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.