Word: Exploring Lyrical Themes Among Top 10 Rap Songs on HotNewHipHop.

com

Edna Maina, Student, Dr. Kim Smith, Associate Professor, JOMC

North Carolina A&T Undergraduate Research Poster Competition, Nov. 18, 2016, Greensboro, N.C.

ABSTRACT
Despite a reported decrease in the amount of violence and misogyny in
rap music lyrics compared to 30 years ago, a thematic analysis framed
around Gerbners cultivation theory revealed misogyny continued to
dominate lyrics in the top 10 rap songs compiled by
Hotnewhiphop.com and voted on by its members.
Cultivation theory proposes that long-term exposure to media content
has the potential to result in normalized behavior. Simply put: you are
what you consume. We argue that the lyrical content of the more
popular forms of rap found in our sample provide the seeds that can
potentially reinforce (cultivate) negative media images of young men
and women of color, and other marginalized groups that already suffer
from negative stereotypes found in some rap lyrics.

INTRODUCTION
Since its beginnings in the early 1970s, rap, one facet of Hip Hop culture,
has had a tremendous impact on the world (Adam, DuBois and Gates,
Anthology of Rap, 2010, Yale University Press).
Described as art imitating life, rap provided social, political, and comedic
commentary on what it was like living in the nations urban areas
(Bonnette, American Governance: Politics, Policy, and Public Law : Pulse
of the People : Political Rap Music and Black Politics, University of
Pennsylvania Press). During the late 1980s and early 1990s, rap became
more edgy with gangsta rap lyrics and images that spotlighted violence,
drug use, police brutality and killings in the African-American community,
as well as misogyny against women.
Perhaps the most famous gangsta rap group was Niggas With Attitude
(N.W.A.). Their lyrics and rap videos portrayed young black men as
violent, gun-toting thugs, who wore chains and gold teeth: hypermasculine
males who posed a threat to society as they used rap to expose police
brutality and other urban problems in South Central Los Angeles in the
1980s (Hiatt, 2015, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/n-w-aamerican-gangsters-20150827).
Words to know:
Misandry: Disrespect or hatred of men
Misogyny: Disrespect or hatred of women
As was typical of gangsta rap, women were depicted in lyrics and videos as
nothing more than sex objects, nearly naked vixens who were dehumanized
in rap videos and films that encouraged physical and emotional abuse of
women (Pittman, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ice-cubedefends-misogyny-in-nwa-lyrics_us_55ce1c35e4b055a6dab03267).
Economics drove these negative portrayals. Record labels demanded sexual
and violent content--not political or social commentary; and that content
was a rap artists path to commercial success (McNulty-Finn, 2014,
http://harvardpolitics.com/covers/evolution-rap).
But some 30 years after the beginning of gangsta rap and N.W.A., McNultyFinn concluded that todays rap artists have evolved to a more softer side and
are willing to create beyond the stereotypes.
We sampled rap lyrics of today and studied their content to determine if
lyrics have indeed become softer and less violent and misogynistic lyrics. We
framed our study around cultivation theory.

RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN 2015

www.PosterPresentations.com

WHAT IS CULTIVATION
THEORY?

Cultivation Theory, proposed back in in the mid 1970s, argued that longterm exposure to violent media content-- in this case television--cultivates
the image of a relatively mean and dangerous world. So called heavy
viewers of TV were more likely to view the world as a more dangerous
place and will reflect in real life the violence seen on TV or some other
media (Gerbner, 1976, Living with television: The violence profile.
Journal of Communication, 26(2), 172-199.) Cultivation theory suggests
that what some people see in the media over an extended period of time
can become part of normalized behavior. As a result of prolonged exposure
to these negative images and messages, some people develop negative
stereotypes about people that become difficult to overcome in the real
world.

BACKGROUND
Recent Cultivation Theory Studies
A content analysis of the lyrics from 20 rap songs from 2000-2010
revealed that sexual objectification and power over and violence against
women were predominating themes. An accompanying survey of
college students and their attitudes toward rap showed a positive
correlation between rap music consumption and misogynous thinking
(Cundiff, 2013, http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=792).
White college students who played video games over an extended
period of time developed less egalitarian attitudes toward blacks and
Asians based on stereotyped characters found in the video games
(Behm-Morawitz, 2014 Cultivating Virtual Stereotypes?: The Impact of
Video Game Play on Racial/Ethnic Stereotypes. Howard Journal Of
Communications, 25(1), 1-15. doi:10.1080/10646175.2013.835600.)
An analysis of 900 films showed that Hollywood depicted Muslims and
Arabs as murderers, terrorists, rapists and uncivilized religious fanatics
(Shaheen, 2003, Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science,Vol. 588, Islam: Enduring Myths and Changing
Realities). In a later study, Lerma (2013,
(http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1551230) used
cultivation theory to study the medias demonization of Muslims and
Arabs.

Informed by cultivation theory, we came up with the following

research question. RQ 1: What themes emerged from our sample
of rap lyrics?

METHODOLOGY
We used a thematic analysis approach invented by Braun and Clarke (2006,
Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology,
http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/11735). One of the authors found the 10 top songs on
HotNewHipHop.com. She looked up the lyrics to each song on Genius, a
trusted website for all things lyrics and copied and pasted the lyrics into a
template for analysis to answer the question: What is going on here? Each
line of the lyric was coded as the unit of analysis. Like codes were put together
to form themes. Each theme is an aggregate expressed across the lyrics rather
than a theme identified in each individual lyric.

WHAT IS HOTNEWHIPHOP.COM?

DISCUSSION

HotNewHipHop is a site created to introduce and inform Hip Hop

lovers about new music. It also allows users to rate the music as
soon as it is released, in turn producing the top 10 songs on the
site for the day and later producing the top 100 songs of the week.
With more than 8 million unique visitors per month,
HotNewHipHop.com empowers artists by letting them showcase
their music to real hip hop fans. Meanwhile, their members enjoy
the latest in hip hop singles, mixtapes, videos and news, (About
HNHH, n.d. http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/about.html). We analyzed
the top 10 songs that were voted on by website members on
October 18, 2016.

Our preliminary findings show that themes of misogyny, property and

ego continue to have a prominent place even in our small sample of rap
lyrics. Such lyrics continue to undermine our youth. Lyrics portray
women as property and sex objects while young men are possessed
with making money and having huge egos.

RESULTS
Theme 1: Property emerges from the numerous lyrics that suggested that
women were sexual objects who were available to anyone with the right
amount of money or credit. As an example, Rapper Gucci Mane supports
the women are property theme with lyrics in his song Icy Lil Bitch.
The type of chick that Guwop (Mane calls himself Guwop) like, you
can't find, it's a clause in my young bitch contract you can't sign.

He is basically saying that his women are his property and the only way
anyone can take his women is if they are icy, i.e., have lots of money.
Rapper 2 Chainz suggests that women are only as good as their private
parts. In Light it Up, a song with him and Big Sean, Chainz says Take
the p----, never gave it back. That lyric in itself expresses sexual
objectification, possession and degrading factors that make it seem as if a
woman is nothing but a piece of meat.
Theme 2: Ego emerges from several instances where rappers boast about
themselves and how accomplished they are. In Brand New, Wiz
Khalifa and Ty Dolla Sign express their love for themselves in their
verses. Sign begins the song with,Dolla bought a brand new Porsche,
Dolla made a mil on tour. Following that verse, Khalifa goes on to use
his government name and says, Cam bought a brand new Benz. Most
call me Wiz, but the hoes call me Cam.
Not all of the lyrics were about the money, possession , ego and
misogyny.
Theme 3: Recognition emerges from three songs whose lyrics revealed
consciousness and a sense of admiration for women. The No. 1 song of
the day was Bryson Tillers Let me explain. He says, No lie girl when
I tell you, you a blessing. That line stands out because it suggests that
the women are heaven sent, which leads to admiration. Let me be the
one, baby you deserve better, he continues.
Do You Mind, one of the top 10 songs of the day by DJ Khaled, is
about a man who sees a woman that deserves to be treated well because
she deserves it, ultimately recognizing her worth. Admiration and
deserving are codes that led to the recognition theme.
Lil Wayne also had a sense of consciousness in his lyrics for Key to the
Streets remix. He stated that, We were supposed to change since Dr.
King. We shall overcome, we never overcame. The understanding that
emerged from that line was that the country was supposed to unite and
overcome the racial barriers but instead we never overcame the race
issues.

Cultivation theory suggests that long-term exposure to such negative

images and messages leads to the cultivation of negative stereotypes in
and out of minority communities. The media act like a magnifying
glass, focusing light and heat on those negative stereotypes that the
world consumes and assumes are true.
Negative messages and images in the media that focus mostly on
women as property and as sexual objects may explain why some young
men and women think it is OK to call women derogatory names. What
they hear over and over again in some of the rap they listen to becomes
normalized and acceptable. In addition to the name calling, some
women affirm this negative stereotypes in how they act and dress
today. The media they consume cultivate these behaviors.
Despite the negative themes, there were some positive themes. The
theme of recognitionadmiring women and consciousness raising
were not expected. And it seems that the violence theme, which was
popular in rap in the past, was not a major player in our sample.

LIMITATIONS
Our convenience sample is too small to make informed
generalizations about rap musics lyrics. More research into the
cultivating effects of rap lyrics and lyrics of other genres of music
(rap is not the only guilty party) is warranted to better understand how
prolonged exposure to negative images and messages impact society
before definitive conclusions can be made.

CONTACT
Edna Maina, Undergraduate Student, Department of
Journalism and Mass Communication,
emaina@aggies.ncat.edu
Kim Smith, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of
Journalism and Mass Communication kcsmith1@ncat.edu

Note: References are abbreviated to accommodate in-text

citations in academic posters.