FINAL: Bad Rap

In the wake of Don Imus' racial slur about the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, his subsequent firing and the ongoing debate about misogynistic language used in rap lyrics, I thought I would discuss the origins of rap, it's inherent misogyny and how we can change it.

Rap music, which is commonly synonymous with Black music, emerged in the 1980s as a form of expression where music knowledge was not necessary but required the ability to craft words into rhythmic patterns. From the beginning, rap music reflected the inner-city Black youth experience in America, which focused on the alienation and social and economic deprivation of ghetto communities (Verney 95).

Rap and hip hop lyrics have evolved into a form of nihilism, which Professor Cornel West in the documentary "The Darker Side of Black" defines as "meaninglessness." Because mild to severe death, disease and destruction are what African American youth face on a daily basis, they over-dramatize it in their music, creating greater consequences than they probably realize.

Feminist writer bell hooks wrote that rappers are acting out the stereotypes of predatory and violent Black males in order to cater to the 70 percent of rap music consumers who are White. If this is true, then rap music is like the minstrel shows of the 19th century where Black people demeaned themselves for profit (Verney 99).

Rapper Chuck D, in "The Dark Side of Black" confirms that young rappers "are a product of what the [racial] hate produced. We disrespect ourselves. [Young rappers] are only going to talk what they know or what they think they know."

What rappers know is that African American power in this country is very limited. So to combat their disenfranchisement, music is used as an expression of power. Because Blacks cannot rap about running Fortune 500 companies (because they historically do not), they exercise their power in the bedroom. According to the documentary, sex is the only arena in which African American men can honestly feel and showcase their power, besides the ownership and use of guns. This combination of sex and violence has morphed into a fusion-theme in hip hop (especially Gangsta rap), what historian Michael Dyson calls "femiphobia." The language routinely refers to women as "bitches" and "hoes" and depicts them "as objects for male sexual gratification rather than as equal partners." While now there are female rappers and rap groups that use just as sexually-explicit lyrics, rap is still a men's club, reinforcing the denigration of women as a way to boost male self-esteem (Verney 96).

Rapper Ice Cube, whose 1990 album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted sold over one million copies, performed the following lyrics in the song "It's a Man's World,"

Women they're good for nothing no maybe one thing
To serve the needs to my ding-a-ling
I'm a man who loves the one-night stand
Cause after I do ya
Huh I never knew ya

Ice Cube's defense of the lyrics at the time were that he had seen "a certain kind of woman" who used her body to make men do anything she wanted. He (who now, ironically, stars in kiddie movies like Are We There Yet?) also reaffirmed the idea that African American men use the exploitation of women to assert their manhood "in a society that has denied him the power that white men have consistently yielded (Streitmatter 157)."

And it has only gotten worse. America has puritan roots, making sexuality a taboo subject. In the last 100 years, America has gone from sexually repressed to sexually obsessed. From Girls Gone Wild commercials to Nelly's Tip Drill video, women are portrayed on the radio, television and Internet as objects. In "The Darker Side of Black," two Black women were interviewed as saying that they liked hip hop music but did not like the way it affected Black men's behavior. "A lot of young children," one explains. "Are changing their attitude because of the music."

Nobody has widely addressed the problem of misogynistic rap lyrics and the objectification of women in music videos since 2 Live Crew's album As Nasty as They Wanna Be was ruled obscene by a U.S. District Court Judge in Florida. The ruling was overturned by an appeals court due to the First Amendment. Now, after shock jock Don Imus used the term "nappy-headed hos" on his CBS radio program, the music industry and the Black community are discussing the possibility of banning three words from rap music: bitch, ho, and the N-word (which was recently debated after Michael Richards tirade at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles earlier this year).

What we need to realize is Imus and other shock jocks are not journalists. They are not even upstanding, decent citizens. They are comedians who make jokes in lewd, crude manners. Howard Stern, the king of all raunch, was fined repeatedly for indecent language and content on his terrestrial radio program. In Robert L. Hillard and Michael C. Keith's book Dirty Disclosure: Sex and Indecency in American Radio, they explain that "it is not unusual for Howard Stern and his on-air staff to cajole a female guest into disrobing as Stern details her anatomy for his listening audience (77)."

With Stern objectifying women repeatedly on his program, it is not surprising that Imus, who claims to appeal to the intelligentsia while Stern is a "garbage mouth," uttered the racial slur. He was making a joke about the perception of the female African American basketball player. Much more offensive slurs have been stated prior and after the Imus incident, but he, unfortunately for him, was made an example (Hillard and Keith 88).

But in the aftermath, all people can ask is, what do we do now? Some say we must clean up rap music. Reverend Al Sharpton stated in an article, "We must deal with the fact that ho and the b-word are words that are wrong from anybody's lips. It would be wrong if we stopped here and acted like Imus was the only problem. There are others that need to get this same message."

However some rappers think the Imus incident and rap lyrics are not related. "Comparing Don Imus' language with hip-hop artists' poetic expression is misguided and inaccurate and feeds into a mindset that can be a catalyst for unwarranted, rampant censorship," hip hop mogul Russell Simmons stated in the same article.

Although unpublicized, women are standing up against this misogyny. In 2004, rapper Nelly wanted to visit Spelman College to conduct a bone marrow drive for his ill sister. Because of the demeaning portrayal of women in his video Tip Drill, the students protested his visit unless he participated in a discussion about the video. He declined. This is just one example of the small protests against misogyny in music that are occurring frequently. The perception that Black women do not care about their portrayal is incorrect.

So, again, what do we do now? The First Amendment gives us Freedom of Speech and rap music is exercising that right. Don Imus exercised that right and lost his job. Black women are exercising that right and do not seem to be making any progress in changing rap music's violent and misogynistic language.

At the core of this issue is race and the inherent inequality on which this country was founded. Until we are truly equal will we be able to express our power in ways that do not demean other groups of people. This "us versus them" complex that we have as Americans, African Americans, men and women is what creates conflict, prejudice and hate, which is reflected in our music, comedy and broadcasting. Equality and justice will not come from limiting the First Amendment. As hopeless as this situation appears, many people do believe Don Imus' example is a positive step forward. People are more aware of the ramifications of violent, racist and misogynistic language and in a free country, that is about all we can do to start the cycle of change. As long as people mobilize for change, the culprits, whether racist shock jocks or misogynistic rappers, cannot help but take notice.

Cultural critic, author and columnist Stanley Crouch said at the end of the Detroit Free Press article, "I was in the civil rights movement. I know it takes a long time when you're standing up against extraordinary money and great power. But we're beginning to see a shift."

Franklin, Marcus. "After Imus, is rap music now in the crosshairs?" Detroit Free Press. 13 Apr 2007.

Hillard, Robert L. and Michael C. Keith. Dirty Discourse. Ames [IA]; Iowa State Press, 2003.

Streitmatter, Rodger. Sex Sells!. Cambridge [MA]; Westview Press, 2004.

The Darker Side of Black. Dir. Isaac Julien. Black Audio Film Collective/ Normal Films for BBC Television and the Arts Council of Great Britain, 1993.

Verney, Kevern. African Americans and US Popular Culture. London; Routledge, 2003.