Rap and
hip-hop glorifies the concept of the bitch and a ho, because as Snoop Dogg said
“bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks.” “Big pimpin’ and spendin’ the G’s” is
a decent sound bite example of the lyrical content in most rap songs. Here is a
verbal interlude on Eminem’s album The Marshall Mathers LP titled Ken Kaniff”-
Eminem:
How are the album sales in the 1st week?
Ken
Kaniff: It would have been better if you gave me nothing at all. You know why
Dre’s album was so successful? He’s rapping about blunts, forties and bitches,
you’re rapping about homosexuals and Vicoden. I can’t sell this shit. Either
change the record or its not coming out.
Mr.
Kaniff eloquently makes the point that the rap/hip-hop industry wants forties
and bitches on their albums, not female empowerment. Business wise, it’s
not likely an artist will sell many albums. Will Smith didn’t have to “cuss in
his albums to sell records”, but he isn’t a rapper….I don’t know what he is
exactly. Regardless he isn’t making money off of his music.
The book
article says-
“Some
hip-hop artists defend their endless self-aggrandizing talk about dominating
bitches and hoes by saying that they are not talking about all women. But
“bitches and hoes” [refers to] all the women they talk about. The valorization
of the gangsta and pimp also highlights and celebrates the women they degrade.”
I almost
find it sexist that Tricia Rose (if that is her real name…) says the terms
bitches and hoes offends all women. Yes, these words are derogatory, and I
cannot seem to find the male equivalent of bitch and ho, however she is
forgetting that every one of these rappers had a mother, and came from a woman.
They have sisters, nieces, aunts, mothers and daughters in their life. Tricia
Rose, in making her statement, clearly has not listened to enough rap and
hip-hop, since there are plenty of songs about praising, loving (not raping),
and protecting women. A whole album of this would not sell, but Miranda
Lamberts (and Carrie Underwood…among others) scathing indictments of men that
they are all cheaters and scumbags puts men into a negative light, and makes
them seem like the whores that deserve to be mistreated, or have their car
keyed.
A
controversial rapper I feel is highly misunderstood is Eminem. Considered to be
racist, sexist and homophobic, he addresses all of these stereotypes of him
explicitly in his lyrics. Eminem goes for shock value. Some people can look
past his lyrics such as
“these
motherfuckers are thinkin’ im playin’/thinkin’ I’m saying this shit cause I’m
thinkin it just to be sayin ‘ it/…Oh now he’s raping his own mother, abusing a
whore and we gave him the rolling stone cover? /You God damn right bitch
(referring to an entire audience, not women here)”.
By the
end of this song he’s strangled someone, killed someone with a machete, among
other things. While the audience is stunned by “bitch ima kill you!”, they skip
the end of the song where he says “I’m just playin’ ladies, you know I love you.”
This is his sarcasm, and many write him off, except he adores his daughter and
has no qualms talking about it. The women he hates in the songs he specifically
says are his ex girlfriend Kim, and his mother who was an absent, drug addict
parent. Again, this is all explained in his songs. He never speaks ill of his
daughter Hailie Jade, and many songs are dedicated to her.
Just
me and my baby/is all we need in this world/Just me and you/Your da-da will
always be there for you/…and love you/If you ever need anything just ask/Da-da
will be right there/I love you baby
I
act like shit don’t faze me/inside it drives me crazy/my insecurities will eat
me alive/but then I see my baby/suddenly I’m not crazy/it all makes sense when
I look into her eyes
Eminem
would not allow his daughter to referred to as a bitch or hoe, and obviously is
not calling her a bitch, slut or ho. He gets mad at JaRule in one of his songs for bringing her up…
“I heard him say Hailies name on a song and I just lost it.”Again, Eminems lyrics
are for shock value and to keep up with the music the rap industry currently
demands.
Jay-Z
takes this idea a step further. When his daughter, Blue Ivy Carter was born, he
vowed never to call any woman a bitch or ho again. His wife/baby-mama is in the
industry, and understands record sales, as do his parents. A bitch ain't one of his problems anymore.
Awwww
Tupac, a
proud mama’s boy, wrote a very famous song/lyrical letter to his mom in “Dear
Mama”
Even
though you was a crack fiend Mama/ to me you was always a black queen
Mama/…ain’t no woman alive who could take my mamas place/…You are appreciated
Also one
must remember that fatherless-ness is a problem in the African-American
community, so a large number of Rap/hip-hop artists grew up living with their
mother or grandmother. Just a thought.
Tupac
even directly addresses the bitch phenomenon in his song “Wonda why they call
you bitch”
Reasons women may be called a bitch, explained in full below
It
was said you were sleazy/even easy, sleepin’ around for what you need/ See it’s
your thing, you can shake it how you wanna/give it up for free or make your
money on the corner/but don’t be bad and play the game/get mad and change/ then
you wonder why these motherfuckers call you names/I love you like a sister but
you need to switch/and that’s why they call you bitch
As long
as bitches and hoes sell records, the rap industry will continue to put our
songs that seemingly degrade women. People get mad at the industry for these
words, but then you have Rihanna saying “chains and whips excite me” and
Britney Spears telling people “I wanna go all the way/taking out my freak
tonight.”
Is this okay because they are women? They are still making women seem like sexual objects, but in a different genre they are not given the same treatment as rap. So the “sexist” lyrics should be taken with a grain of salt. At the end of “Wonda why they call you Bitch” Tupac also says
Dear
Ms.DeloresTucker, keep stressin’ me, fuckin’ with a muthafuckin mind. I figured
you wanted to know, you know? Why we call them hoes bitches. Maybe this might
help you understand [that] it ain’t personal, it’s strictly business baby,
strictly business
Just one
more example, and there are many more, of why the author of the book article,
Tricia Rose, need to fully listen to songs, and do research on the artists and
lyrics she condemns. As in all music writing, even “non-sexist” music, lyrics
shouldn’t be taken at face value. The entire music industry must change, male
and female artists, and not just in the rap hip-hop industry. This universal
shift must occur until feminists aren’t offended by lyrics, and people have to
stop buying albums about female sexuality, and those calling them out on
promiscuity. Perhaps they (those that are offended) should listen to Christian
rock instead, and even then, the Bible is pretty sexist itself…and is the
highest selling book of all time.
Biblical Bitches and Hoes
Since
we all came from a woman/got our name from a woman/and our game from a woman/I
wonder why we take from our women/why we hate our women/do we rape our women?/I
think its time to heal our women [and] be real to our women/and if we don’t
we’ll have a race of babies who will hate the ladies who make the babies/ and
since a man can’t make one/he has no right to tell a woman when and where to
create one/So will the real men stand up?/I know you’re fed up ladies/but keep
ya head up
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