a look at the misogyny of hip hop....

[seabeyond]

After hearing about Spelman students planning a protest of his scheduled appearance for a charity event, Nelly cancelled his concert.

Here at Spelman, the most famous black women's college in the country, a feud has erupted over images of women in rap videos, sparking a petition drive and phone campaigns. Nelly planned to visit Spelman earlier this month for a charity event enlisting students for a bone marrow registry. But the rapper canceled the appearance after hearing that a protest was in the works because of his videos — especially Tip Drill, the one with the credit card, which also shows men throwing money between women's legs and women simulating sex acts with each other.

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Never before, students say, have the portrayals of black women been so hypersexual and explicit. "It's very harsh. This is something we have to see and listen to on a daily basis," said senior Shanequa Yates. "Nelly just didn't want to come here and face the criticism for the choices he's made."

The issue especially incensed some men studying at Morehouse, a black men's college closely affiliated with Spelman. "These are grown women. I'm putting the blame on the women," said Kenneth Lavergne, a senior who was loudly booed by the 300 or so women at the meeting. Another student, Bradley Walker from Clark Atlanta University, talked about the credit-card swiping. "Bottom line, a woman let him do that," he said. "I do think sometimes the total blame is put on artists themselves."

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It won't be easy.

"I don't see a solution as long as you have people willing to do it," said senior Nikole Howard. "You have to demand respect, but I doubt these women even thought they were being disrespected. It makes me sad, makes me realize how much work we have to do to educate women."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-04-23-spelman-protest-rappers_x.htm

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5 Things Too $hort & Hip-Hop Media Can Learn About Sexual Violence

While others were blasting the Oklahoma senate for approving a zygote-rights bill, the Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for holding a birth control hearing without a single woman testifying, and Virginia for trying to pass a law requiring women who want an abortion to undergo an unnecessary, invasive vaginal ultrasound, I was inundated with the XXL and Too $hort debacle. If you haven’t heard, earlier this month the 45-year-old rapper Too $hort shot a video exclusively for XXLmag.com in which he advises middle school boys to eschew the age-appropriate ritual of “trying to get kisses from the girls” in favor of “[pushing a girl] up against the wall or [pulling] her up against you while you lean on the wall,” inserting a spit-covered finger into her underwear and rubbing her “general area down there” to “watch what happens.”

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We Are the 44%, a new coalition of black and Latina female activists, writers and educators—including 2008 Green Party vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente, seminal hip-hop feminist Joan Morgan, and “Decoded” co-author dream hampton—has issued a public statement that (rightfully) cites the video as “part of the larger issue of sexual assault against our women and children, particularly Black and Latina girls.” An excerpt:

Too $hort’s video specifically targeted adolescent students. This group is consistent with the appalling statistic that 44% of sexual assault survivors are under 18 years old (visit the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network website: www.rainn.org/statistics). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reports that 1 out 5 women in the United States have been raped in their lifetime. Because Too $hort’s video blatantly promoted sexual violence against girls, and because boys are also being advised to develop irresponsible, abusive and ultimately criminal behavior compelled, the all-women coalition decided to take pointed actions.

I know many of the people involved in and allied with We Are the 44%. And given my long history in what was once known as hip-hop journalism, I also know a few folks who currently make their living writing, editing and shooting video for XXL-branded properties. For me, this debacle has been extremely painful. When I read the transcript of the video, I was sure that condemnation of it would be unanimous. I figured that everybody knew that a video by a 45-year-old black man encouraging middle school boys to “turn out” girls by pushing them against walls and touching their vaginas—without explicit consent—constitutes a how-to for the sexual assault of girls and the increased criminalization of black and brown boys. Sadly, based on several phone calls, aggressive emails and nasty comments I’ve received from select former colleagues, I was wrong.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/02/five_things_hip-hop_sites_can_learn_about_sexual_violence.html

there is so much more in this article

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Hip-Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women

K evin Powell in Notes of a HipHop Head writes, “Indeed, like rock and roll, hip-hop sometimes makes you think we men don’t like women much at all, except to objectify them as trophy pieces or, as contemporary vernacular mandates, as baby mommas, chickenheads, or bitches. “But just as it was unfair to demonize men of color in the 1960s solely as wild-eyed radicals when what they wanted, amidst their fury, was a little freedom and a little power, today it is wrong to categorically dismiss hip-hop without taking into serious consideration the socioeconomic conditions (and the many record labels that eagerly exploit and benefit from the ignorance of many of these young artists) that have led to the current state of affairs. Or, to paraphrase the late Tupac Shakur, we were given this world, we did not make it.”

Powell’s “socio-economic” explanation for the sexism in hip-hop is a way to silence feminist critiques of the culture. It is to make an understanding of the misogynistic objectification of black women in hip-hop so elusive that we can’t grasp it long enough to wring the neck of its power over us. His argument completely ignores the fact that women, too, are raised in this environment of poverty and violence, but have yet to produce the same negative and hateful representation of black men that male rappers are capable of making against women.

Powell’s understanding also lends itself to elitist assumption that somehow poverty breeds sexism, or at least should excuse it. Yet we all know that wealthy white boys can create the same hateful and violent music as poor black boys. As long as the boys can agree that their common enemy is female and that their power resides in their penis, women must not hesitate to name the war they have declared on us.

Hip-hop owes its success to the ideology of woman-hating. It creates, perpetuates, and reaps the rewards of objectification. Sexism and homophobia saturate hip-hop culture and any deviation from these forms of bigotry is made marginal to its most dominant and lucrative expressions. Few artists dare to embody equality and respect between the sexes through their music. Those who do have to fight to be heard above the dominant chorus of misogyny.

http://www.zcommunications.org/hip-hop-and-rsquo-s-betrayal-of-black-women-by-jennifer-mclune

this is an even better article and has much more to read.

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Essence Defies Hip-Hop Stereotypes

Essence made news again by launching a feisty campaign to protest the demeaning image of black women in hip-hop lyrics and videos. Editor in Chief Diane Weathers writes in her January letter to readers, "Black women now have the tragic distinction of being objectified, stereotyped, and dehumanized in so much of Black popular music and lyrics. But it doesn't have to be this way."

In a feature entitled "Take Back the Music," the editors expand on this gutsy declaration. "In videos we see bikini-clad sisters gyrating around fully clothed grinning brothers like Vegas strippers on meth. When we search for ourselves in music lyrics, mix tapes, and DVDs and on the pages of hip-hop magazines, we only seem to find our bare breasts and butts....The damage of this imbalanced portrayal of Black women is impossible to measure. An entire generation of Black girls are being raised on these narrow images... and the message and images are broadcast globally, they have become the lens through which world now sees us. This cannot continue."

Essence's beauty and fashion director, Michaela Angela Davis, and a member of the committee charged with overseeing the campaign, told me "In the office we were all grumbling about this. We kept saying it has to change but it isn't going to change on its own. We have to do something about this."

Diane Weathers says that the editors were impressed by the protest campaign a group called Dads & Daughters waged against Abercrombie & Fitch when the retailer crossed the line with hypersexual advertising aimed at white suburban teenagers. They were also inspired by the young women at Spelman College who protested a visit from the rapper Nelly, resulting in his cancellation of an appearance.

http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/essence-defies-hip-hop-stereotypes/7604/

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i do not have a lot of experience with hip hop. i do not want to see the garbage. my hubby's pig friend (yes, he is and yes i see good in him, too) sent him a cd he was just raving about. hubby did a search of the singer and the song, then threw the cd in the trash. that sums up my experience with the trash. this is what kids are hearing daily. what our girls are being fed in their homes, from the youngest of age. and yes, right now, i am more concerned about little girls being raised on this trash than the boys. though, i do recognize the ugly for the boys. but, this is something that is not hugely on my radar, though i hear about it often enough. these articles, though, put this a little more in perspective from a world i am not a part of. awareness.

lil wayne

Pussy Monster"

Girl you're cold,
Girl you're cool
you heard of salt and pepper,
But girl you food
Girl you're hot like a bowl of stew
And I just stood over my stew and just blew
And when there was no more you in the soup,
I remove my spoon and drink you juice
you wanna do me do what wanna do
If my job is to blow you can bet she's blew
Mic check 1-2
How's about 1-2
P-L-A-Y because I don't have a clue
but when I found out I'm gonna show and tell you
When I lift my top lip I can still smell you
When I swallow my spit I can still taste you
Put that pussy in my face you
It goes P-U-S-S-Y because,
It's the reason I am alive
Mama I need just to survive
It's like I gotta eat it just to stay alive

[Chorus:]
Hi I'm the pussy monster
The pussy monster
The pussy monster
And you better feed me pussy pussy pussy pussy pussy

Now let me get back to her
She call me Dracula
And I vacuumed her
Cat fish
that cat tuna
I spank it up
Flip it like a spacula
Lil Chris said "Run it" and I tackled you
Baby can I be the worm in you apple butt
Na gonna back it up
And if you back it up
I suck the front of that pussy from the back of you
My taste buds set on a black assivus
I told action
And the camera is looking
And I hope she make me eat my words......
'cause my words is pussy, pussy pussy pussy
pussy pussy pussy

[Chorus]

I got pussy coming to pussy
Show me that pussy I'm gonna show where to put it
You know I make it rain I'm the hurricane's son
And I can make it rain with my hurricane tongue
Like la la la la la la la lala, la la la la la la lala, la la la la la la lala
Imagine if I did that with you pearl on my tongue
Ha!