Nelly swiping a credit card through a females buttocks.

A perfect example of misogyny in hip-hop is in the song titled “Tip Drill” by Nelly which is a music video that he produced of many young women dancing around wearing barely any clothing. According to the article “Female Students Spurn Nelly,” Nelly’s music video became so controversial because of how it depicted women as mere sexual objects to men (“Female Students Spurn Nelly”). In the music video, the women are dressed extremely provocatively which implies that they are there to please men and give them sex. They are mostly wearing bikinis and/or thongs so that their entire backside is hanging out for men to see. There is a scene where Nelly literally swipes a credit card through a woman’s behind, and then the women’s buttocks starts bouncing for him (“Female Students Spurn Nelly”). The women are dancing all over the guys in the video, and they are also dancing all over each other. Throughout the video, the women’s faces are barely seen and people just see their rear ends which are very visible. The reason for the women’s buttocks being extra popular in this video is because of what the video is about. According to the article “Females Students Spurt Nelly,” a “tip drill” is a slang term used for a girl that has an ugly face, but that has a nice body (“Female Students Spurn Nelly”). Therefore, the women’s faces in this video should not be seen, but their nice bodies should be shown off. Part of the lyrics to the rap song are "I said it must be ya ass cause it ain't ya face, I need a tipdrill, I need a tipdrill" (“Nelly-Tip Drill Lyrics”). Nelly is saying that the only reason he would want to associate with these girls is because of their nice bodies as their faces are not attractive at all. This music video became a huge controversy at Spelman College. Asha Jennings, a student at Spelman College had been planning a bone marrow drive. Spelman college teamed with 4Sho4Kids which is a foundation started by Nelly to bring the public’s attention to the important cause (“Female Students Spurn Nelly”). A few weeks before the drive, Jennings became familiar with the music video “Tip Drill” that Nelly had released. She was appalled by what she saw. She could not believe Nelly would treat black people that way, while he was trying to be a part of a cause that helps people with leukemia. His own sister has leukemia and she thought that he was trying to help her, but instead in his music video, he was degrading countless black women. At the time, Jennings did not know that this music video had driven another Spelman student, Moya Bailey to action. Jennings and Bailey decided that they were going to team up together and draft a formal letter that stated the foundation was invited to the bone marrow drive at Spelman College, but Nelly would not be welcome. Before Jennings was able to go through with this the foundation canceled the drive as they had been informed that students planned on confronting Nelly about the disturbing music video. Jennings and Bailey proceeded with their protest despite the foundation canceling the drive. They played the music video every half hour so students around the school could see what the issue was. This event became widely known as the “Nelly Controversy” (“Female students spurn Nelly over explicit rap video”). Nelly reacted to this video a few years later and expressed his thoughts. In the article, “Nelly Has Harsh Words for Spelman Protestors, Rapper says, “I Don’t Have My Sister Today,” Nelly states, “I come down there to teach people about leukemia and help benefit and try to help save lives and try to find a donor for my sister” (“Nelly Has Harsh Words”). He was furious because the purpose of his visit to the college was to educate scholars about the disease, but instead students protest against him because of a music video. He responded to the protests with, “instead of doing that and help and teaching our community about a bigger issue as far as healthcare, you want to have a three hour conversation about a f-king video. Now, where are our priorities in it?" ("Nelly Has Harsh Words"). About a year later his sister died from leukemia because a donor was never found. The reason he was going to the college was to search for a donor for his sister which is why he was so mad that students were protesting against him because of a music video ("Nelly Has Harsh Words").

Does Hip-Hop Culture influence and promote Misogyny?

 

Hip-hop is a way for people to express themselves and the troubles they are experiencing in life; misogyny or the hatred towards women plays a big role. This raises the question; does hip-hop culture influence and promote misogyny? Misogyny is visible in hip-hop in the lyrics of many rap songs as the word choice of the songs degrades women. It is also present in many music videos because women act provocatively which gives men the impression that they are only on this earth for sex.  Because women are treated and looked at this way, there are many negative effects that they experience in everyday life. Gourdine and Lemmons believe that abuse is a good example of a negative effect that women have to tolerate from men in hip-hop (Gourdine and Lemmons). Therefore, we need to try and prevent misogyny from being such a big part of hip-hop and make women feel equally important to men in society.

The derogatory lyrics used in rap songs degrade women’s worthiness and cause men to look at them as they though they are inferior to them and this is one of the ways in which misogyny is clearly evident in hip-hop. Men look at women as though they are just there for sex. Chambers once stated in her article “Where my girls at? Misogyny in hip-hop’s gotta go” that hip-hop today is destroying the industry because, “All the rappers' beats sound the same and they're all rapping about the same things: money and bitches” (Chambers). A majority of rap songs reference sex and money in some way; some songs have their central meaning as sex or money and some songs just talk about it once or twice in the song. Rappers have to rap about these types of things because it’s what is considered cool in society and what people want to hear and buy. In the article, “I Ain’t No Whiteboy,” by David Perez there is a clear example of how disrespectful rap lyrics are towards women. The lyrics go as follows: “Slob on the cob, like corn on the cob; Check in with me, and do your job; Lay on the bed, and give me head; Don’t have to ask, don’t have to beg” (Perez). The sheer audacity of these lyrics is appalling and men should not be allowed to rap about women in this detrimental way. Perez believes the reason that misogyny is able to survive in society today is because it is a default social mode. Yelling “bitches ain’t shit but ho’s and tricks” (Perez) is a way that a man can express his masculinity. Teenagers don’t want to go around respecting women because that is not the popular thing to do; they instead want to hear about guns, drugs, money, and sex which is what a majority of rap songs reference (Perez). Rap music helps to promote misogyny in hip-hop and keep it going; it helps keep it alive. Adams and Fuller argue in their journal article “The Words have changed but the Ideology Remains the same” that rap supports and justify all the stereotypes that are placed upon women that degrade them. Rappers say that the lyrics such as bitches and hos are aimed at certain types of women such as prostitutes and strippers. But in reality, they end up labeling women in our society as a whole (Adams and Fuller). Many people will look at a black women and automatically assume that because she is dressed in a certain way, that she just wants sex and is only worthy of sex because of how rappers portray women in their songs and through the lyrics that they use.



Various names that women are often referred to as by men in many hip-hop rap songs

Misogyny is also shown through the themes of many hip-hop music videos which are often centered on misogyny or the hatred towards women in one way or another. A great example is the music video “Area Codes” by Ludacris and Nate Dogg which is mentioned in the article “Bitches and Hoes-Exploring Misogyny in Hip-Hop.” The message that this song is trying to portray is that the rappers are able to call upon a variety of different women in many different area codes at any time for sexual purposes. The chorus goes, “I’ve got hoes in different area codes,” (Prompt) which is directly saying that they have many women, for sex, in their lives. In the music video, there are many provocatively dressed women dancing in a variety of locations. This leads many people to believe that hip-hop music portrays women as sexual items and as unrespectable members of society (Prompt). This type of theme is common in many hip-hop music videos: men using women for sex. Because of these messages being sent out, many people believe that it is the cool thing to get with a lot of girls and that it will cause their popularity to rise. These types of messages need to change because it makes many men think that it is okay to use women for sex and then when they are done they can just move into the next one.   

Another way that shows that misogyny does occur in hip hop is by the way that many women act and dance in music videos which gives off the impression towards men that women are sexual objects. In most music videos one will see women with barely any clothing on, most likely they will have bikini’s or thongs on, they will be dancing all over men and one another, and they will be shaking their behinds all over the place. Chambers thinks that the way women dance and show off their body parts in music videos makes men look at them as though they are not even human (Chambers), like they are just a piece of meat for them to have sex with. According to Chambers, Lil Wayne is just one of the many rappers who disrespect women in their music. She believes that everywhere you look there is another video being produced where women are shaking their assets off all over the place and rappers are talking about women as though they are not even human (Chambers). This hurts many women’s self-esteem and it also conditions black men to believe that women of color do not deserve to be respected (Chamber). Sharpley-Whiting explains in her book “Pimps Up, Ho’s Down” that there was an incident that shows just how misogyny in hip-hop can negatively affect women’s lives and their futures can be permanently damaged. It was where Michelle “Micki” Burks decided that she was going to take on the role of eye candy in the music videos “Stick by Me” and “Luve Bump.” By doing this, she was given the name “video ho” in years to come (Sharpley-Whiting 23). She was labeled this name because of the way she was dressed, which was extremely provocatively as she did not have much clothing on. Also, the way she acted in the music video gave many the impressions that she was what people would consider a “slut,” and that she was only interested in sex. Whenever people ask her about this incident, she always states that she does not think that her experiences were degrading (Sharpley-Whiting 24). Many women experience this kind of judgment by society when they are a part of a music video. Therefore, it is crucial that we change the ways in which women behave in music videos, so that women as a whole don’t have to live through these various stereotypes that society has placed on them.    

The misogynistic ways towards women in hip-hop has various negative effects on them that could destroy their lives forever. One might not see the effects straight away, but if you take some time to do the research you will see there are many negative effects; there are negative effects that we don’t even notice. Misogyny influences daily life in our society in many ways. Perez talked to a friend of his, Justine who explained that misogyny is clear in rap lyrics and it does in fact affect our daily lives. She states, “At its worst, it is a culture that devalues women, excuses rape, domestic violence, and bailing out on fatherhood” (Perez). Some men feel as though it is ok to abuse women and touch them inappropriately because rappers do this in music videos all the time. Also, this causes some men to feel as though it is ok to rape women and claim that they were asking for it by the way they were acting and were dressed. When in reality, these are all heinous crimes and rap does not excuse these inappropriate acts by men. Gourdine and Lemmons state in their journal that misogyny is an ideology that reduces women to objects for men’s ownership, use, or abuse (Gourdine and Lemmons). This causes a majority of men to have this belief that they control women and women should always do what a man wants. This is not the case; women have rights and should be respected by men at all times.

Misogyny should be Eliminated from Hip-Hop

A great example of a hip-hop song that discourages misogyny in hip-hop is the song titled “Unity” by Queen Latifah. In this song, she raps about how men should not disrespect women, and women should have self-respect. A segment of the lyrics to this song are, “Every time I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a hoe, Trying to make a sister feel low, You know all of that gots to go” (“Queen Latifah”). She is saying that in hip-hop songs men need to stop calling women these various degrading names as it is extremely disrespectful towards women. Queen Latifah is one of the very few hip-hop artists that still portray positive messages in her songs and music videos as opposed to a majority of other artists who are constantly rapping about themes such as misogyny and consumerism.   

As a community we need to work together to eliminate the misogyny in hip-hop because of the negative ways that it affects women. Chambers believes that as a society, we need to be smart about the music that we listen to and not support the music that looks down upon black women. Because, if we decide to ignore this kind of music then maybe this style will lose its popularity and things will start to change for the better (Chambers). Society is what fuels the rap music and music videos; if people did not listen to rap music then there would be none. According to the article “Bitches and Hoes-Exploring Misogyny in Hip-Hop,” when Don Imus made a comment about black women being “nappy headed ho’s,” (Prompt) Oprah Winfrey decided to show society how misogyny in hip-hop is a real problem. She dedicated two talk shows to the issue and had many guests such as activist Al Sharpton and Russell Simmons participate in the discussions. The shows discussed the metaphors used to describe women in rap lyrics and how they are offensive towards women (Prompt). This was a good way to make the public aware that misogyny is a big problem in hip-hop in today’s society.

Reflective Post

I believe that I met all of the requirements that we needed in order to pass this class. When looking back over the syllabus, I am now able to do everything that is listed on it such as: analyzing arguments by identifying claims. To absorb this instruction I did every one of the blackboard assignments Doctor Carey posted and I also always emailed her if I had any questions in regards to what we needed to do. Also, I always paid attention in class. I believe that I did a great job of acquiring the various course requirements that we were required to learn this semester.

My process for writing the major research paper proved to be very effective as I received an A on it. My first step was to write my annotated bibliographies on the many sources that I would use in my paper. My second step was creating a multi-sentence thesis. From there, I began writing my paper and once I had done that, I got my peers to review and edit it. Once I had made all the necessary changes, I turned my paper in on the due date.

I believe that I participated in class on a daily basis. Whenever we had class discussions I would always give my opinion on the subject, and when it was about my topic I created very in depth questions for the class to answer. I always paid attention when Doctor Carey was speaking and I was an avid note taker. I believe that I should be allowed to move forward because I have met all of the requirements and I can take what I’ve learned in this class with me, so that I can be successful in my next English class at this institution.

     

Works Cited

Adams, Terri M. and Fuller, Douglas B. “The Words have changed but the Ideology Remains the same.” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 36, No. 6 (July, 2006), pp. 938-957. Sage Publication, Inc. Web. February 5, 2012.

Chambers, Danielle. “Where my girls at? Misogyny in hip hop’s gotta go.” New York Community Media Alliance. 29 October 2009. Web. February 4, 2012.

“Females students spurn Nelly over explicit rap video.” chron.com. April 25, 2004. Web. March 14, 2012.

Gourdine, Ruby M. and Lemmons, Brianna P. “Perceptions of Misogyny in Hip Hop and Rap: What Do the Youths Think?” Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment; Jan2011, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p57-72, 16p. Academic Search Complete. Web. February 5, 2012.

 “Nelly Has Harsh Words For Spelman Protestors, Rapper Says, “I Don’t Have My Sister today!” singersroom. August 31, 2008. Web. April 10, 2012.

“Nelly-Tip Drill Lyrics.” lyrics007. November 23, 2011. Web. March 20, 2012.  

Perez, David. “I Ain’t No Whiteboy: A Reflection on Hip-Hop, Misogyny, and Racial Identity.” The Good Men Project. August 12, 2011. Web. February 4, 2012.

Prompt. “Bitches and Hoes-Exploring Misogyny in Hip-Hop.” newsvine.com. February 28, 2008. Web. April 7, 2012.

“Queen Latifah U.N.I.T.Y. Lyrics.” lyricsfreak. 2012. Web. April 28, 2012.

Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. “Pimps Up, Ho’s Down.” New York University. 2007. Print. February 4, 2012.