How important are women to hip hop? Our women are very important to hip hop; they are not “bitches”, “tricks” or “hoes”… they are our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters and they have a voice that will always be an important part of hip hop. If it wasn’t for women there would be no men in hip hop… you feel me?
I attended this panel discussion after the film documentary ”Say My Name” at the Words, Beats and Life Bootleg Festival this past Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009. This was a good way to closeout the festival with a very important topic that is effecting hip hop . Thanks to Dr. Jared Ball the founder of FreeMix Radio for the mp3 hookup as well as the information he provided me. Also check out his site FreeMix Radio for more topics that effects the artform we love called “Hip-Hop”.
The Words, Beats and Life, Inc. Bootleg Festival continued this afternoon with a discussion of misogyny and efforts led by women to combat such practice in and out of the hip-hop world. Speakers: Hanifah Walidah (scholar/artist), Toni Blackman (scholar/artist), Iona Rozeal Brown (scholar/artist) and Aysha Upchurch (hip-hop dancer). Moderator: Goldie Deane, DC Urban Arts Academy Director/Playwright.
Hear/Download the audio after the cut…
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
This is all too important.. I can’t wait to check it out when I get home.
eA, thanks for the comment, it’s appreciated.. it is very important..Thanx Again !!!
interesting issue. It’s not brought up enough.
I find myself hypocritical at some times though, and in hip hop, it’s really hard not to be. I think it’s okay to love an album like Great Adventures of Slick Rick (one hell of a misogynistic piece), but at least be aware of what it is doing/saying. If we go in blindly and not separating the two aspects (slick brought it on comedically, while someone like Too Short seems to do it on a regular basis seriously), it only leads to the identification confusion.
I wrote a song about this called Name From A Woman. You can peep it on myspace
http://www.myspace.com/runawayjc
Hello All,
I am still waiting for my all fem-mc mixtape – am i asking to much?
San Diego love ya.
apparently most female emcees hate the term “femcee”
@the runaway..DOPE lyrics..keep doing your thing..gonna have to check out more of your music
@Sean Deez,
Really – hmmmm ok – cool cool.
Simba
If anyone wants to check out the all female mixtape go to this page
http://kevinnottingham.com/2009/06/18/thursday-throwback-ladies-first/
Really Sean? I never heard that.
I liked this discussion much as well. I’ve always supposed that the designation of the art/the game as female has a lot to do with how its artists associate hip hop with ideas of salvation, domination, finesse, bravado, etc. Hip hop is something that emcees are always either wooing, abusing, or rescuing.
I hate the word femcee, although it slips at times. The reason being that if a woman can rock a mic as hard as a man, come as strong as a dude, how’s she getting categorized? I mean, what give Soulja Boy more rights to the sole title of MC than Jean Grae?
Same in journalism…do you guys know how much slack I get? lol.
I never knew that Soulja Boy had more rights an MC..I never knew he was an MC, lol..hold up let me turn my “swag on” ( I know that was corny but I had to do it)
eA how much do u get?
I thank everyone for the comments it is appreciated and I’m glad that we can have a discussion about topics that are important to Hip-Hop.
I mean, you know there’s pure knuckle heads that wouldn’t put it past them to call Soulja ‘real hard,’ lmao.
ENOUGH. Between me looking like I want to have Weezy’s child like the rest of them (yuck,) dudes either a) can’t take a girl seriously or b) don’t want to be schooled, so to speak.
Hey I am sorry if I disrespected any woman by calling them a “f-mc.” All I was looking for was an all female mixtape (I have been asking for this for the last few months and did not know kev already posted one – thank kev). As a man over 30 I was around when MTV showed ladies on the mic that weren’t talking about sex.
But here is something that happened to me while I was at the club. I was dancing with this one woman (also over 30) and Queen La’s U.N.I.T.Y came on. The lady I was with sow me singing along, but she did not know the words. A few songs later Snoop came on and she know all the words. I was like WOW. I said to her “I can’t believe you, one of the most positive songs in Hip Hop ‘U.N.I.T.Y’ and you don’t know the words. While on the other hand you here some Snoop and you start singing along and going crazy.”
Like my dad always says:
If you put a diamond in a brown paper bag, people will pass it right by,
If you put shit in a box with a bow, people will fight over it.
San Diego will say classy
. . hows everybody doing. . a song that comes to my head is “Wonder Why They Call You Bitch” .. we all have heard it and if a female falls into that category she shouldnt wonder why dudes call her that and other names. -on another note-
. . the double standard is CRAZY .. not all but alot of dudes are running around doing these women plain DIRTY and get props from their boys about it.. then you have a good girl gone bad (refer jay-z song cry) .. -back to rap-
.. rappers are glorifying it in songs and videos (male & female). .its disgusting. female children see this on the t.v and imitate it. i mean i know it goes back to the parents but thats a whole nother topic. self respect is where it begins. if she dosnt respect herself who will?
^^ ^ my bad on the bold in the end. i was trying to line break^^