Misogyny in Hip Hop as a Method to Retain Authenticity

Zainab Hussain 

Professor Lewis-McCoy

                                        

Misogyny in Hip Hop as a Method to Retain Authenticity 

          As hip hop artist become commercialized their authenticity is questioned by hip hop consumers. Hip hop authenticity is a complex topic, that is multi-layered and can have many different definitions. McLeod (1999) outlined six semantic dimensions of authenticity, each of which have a “real” and “fake” authenticity. One of the dimensions is the gender-sexual dimension, in which gender relations plays a big role in artists’ authenticity. One of the largest controversies in hip hop is its sexism and misogyny. Rap music is constantly being attacked for their violence against women. In the National Congress of Black Women’s mission they explicitly state that they are against “ gangsta rap music and its misogynistic lyrics”. Misogyny is also present in other forms of music; however, rap music is very explicit in its objectification of females. There can many reasons why rap artists are so vocal about their hatred towards women. However, using McLeod’s (1999) six semantic dimensions of authenticity, we will be able to see how male hip hop artists use misogyny as away to retain or establish authenticity after they have become commercialized. 

          McLeod’s (1999) gender sexual dimension of authenticity he distinguishes between hard and soft masculinity as a method for identifying authentic artist. Hard being hyper-masculine, homophobic, heteronormative. So, as a method to retain their authenticity rap artist are constantly asserting their masculinity by abusing and objectifying women. Jay-Z is considered a very authentic hip hop artist, because of his humble beginnings as a drug dealer in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. However, even he had to affirm his authenticity when he became commercialized. Belle (2014) compares Jay-Z’s lyrics in his one of his first underground songs “ I Can’t Get With That” (1994) with his lyrics in his first album Reasonable Doubt. Belle (2014) found that Jay-Z’s lyrics changed in nature, they became more performative and he started to use more misogynistic language to assert his hardness and masculinity. In his song “Ain’t no Nigga” (1996) which was in his first album and gained popularity due to its use in Eddie Murphy’s The Nutty Professor; Jay-Z described his sexual prowess in detail, saying he has many black girls in his bed and making references to orgasms and rodeo bull riding. Jay-Z and other black rap artist are constantly trying to maintain their authenticity; however, some hip hop artist are not considered credible to begin with and have to establish their authenticity. 

            Eminem is constantly attacked with not being a real rapper or gangsta because his is not black. One of Mcleod’s (1999) dimensions is race, the authentic race is black while the non-authentic race is white. Eminem is very visible white; due to this his hip hop credibility, in his debut album Infinte (2006), was non existent.  Eminem had to establish his authenticity through his rap, he did that in his second album The Slim Shady LP (1999); this album won him a Grammy. Armstrong(2004) in his essay, “Eminem’s Construction of Authenticity”, says that Eminem had to go above other gangsta rappers in terms of violent misogyny to authenticate himself. Armstrong(2004) compares Eminem’s violent misogyny to lyrics of the artists in gangsta rap’s foundational period by counting the number of violent misogynistic language in each of their albums. He found that Eminem reached 63 percent while gangsta rap only reached about 22 percent. This clearly demonstrates that Eminem goes above other rappers in terms of his misogynistic language as a way to demonstrate his authenticity.

        Authenticity is very important to hip hop fans; and after commercial success artist have to keep on maintaining their credibility. Being violently misogynistic is an easy way for the artist to do this. It would be much more difficult to maintain authenticity by staying in the streets, which is the social locational dimension, or staying underground and not becoming commercial, which is the political economic dimension of authenticity. These methods of retaining authenticity would force the artist to deny themselves capital; and artist can claim that making more money is the ultimate form of hip hop authenticity. 

References: 

Armstrong, E.G. (2004). Eminem’s construction of Authenticity. Popular Music and Society, 

      27(3), 335-355. DOI: 10.1080/03007760410001733170

Belle, C. (2014). From Jay-Z to Dead Prez: Examining representations of black masculinity in 

      mainstream versus underground hip-hop music. Journal of Black Studies, 45(4), 287-300. 

      DOI: 10.1177/0021934714528953

McLeod, K. (1999). Authenticity within hip-hop and other cultures threatened with assimilation. 

     In Forman, M. & Neal, M.A. (2nd Edition), That’s the Joint (pp. 164-178). New York, 

      NY; Routledge.