Andrew Knox

HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #5

November 16, 2010

Reflection Paper #5: Gender, Sexuality and Hip-Hop

Female rappers have it rough. Besides the standard industry pressures (struggling for success,

artistic credibility) that male rappers face, female hip-hop artists are weighed down by sexism and the

expectation of smooth promiscuity that comes with it in a male-dominated art form. Young women,

while trying to establish their identity as an entertainer, are often forced to side with one of two camps.

Female MCs must choose to either cherish their womanhood and the sanctity of a monogamous

relationship at the expense of possibly losing popularity among a sexually-focused male audience or

she can flaunt her “assets,” using the power of her irresistible beauty to force men to pay her bills at the

expense of her dignity.

Some say that both segments of the female hip-hop artist universe, “chaste” and “sexy,” both

express viewpoints within the feminist spectrum. Sexy female MCs, such as Lil' Kim and Foxy

Brown1, view their amorous behavior as empowering based on the fact that their game is to make

something from nothing. They convert their intangible, nontransferable attractiveness into finite

valuables, such as cars, jewels and money. On the other hand, chaste MCs, like Queen Latifah, MC

Lyte and Salt-N-Pepa, wear more modest attire and suffer no fools. This is not to say that such women

are actually celibate, they merely wear their sexuality with a stripe of masculinity that is generally less

attractive to men.2

Since female MCs have to pick a side from the start, they have fewer creative directions

available to them. Male rappers are MCs, but female rappers are female rappers. Whereas male

rappers are categorized by genre before gender (50 Cent is a gangsta rapper, Mos Def is a conscious

rapper), most female rappers are distinguished from the rest by their gender before their style. Their
1 Tribbett-Williams
2 Rose 2-7

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appearance and sense of sexual morality are considered before the music even starts. Judgment in the

court of public opinion is harsh, “the overwhelming prevalence of the Madonna/whore dichotomy in

American culture means that any woman who uses explicit language or images in her creative

expression is in danger of being symbolically cast into the role of whore regardless of what liberatory

intentions she may have, particularly if she does not have complete control over her image.”3 In their

attempts to seize control of their destinies, chaste female rappers (especially Salt-N-Pepa and MC Lyte)

often utilized a form of aggressive confrontation of their male partners in their music. This form has

been labeled the “female complaint,” a term coined by men to dismiss any sense of validity from the

MCs statement, “direct and legitimate criticism is reduced to 'bitching' or complaining as a way of

[misogynists containing feminist] dissent... women's angry responses have long been made to appear

hysterical and irrational or whiny and childlike.”4

There hasn't always been this divide in hip-hop music created by women. In fact, the

marginalization of women within the hip-hop music business is merely an unfortunate side effect of the

commercialization and subsequent mass popularity of misogynist Gangsta rap and Crunk music. “Prior

to 1995, female rappers came in all shapes and sizes... They spoke about a wide range of topics and

garnished respect from their male counterparts and true Hip-Hop fans. These female rhymesters did

not have to fit into the small pigeonhole of 'sex object.' Sex was more of a topic of discussion rather

than the focal point of their image.”5 So, as there was a golden age throughout hip-hop, there was even

a golden age for female rappers. While non-sexualized female rappers still make a living off of their

craft today, the acceptance of dumb pop music (especially Crunk and night club rap music) and its

3 Perry 5
4 Rose 7-8
5 Just Hip-Hop

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HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #5
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blatant objectification of scantily-clad young women has severely curtailed the popularity of sex-

neutral female artists.6

When Lil' Kim arrived on the national scene in 1995, with her debut album Hard Core, she

temporarily inverted and redefined gender relations within the hip-hop universe: “[she was] a hyper-

sexual vixen that was in control of her body and sexuality. It was like a revolution of sorts where men

were no longer allowed to determine how a female is viewed... The men in her raps were just toys

whose only purpose was to please her and finance her lavish lifestyle... Her unapologetic rhymes and

demeanor gave females in rap another voice and perhaps another avenue to express their sexuality.”7

This zeitgeist in expression of female sexuality in popular media soon faded, as the Lil' Kim mold of

bold sex appeal was duplicated many times over by beautiful, yet unskilled, female singers that were all

sex and no substance. Many observers hold Lil Kim's overtly sexual style as responsible for the

general demeaning sexual objectification within hip-hop media.8

A larger occupation within the female hip-hop workforce is the “video girl.” The video girl's

mission is to be an object of carnal desire controlled by the rap artist in any given music video. Video

girls are scantily and provocatively dressed sexual automatons symbolizing the rapper's, and ultimately

the viewer's, sexual fixation.9 Prof. Perry summarized the video girl archetype's effect on African-

American women as such: “the sexist message embraced here proves complex. Its attack on black

female identity is multifaceted. First, and most obviously, the women are commodified. They appear

in the videos quite explicitly as property, not unlike the luxury cars, Rolex watches, and platinum and

diamond medallions also featured... the women are often presented as vacuous, doing nothing in the
6 Perry 2
7 Just Hip-Hop
8 Tribbett-Williams
9 Meere

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HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #5
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videos but swaying around seductively. Often, they avert their eyes from the camera, allowing the

viewer to have a voyeuristic relationship to them... Any signs of thought, humor, irony, intelligence,

anger, or any other emotion, prove extremely rare.”10

The obsessive objectification of video girls in hip-hop culture is exemplified in Nelly's “Tip

Drill” music video. In the video, Nelly goes to a massive orgy party at a mansion with his entourage.

Dozens of sexy girls in bikinis surround the performers while Nelly and gang sing “it must be [their]

ass, 'cause it ain't [their] face. I need a tip drip, I need a tip drill.” Without this video, the song by itself

is boring, repetitive and completely devoid of entertainment. The video, on the other hand, is the

concept “sex sells” taken to the extreme in terms of televised music videos. Among the scandalous

highlights are topless lesbians simulating intercourse in a bathtub and an infamous moment where

Nelly swipes a credit card through a girl's posterior cleavage, sending the message “ass is cash.”11

The “Tip Drill” video provoked a great deal of controversy due to its extensive sexual

objectification of women. In late 2004, Nelly canceled a scheduled appearance at a Bone Marrow

Fundraiser at Spelman College after rumors leaked that event planners at the historically black female

institution were scheming to take him to task for his misogynistic music. Spelman's Dean of Students,

Dr. Zenobia L. Hikes, later expressed regret over Nelly's decision in a campus magazine, stating “Nelly

was invited... to explore the ways in which this practice appears to be antithetical to his otherwise noble

efforts in service to the Black community... His unwillingness to participate in such a discussion was

regrettable... and precluded what promised to be a dynamic discourse about the questionable portrayals

of Black women throughout the hip-hop culture.”12

10 Perry 1
11 Haynes 7:26
12 Hikes

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HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #5
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The objectification of women in music videos may be considered acceptable, if not mainstream,

but that doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. While gender issues are often played out to the

extreme in uncut music videos, they are far from unique to hip-hop music. Sexism is a systemic

problem found in various forms throughout Western Civilization. Since the beginning of homo sapien

social organization, human society has been male-oriented, due to physical differences between the

genders giving men domination through strength. But by the start of the twentieth century, the rule of

victory through force had been replaced by the rule of law, society loosened its restrictions on female

behavior and have since made great strides in gender equality. There are still noticeable disparities in

status between women and men, but, ultimately, we must remember that there would be absolutely no

controversy surrounding Nelly's song or the commonplace sexual objectification of women in the

media if such objectification were still socially acceptable.

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HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #5
November 16, 2010

Works Cited:

• Haynes, Cornell Iral, Perf. Tip Drill (Uncut Version) by Nelly. Universal Records: 2003, Web.
17 Nov 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCjSyUXGGxQ>.

• Hikes, Zenobia L. "Hip-Hop Viewed through the Prisms of Race and Gender." Black Issues in
Higher Education. (2004): Print.

• Just Hip-Hop. "Lil’ Kim: Friend or Foe?" HipHopSite.com, 26 Feb 2010. Web. 17 Nov 2010.
<http://www.hiphopsite.com/2010/02/26/lil%E2%80%99-kim-friend-or-foe/>.

• Langhorne, Cyrus. "News: Nelly Defends Spicy 'Tip Drill' Vid, 'All I Did Was Entertain Adult
Fans'." Support Online Hip-Hop, 22 Sep 2010. Web. 17 Nov 2010.
<http://www.sohh.com/2010/09/nelly_still_defends_spicy_tip_drill_vide.html>.

• Meere, Brian, Prod. VH1 News Presents: Hip-Hop Videos. Viacom: 2005, DVD.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818703/fullcredits#cast>.

• Perry, Imani. "The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women." The
Hip-Hop Reader. Tim Wood. Allyn & Bacon, 2008. Print.

• Rose, Tricia. "Bad Sistas." Rose, Tricia, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in
Contemporary America. New York: Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Print.

• Tribbett-Williams, Lori A. "Lil' Kim And Foxy Brown - Caricature of Black Womanhood."
University of Dayton, 10 Mar 2010. Web. 17 Nov 2010.
<http://academic.udayton.edu/race/05intersection/gender/gender04.htm>.