the ladies were behind
her whether they were rap fans or not” (Hip Hop Ladies
2001, 56). Unfortunately, Queen Latifah is a rare exception
with her social and spiritual aims superior to financial ones
which were basic for the vast majority of black female rappers
later.
Anther significant personality among black female rappers
is Sister Souljah. In fact she is a very gifted person who
managed to apply her talent and knowledge in different fields
though she is traditionally thought of as “a controversial
American hip-hop generation author, activist, recording artist,
and film producer” (Collins 2000, 221). Obviously her
talent as a rapper was probably the most significant in her
life. It was she who was the female voice of hip-hop formation
Public Enemy and her first solo album 360 Degrees of Power
was released in 1992. At the same time, it should be pointed
out that she was really quite a controversial person, for
instance, on commenting the Los Angeles riots, she said quite
a provoking phrase: “If black people kill black people
every day, why not have a week and kill white people?”
(Collins 2000, 222). This statement, being severely criticise
by the President Bill Clinton, inspired the creation of the
first Sister Souljah moment.
However, in late 1990s she basically focused on her literary
career and published her autobiography “No Disrespect”
(1995) and the novel “The Coldest Winter Ever”
(1999). Nonetheless, in her work both as a rapper and as a
writer she raised disturbing problems of racial inequality,
which sometimes simply overshadow another problem the problem
of equality and ruin of stereotypes concerning black females.
Nonetheless, Sister Souljah represents relatively new generation
of black female rappers while there is a very important figure
in the black female movement, which produced a very serious
impact on the development of rap music at large and its female
branch in particular, and she is MC Lyte. Actually she is
one of the major black female rappers. Moreover, she was the
first who received the gold album. She started her music career
very early when she was only 12 and soon after that she signed
a contract with First Priority that was obviously a great
success for a young African American girl. Naturally she continued
her career and she released her debut album Lyte as a Rock
in 1988 when she was 17 only. It was really a great success
but what was really important for her and for black female
rappers was the fact that it was a good example for other
black female rappers to follow.
At the same time, there was also a great danger in it because
in such an age she could hardly realise the importance of
the message she gave to the audience while her commercial
success was not less significant than her success as a rapper.
The years to follow she managed to make a guest appearance
on a remix of Sinead O’Connor’s “I wants
your hands on me”, which became a dance hit. In 1990s
she continued to release her albums. It is quite noteworthy
that she collaborated with other black female rappers such
as Missy Elliott “Cold Rock a Party”.
Naturally, her work and her success could not remain unmarked
and in December 2004 she was inducted as an honorary member
into Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. In such a way, MC Lyte
contributed greatly to the development of black female rappers
and achieved great results at the very young age.
As for her collaborator, Missy Elliott, she was also a very
significant personality in the black female rapper music.
Actually, she is one of the first female hip hop superstars.
Among her hits may be named “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”,
“She’s a Bitch”, “Get UR Freak On”,
“Lose Control”, and “Work It”. Quite
remarkably she started as a singer and songwriter in an R&B
group called Sista though it should be emphasised that her
friend Timothy “DJ Timmy Tim”, the producer of
her group produced a significant impact on her creative work
and her image. Than she continued her career cooperating with
Swing Mob, and later Timbaland. Elliot and Timbaland crafted
hit singles for a number of artists between 1995-1997.
As a solo rapper, Elliott began her career as a featured vocalist
on Gina Thompson’s “The Things You Do” and
MC Lyte’s 1996 single “Cold Rock a Party”.
Her debut album was released in 1997, was Supa Dupa Fly, a
blockbuster hit that established Missy Ellitott as a major
force in popular music. It is very important that Supa Dupa
Fly was accepted positively by critics though some critics
commented that “the album tracks, some of which sampled
Missy/Mosley hits such as “Can We” and “One
in a Million”, were far inferior to the singles”
(Sexton 1995, 257). 1997 was marked by Elliott perform on
Lil Kim’s girl-power anthem, a hit remix of her song,
“Not Tonight” that obviously underlined her music
work as a black female rapper. The next year, she continued
her successful music career by writing and producing Total’s
single “Trippin”.
Missy Elliott’s second album, Da Real World (1999) was
just as successful as the first as well as Miss E… So
Addictive in 2001. In fact she is very productive and among
the albums which were successful may be also named Under Construction
(2002), This Is Not a Test (2003), The Cookbook (2005) and
she still remains to be popular so that “Missy Elliott
is still as widely recognised and respected by her peers,
mainstream, and underground as ever” (Cheney 2005, 410).
Moreover, her achievements and success were rewarded and in
November 2005, Missy Elliott won Best Female Hip Hop Artist
at the 2005 American Music Awards, defeating, by the way,
Lil Kim, another famous black female rapper.
However, her success was great, but the quality of her work
was probably sacrificed for the sake of commercial success.
In such a way commerce has started to prevail over the message
the black female rapper, namely Missy Elliott, conveyed to
the audience.
This trend has become even more obvious in the creative work
of Lil Kim who was probably the most commercially successful
of all females in the rap industry. On the other hand, Lil
Kim was the best at selling the sex image. It is very important
to underline that she was introduced to the hip-hop community
via the all male crew Junior Mafia and “with a successful
introduction in place and her mentor/lover The Notorious B.I.G.
right behind her, Kim locked down the rap world from many
(female) competitors for a very long time” (Evans 1994,
216). On analysing her work, it is easy to realise that Lil
Kim exploited sexuality to create an image of sweetheart that
was to a significant extent the result of her personal need
to be loved. It is a well known fact that Kim left home too
soon and this is why she had to hustle men in order to support
herself. “’At that time I always had a man to
take care of me’ she remembers. ‘Sometimes, if
I thought I could get some money out of a guy, I’d sleep
with. And I got kinda caught in that mentality’”
(Hip Hop Divas 2001, 133). Soon she starts “transporting
drugs, lives to boyfriend to boyfriend, learning hard lessons,
getting betrayed” (Hip Hop Divas 2001, 133). Naturally
all these facts from her biography reflected in her creative
work and her image where sexuality was particularly significant,
while morality obviously played a secondary role after commercial
success.
Despite this fact, she was very popular and her debut on Junior
Mafia’s “Player’s Anthem” left many
rap fans captivated with her raw style and lyrical abilities.
When her first album was released she was characterised as
“the dopest female MC that’s coming out ever”
(Hip Hop Divas 2001, 134). It is very important that, being
an outstanding black female rapper, Lil Kim was supported
by her boyfriend and male rapper Biggie who gave her a lot
of help, though mainly at the beginning of her career. But
even though his role has started to decline, when the real
success has come, the death of Biggie produced a very serious
impact on her creative work and she delayed the release of
her second album The Notorious for three years. These facts
underline the role of male in the progress of black female
rappers career and the emphasis on sexuality in Lil Kim’s
career and her image are extremely contrasting to what Queen
Latifah’s promotion of black female independence and
freedom from stereotypes.
Nonetheless, Lil Kim is unique and there has been no female
solo artists before as successful as Kim in being raw and
doing exactly what male rappers have done to be successful.
At the same time, she revealed that black female rappers tend
to give the audience the image which is to a significant extent
stereotyped and black female independence promoted in 1980s
is gradually replaced by striving for commercial success by
all means.
In such a way, black female rappers being significantly similar
to each other possess their unique characteristics and in
general they played an important role in the development of
rap music though their image as well as the message they convey
to the audience were and remain to be quite controversial.
Feminist’s discourse in rap music
To fully realise the controversial character of black female
rappers it is necessary to analyse in details their messages
and their feminist’s discourse, which they represent
in their creative work.
In fact there may be singled out two main trends in the image
and style of black female rappers. On the one hand, there
are female rappers which attempt to imitate their male counterparts
they just tend to be like male rappers, wearing similar clothes,
using similar language and style. On the other hand, there
are black female rappers which are sometimes defined as a
‘fly-girl’ leading a very sexually active lifestyle
and promoting this image, which becomes their second nature,
to the audience. Among such black female rappers may be named
MC Lyte and Lil Kim.
It should be underlined that often, especially in 1980s, black
female rappers were playing in the sexist arena but the promotion
of a black female as an independent female who can live her
own way without male’s influence and support was quite
rare and sometimes resulted in discussions concerning sexual
orientation of a rapper as it was in the case of Queen Latifah
described above. In contrast, many black female rappers were
often harsher to one another than to male rappers that naturally
did not contributed to the promotion of a positive image of
black female rappers at large.
Furthermore, an important role for black female rappers played
the female audience because, as one of the rappers singled
out “women will be your worst critics, but also your
biggest fans. The first group of people you gotta get are
the women. You can’t do that by dissing’em, and
you can’t do it by threatening them” (Hip Hop
Divas 2001, 34). In such a situation, it was strategically
important to gain respect and popularity among female audience
first that cannot be fully done by black female rappers through
dissing one another.
These were the trends that were typical for 1980s though present
in 1990s but what has really become the main trend during
1990s was the increased role of commercial success, which
overshadowed all other aspects of black female rappers creative
work. In such a situation “’get rich’ mentality
that has begun to dominate rap music, many artists loose consciousness
of the art and will sell garbage in exchange for money”
(Collins 2000, 348). Unfortunately, many black female rappers
simply forgot what their life was like before success had
come.
As a result the negative image of black female image was promoted
by black female rappers and the situation has hardly changed
since 1980s when the black female rappers movement got started
to be particularly significant. Moreover, in 1990s the situation
became even worse. The primary concern they were contributing
to and continue to do so is making money regardless moral
aspects, ideas and messages they convey to their audience
through their work and their image.
Such a situation is particularly dramatic because many black
female rappers exploit sexuality and sexual image and often
these females “possess good rhyming skills that were
hidden behind pornographic talk because this is what their
mentors were producing” (Evans 1994, 303).
Furthermore, the negative image that is promoted is not the
only drawback of black female rappers concerning feminism
and emancipation of black female in American society and culture.
The fact, which has already been underlined above, that many
of them started at a very young age resulted in the lack of
consciousness of their mission as representatives of pop music,
of art and primarily as representatives of probably the most
deprived part of American society black females which, in
order to be really independent and equal to other members
of society, have to use all opportunities to promote their
positive image, not negative one.
Naturally as teenagers, these young black female rappers were
mainly concerned with the money they were making than with
the image they were portraying and they could hardly be aware
of black feminist movement or womanist ideology. At the same
time it was quite natural that their discourse and the message
they send to their audience was significantly influenced by
surrounding reality and mass culture, which, as it has been
already emphasised, were full of stereotypes and there were
a lot of prejudices concerning black female and their image.
Moreover,, being too young, they could not think absolutely
independently. This is why they tended to create the image
the audience traditionally expected from them such as exaggerated
sexuality and basically negative image. In such a situation
there remained little or even no room for feminist ideology
and wider representation of real black female image, which
was significantly different from stereotyped view on them.
In other words, they did not fully realise the opportunity
to change public opinion in relation to black females, on
the contrary they only reinforced the negative image mistakenly
perceived by the vast majority of the audience as traditional
and typical for black females.
Probably because of their age they could not act otherwise
but at the same time it is necessary to realise that such
a situation has not gone to the past. Moreover, now the black
female rappers’ discourse tends to be far from what
may be treated as really feminist discourse oriented on the
protection and promotion of rights of black females, in contrast
sexuality and servile emphasis on the audience’s stereotypes
are promoted and what is even worse new black female rappers
choose such an image and use similar discourse over and over
again.
As a result portraying controlling images, being ruinous for
black female rappers as representatives of black feminist
movement, are getting to be more and more popular and widely
spread nowadays.
The dominant sexual and racial ideologies in American culture
A logical question that arises, when the situation with black
female rappers is analysed, is the question concerning the
reasons of such a discourse which obviously lacks feminists
promotion and is rather subordinated to stereotypes. In addition
to the reasons mentioned in previous chapter, it should be
said that black female rappers willingly or not are a part
of American culture and consequently they are subordinated
to the dominant ideologies which are accepted by the vast
majority of American society and which, in fact, they should
change but currently they fail to.
It is an undeniable fact that the dominant sexual and racial
ideologies in American culture are very discriminating in
relation to black females and consequently black female rappers
had to obey to these ideologies in order to gain popularity
of the possibly wider audience but, on the other hand, it
is necessary to realise that by doing so they can hardly gain
real respect neither the audience at large nor black females
in particular.
Speaking about the dominant ideologies it is necessary to
clearly realise that they are developed and belong to white
males and the changes that got started in American society
are too slow to change the dominant ideology somehow. Naturally,
in such a situation, black female rappers has a little choice
to do and their choice in favour of popularity, even though
it weakens dramatically black female movement, is quite pragmatic
and natural. It is noteworthy to refer to George Nelson who
estimated that “for much of hip-hop’s history,
it has been a truism that the male rap consumer, white and
black, simply won’t accept females” (1998, 185).
In fact rap has always been considered a private and male
dominant space. This is why at the beginning it was extremely
difficult for black female rappers to gain success and the
breakthrough made in mid-1980s was particularly significant.
Remarkably, this breakthrough coincided with the work of such
a black female rapper as Queen Latifah who was probably the
most eager rapper who strived for promotion of an image of
a black female different from standardised and this image
was obviously very successful for her as an artist but not
in commercial aspect. However, such a position of Queen Latifah
and to a certain extent similar to her MC Lyte led to their
severe critique and “it is significant that the females
who get the most respect in hip-hop’s primarily male
domain – Queen Latifah and MC Lyte – are relentlessly
dogged by rumours that they are lesbians. Whether these rumours
are true or not, the message is evident: a female can’t
be tough or strong or clear or exceptionally skilful at hip-hop
unless she has sacrificed the thing that makes her a ‘real
girl’” (Smith 1995, 127). Furthermore, as Tricia
Rose estimates, such female rappers often “felt that
they were being used as a political baton to beat male rappers
over the head, rather than being affirmed as women who could
open up public dialogue to interrogate sexism and its effect
on young black women” (1994, 150).
Naturally, it is impossible to speak about equality and independence
of black female rappers and their creative work since, being
few compared to the mass of male rappers, they could hardly
change stereotypes and dominant ideologies in a day, a year
or even a decade because as a rule they have been viewed as
“interlopers – either butchy anomalies or cute
novelties who by some fluke infiltrated a boy’s game”
(Light 1999, 177).
On facing such a resistance, from the part of the mass audience
influenced by the dominant sexual and racial ideologies in
American culture black female rappers, as one of them Kid-N-Play
said, “have to work twice as hard [as males] to get
half the credit” (Rose 1994, 146). As a result, it is
not surprising that many black female rappers are harsher
to one another than to male rappers that may be also explained
by low number of black female rappers compared to males and
by their intention to please the predominantly male audience
for the sake of commercial success. This often led to limiting
female rap songs to verbal ‘catfights’ and the
typical ‘battle of the sexes’, especially in 1980s.
Furthermore, it should be pointed out that since 1980s there
have been two main ways on which black female rappers could
achieve success. On the one hand, there is the ‘I am
as tough and as good just as the next ‘man’ role
but very few black female rappers have chosen this way to
success, though those who have chosen it are the most respected.
On the other hand, there is an alternative that the majority
of black female rappers have chosen and nowadays it gets to
be more and more popular, is simply to sell sexual images
that is not surprising because it is acceptable by the dominating
male ideology in the industry for “that sex sells is
the first axiom of advertising, and sexual ads are everywhere.
And in order to titillate a sexually jaded society, you have
to push the boundaries. You have to be a bit more brazen than
the last hot little number, a little more ‘edgy’”
(Burford et al. 1999, 72) and this is exactly what many of
black female rappers are currently doing to be successful.
Unfortunately, the dominant sexual and racial ideologies in
American culture result in the situation when “portraying
African-American women as stereotypical mummies, matriarchs,
welfare recipients, and hot mommas helps justify US black
women’s oppression… These controlling images are
designed to make racism, sexism, poverty, and other forms
of social injustice appear to be natural, normal, and inevitable
parts of everyday life” (Collins 2000, 70). Moreover,
often black female rappers are portrayed as ‘hootchies’
since men allowed many of them to rap. ‘Hootchies’
is a term used by Joan Morgan in her book “When Chickenheads
Come Home to Roost” (2000) and it signifies women who
use sex to get what they want from men. An example of such
a type of black female rappers is Lil Kim.
Consequently, the controlling image of black females becomes
more and more widely spread and in general it is influenced
by the dominant sexual and racial ideologies in which males
play the main role and the desire to achieve commercial success
force black females to create images the most attractive for
the wide audience but unfortunately it results in the creation
of an extremely negative image of black female that is very
dangerous for the progress of black feminist movement.
Conclusion: the future of black females in American rap music
Thus, taking into considerations all above mentioned, it is
possible to presuppose the future of black females in American
culture at large and rap music in particular. The recent trends
in the development of black female rap are quite disturbing,
particularly an unparalleled commercialisation of the industry,
but it is necessary to point out that the similar trends are
typical not only for females but for males as well as for
other industries of pop culture. Nonetheless, this trend is
basically the result of male dominated ideology that makes
the progress of black female rappers not so effective as it
could be.
Furthermore, the perspective development of black female rap
music would probably enhance this trend that would naturally
lead to further exploitation of sexual images that would not
improve the general image of black females which is now rather
negative, according to the current images of black female
rappers.
On the other hand, there is still some room for hope to change
the negative image of black females would eventually vanish
due to the creation of new image of a real black female which
has nothing in common that conservative and stereotypical
dominant male ideologies tend to promote. Fortunately, this
presupposition is not purely hypothetical but, on the contrary,
it is quite realisable and the growing number of black female
rappers is significant evidence in favour of such a perspective.
It is quite logical to presuppose that eventually quantity
will be transformed into quantity and instead of the current
discourse, black female will focus on such things as morality,
females’ rights, freedom of standardised stereotypes
and real independence.
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