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The Queen B

Beyonce’s Lemonade was a visual and audio display of hip-hop feminism in it’s most powerful and beautiful form. The way she depicts the strength and beauty of the female, both physically  and…well something more divine perhaps. In a genre filled with sex, homophobia, and misogyny at the fore front, it was amazing the way Beyonce was able to connect herself on her own terms.

“Hip-hop feminism can be defined as a sociocultural, intellectual, and political movement grounded in the situated knowledge of women of color from the broader hip-hip or US post-civil rights generation…”

This quote by Aisha Durham is exactly what Beyonce displays in Lemonade but she goes way beyond that. She shows the vulnerability and duality of women. She, very pointedly, talks about how men go out of their way to make women jealous, then criticize them for “acting crazy.”

Beyonce depicts the strength of women through very familiar examples of strong womanhood. She discusses how she felt as a daughter when she looked at her mother and grandmother. Queen B is able to remember how she saw her mother growing up then and the things she had to sacrifice for the family. She also talks about how strong her grandmother is to her and how she is able to “make lemonade” when it feels like life may not have her back. These two identities are important to her because they helped her shape the woman she did, and didn’t, want to be.

The last, and to me most powerful, depiction of female strength in Lemonade was her as a mother. I have been around women and mothers my entire life. My mom was divorced. I had three sisters, both older and younger than I am. I have seen all four of these women accomplish amazing things in their lifetime, but the most beautiful thing is seeing my sisters become mothers. I am also married with two kids, one of which is a girl. The internet does not have enough room for me to talk about how amazing a woman wife is, but it pales in comparison to the awe I feel seeing her as a mother. Beyonce was able to capture all of that in her video album in such a powerful way, I could fee it in my chest.

In Beyonce’s Lemonade, she sets a new standard in hip-hop feminism. There doesn’t have to be half-dressed people dancing and shaking all over the place. There is no need for the continued oppression of women through lyrics, and even actions. Women can be beautiful in a way that still makes them feel valuable and comfortable. That is why her last depiction is also very important.

She is the Queen B

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Can the movement be the problem?

Life is full of a number of changes. Experiences are not always good. Choices are not always the right ones. The importance of an experience is what is gained from the experience itself. This is universal, not only among humans or living things, but to ideals and movements as well.

In the 1980s, the movement of Hip Hop was a way to spread a message. The message was a call to action for the ones given nothing to stand up and fight for what is theirs. It asked the youth to make smarter life choices before winding up murdered in the streets. It highlighted the meaningful parts of life such and family, friends, and love. Then the movement began to experience…experiences. New areas of the country wanted to have their own identity and glorify their way of life. Every time someone was told, “you can’t say those things,” it became their cause. This is true for the beautiful and ugly sides of Hip Hop culture. Afrika Bambaatta wanted to build a movement for the next generation to use as a tool to liberate themselves. This shows through later in the life of the movement when, in an interview for Hip Hop Evolution, Busta Rhymes refers to A Tribe Called Quest as the Avengers or X-Men of rap. It created a group of heroes and heroines to look up to. The stories of rappers like Notorious B.I.G. and Method Man giving up a life of selling drugs to pursue a better, and hopefully longer, life. It was a chance to have everything a person felt like they deserved.

The universal truth that not all choices and paths are the right ones. Just like anyone else, Hip Hop made poor choices. Sex, misogyny, and homophobia sold because it was rolled into the messages of empowerment. It require movements within the movement to correct and heal itself. The purpose of the revolution was to protect and empower. In response to the death of Biggie, Touré writes in Village Voice “I can see now that the murders and killings are coming from the same hands that make the beats and rhymes; how is living in hip hop any different that living in the dysfunctional black family writ large?” 

It would take artists like those in A Tribe Called Quest to protect the vulnerable and give a voice to the voiceless, even within the movement itself. 

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The Rise of the Hip Hop Feminist

If I told you that hip hop was full of issues like misogamy, domestic violence, and the objectification of women, I doubt you would be all that surprised. I would also assume that if I asked you to talk about feminism in hip hop, that wouldn’t be as lengthy of a conversation. That isn’t to say that feminism in hip hop doesn’t exist, it just means it doesn’t look the same. In Hip Hop Feminist, Joan Morgan depicts an idea of feminism that fits her own dualistic hip hop lifestyle. She talks about a feminist movement that is focused on keeping it real. “We need a voice like our music—one the that samples and layers many voices, injects its sensibilities into the old and flips it into something new, provocative, and powerful.”

Hip Hop was created to give a voice to the voiceless. In a world ruled by men who glorify their material belongings and relationship with the block more than their relationships with women, black women were the disenfranchised within the disenfranchised. Artists like Lauryn Hill had to take what Hip Hop and rappers had taught her over the years, create your own voice. In her song Doo Wop (That Thing) she speaks to both men and women about their adherence to this behavior. She tells the women to stop giving it up so easily to someone that only cares about “his rims and his Timbs than his women.” She wanted to women to take pride in themselves. She gives the advice to not “be a hard rock when you know you are a gem.”

It is a beautiful thing when you are able to watch a movement like Hip Hop not only speak out against the oppressors while still celebrating the happy parts of a shitty life. It is even more beautiful when it becomes so real and in your face that it is able to try and correct its own issues within.

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Fight the Power!

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West Coast, Represent

How is “representing” related to the construction of one’s subjective  identity in hip-hop?

In the earlier times of the LA Hip Hop scene, Ice Cube established himself as one of the fathers of the Gangsta Rap movement. In his days with NWA became known as one of the great poets of the genre. It wasn’t until the falling out between Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and manager Jerry Heller that Ice Cube would venture out on his own to re-define himself, and even validate his claim of prolific poet.

Ice Cube was known for being a lyrical genius after works like Express Yourself, Dopeman, and Fuck tha Police in his days with NWA. After leaving it was important that he continue to represent what hip hop was about. It was about representing “the hood.” His first album AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. He wanted to show that he was still the same person, if not better, now that he has his own freedom. He kept writing songs that spoke to his audience in a deep and meaningful way. He continued to rap about life in the ghetto, drugs, racism, and poverty. In the article “Represent,” by Murray Forman he says “Since rap’s invention, it has become somewhat of a convention for the rapper to be placed at the center of the world, as the subject around which events unfold and who translates topophilia (love of place) or topophobia (fear of  place) into lyrics for wider dissemination.” Ice Cube would try to make that happen with him as a solo artist. In songs like AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted Ice Cube lyrics depict a life of the hood that is dangerous, judgmental, and survival of the fittest. The life of someone in the hood involved avoiding prejudice police, opposing gang members, and simply staying alive on a day to day basis.

I'm a menace crook  I did so much dirt I need to be in the Guinness Book  From the s*** I took from people  I reap all your fat s***, jack

Back to the criminals sect  I leave crew after crew but they can't catch me yet  'Cause I'm slick as slippery  They can't get wit me, cops ain't s*** to me

 One of Hip Hop’s key themes is representing the hood. Being true to who you are and where you came from, no matter how far you have made it, was an integral part of success. Another famous rapper named Ice T knew that the history was important. Murray’s writes in his article about Ice T saying it was important for him to continue to even represent hip hop’s own first home, New York. This naturalized his connection to hip hop and validating his identiy as a “tough, adaptive, and street-smart LA hustler.” Ice Cube used the same idea by representing the West Coast as his home. Ice Cube’s also well known for the song It Was a Good Day where he narrates a day in South Central LA. In the end he says it was a good day because he didn’t have to “use his AK.”

With the hardships of living in the hood, these artists helped normalize, and even celebrate, the things that made the hood undesirable to those born in better conditions. They helped them change the outlook the ghetto had about itself. However, time would show that continued representation of these conditions would eventually take its toll on the community, and the hip-hop world, through violence, misogyny, and homophobia. Rap had changed from its political past to a hard and violent future.

 #mcst3300 #icecube #represent

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Blog Post #3: The Fight Back

The world of Postindustrial Soul and its relationship with the Hip Hop culture were not only impactful to music, but to the urban community as a whole. Hip Hop was beginning to broaden its reach.

In the 1970s, the music genre that gave the Bronx a reason to celebrate would begin to shape the communities that celebrated it the most.  In the 1980s, the hip-hop community began to adopt the narratives and styles of black life in black urban spaces. Various artists began to record albums that portrayed the hardships and poor living these communities were being asked to live in, in some cases even forced into. These artists wanted to give the music genre an even stronger political voice.

In Postindustrial Soul: Black Popular Music at the Crossroads, author Mark Anthony Neal discusses how as the black middle-class developed, it began to distance itself from the decaying urban underclass. He talks about Smokey Robinson’s A Quiet Storm and similar formats that “ allowed the black middle class the cultural grounding that suburban life could not afford them, while maintaining a distinct musical subculture that affirmed their middle-class status and distanced them from the sonic rumblings of an urban underclass.” The youth of these sinking urban communities would seek to restore these communities by reconstructing previous communal models of African-American culture.

Artists like Public Enemy, Notorious B.I.G., and Arrested Development began to record tracks, and even whole albums, that acted as a voice. It hoped to reunite the divided communities. In the song Harder Than You Think, Public Enemy used very real and graphic lyrics to bring attention to the issues to both the public and even the black community itself. It called to the community to stand up for itself and fight against the oppressors.

So it's time to leave you a preview So you too can review what we do 20 years in this business, "How You Sell Soul?" G-Wiz, people bear witness Thank you for lettin' us be ourselves So don't mind me if I repeat myself These simple lines be good for your health To keep them crime rhymes on the shelf Live love life like you just don't care Five thousand leaders never scared "Bring the Noise, " it's 'the moment they feared' Get up! Still a beautiful idea

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Hip-Hop/Rap

“Rap music is something we do, but hip-hop is something we live” - “HipHop Knowledge” by KRS-One

I had always grown up with the assumption that rap and hip-hop were one in the same. I never really stop to wonder why they used two different words to say the same thing. Apple even lists the musical genre as “Hip-Hop/Rap” in iTunes. It would be silly to see “Country/Singing” though wouldn’t it?

Rap and Hip-Hop are in fact two completely different entities that share a close, even symbiotic, relationship. Rapping is a lyrical art form with a long history. It’s the poetry that acts as a voice to the oppressed, and nowadays, the fortunate alike. In the Anthology of Rap it says, “Two turntables and a digital sampler have simply taken the place of the lute and lyre of the bardic past and the freestyle songs of West African griots.” And just like any art form, there are artists that specialize in that medium.

In the culture known as hip-hop, MCs are lyrical poets that use a number of linguistic techniques, mainly rhyme, to tell a story. I think of the scene in 8 Mile when Eminem’s character, Rabbit, is listening to instrumentals and writing in a notebook.

 It would make sense he is doing this on the way to a rap battle. Rap also has a long tradition of confrontation and profanity. The Anthology of Rap also says that a dominant theme of rap is the elevation of the self and the denigration of the opponent. Some of the biggest names in hip-hop have been involved in a “beef” with another at some point in their career. It is part of its competitive nature. In the most famous instance, Tupac and Biggie, both rappers were fatally shot. While that is a very extreme example, I don’t think it really gets more competitive than that.

It would make sense that because of this confrontational demeanor, rap and hip-hop have been under criticism since its inception. I don’t think the hip-hop community is going to slow down though. It certainly hasn’t since the 1970s. From the ashes of the South Bronx, the rap phenomenon was a way for people to be heard. Trying to censor those same oppressed groups will only make it worse in the end.

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Blog Post 1: Express Yourself

In the Foreword of The Anthology of Rap Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discusses a close lifelong experience he has had with the lyrical art form that we know as Rap. He talked about Rap being a form of expression that was very real, and often profane. This is where the passage started to stand out for me. Hip Hop came into my life while I was still a young white kid in East Tennessee. Pretty much every adult in my life said it was awful and should not be allowed to exist. I also probably listened to Hip Hop way earlier than I should have, but at the same time my naivety to the world let me see Rap for what it is. It’s someone simply telling a story, a very real one.

Gates testified as an expert witness in the obscenity trial of 2 Live Crew. In his testimony he stated, “What you hear is great humor, great joy, and great boisterousness. It’s a joke. It’s a parody and parody is one of the most venerated forms of art.” This is how I viewed Rap as I listened. A number of people in my life were not happy about my new music choice. Yet, as a young male growing up, I saw other young males expressing themselves through music. I saw celebration of life, no matter how awful the circumstances were. I heard them express love, pain, anger, and all the other emotions that young males are taught not to show. They were showing it, and it was on the radio.

Gates talked about his father coming home from World War II with stories of young men from Virginia that were barely literate but could recite acres of verses of what his father called “signifying.” I remember hearing a friend of mine rap once. He wasn’t one of the best students, but when he started rhyming, he was completely transformed into someone that didn’t seem to have a struggle with words at all. My friend was having a very rough time in his life. This was his way to escape those times. He could laugh, be angry, or even offensive. He wouldn’t be judge by his grammar. Instead, we wanted to hear the story he wanted to tell.

I always thought the offensiveness was an integral part of the story as well. Once an uncle told me “curse words are what stupid people use when they don’t have anything intelligent to say.” For the record it would help if you imagined that phrase with a southern accent coming out of a mustached mouth barely holding a cigarette as it moved. I would now argue that those profane words are used when there is simply no other word that would suffice. They are a point of emphasis. My children ask me why they can’t swear. I tell them because they do not know enough words to be able to use them responsibly. They are just words.

Hip Hop is very similar to comedy. The stigma of a comedian being depressed isn’t necessarily true, but sometimes it’s not far off. Some of the greatest comedians ever were extremely profane and real. The funniest stories were the ones you connected with. The more realistic the story, the more emotion the comedian can elicit from the audience, the more the story was getting the story across. Comedy and Hip Hop put faces on some very ugly parts of life. Gates also discussed two separate songs that portray a man being doomed to fail as soon as he was born. Both “The Message” and “Life’s a Funny Old Proposition” represent struggle of young black men. It was a very real struggle with an ugly picture to paint. It connected strongly to its audience experiencing the exact same struggles. Comedy makes people laugh about some horrible and awkward experiences. Hip Hop makes people want to dance to some very powerful messages.

Rap has always stuck with me because of that. There are a number of times I can now hear a song and it will immediately take me back to a younger point in my life. Sometimes it reminded me of a girl I was dating. Other times it would take me to some of the less exciting parts of my life. Rap helped me process the emotions I was experiencing at the time.  It was the validation I needed to feel okay expressing myself, no matter how ugly the story is.