Tag Archive for "Hip Hop"

Can an Asian woman be taken seriously in rap?

Answer: This is a stupid question.

New York magazine’s profile of Nora Lum, aka Awkwafina, details the Korean-Chinese-American rapper’s rise from her hilarious “My Vag” track last year to the harder “NYC Bitche$,” which was released in March. The article’s headline asks: “Can an Asian Woman Be Taken Seriously in Rap?”

The piece dabbles in gender identity politics in hip hop. Can women rap? Well, sure. Will it be hard? Duh. Lum says:

“If women dabble in rap but they’re not rappers, to get from dabbling to doing it is really difficult, confidence-wise. There’s a degree of having to prove yourself, also, and that’s really hard: I’m not trying to ruin your institution, I’m trying to ...

Answer: This is a stupid question.

New York magazine’s profile of Nora Lum, aka Awkwafina, details the Korean-Chinese-American rapper’s rise from her hilarious “My Vag” track last year to the harder “NYC ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 13 years ago

Rick Ross, Don Draper, and the fantasy world of masculinity

Ed. note: This is a guest post from Mychal Denzel Smith. He is a writer, social commentator, and mental health advocate whose work on politics, social justice, mental health, and black male identity has appeared in outlets such as The Nation, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Gawker, Salon, The Root, and more.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Rick Ross as of late, given all the controversy surrounding him and his disgusting, indefensible lyrics condoning rape (and his subsequent non-apology that was almost as bad as lyric that prompted it). In a way, I feel partially responsible, having been a fan of Ross’ music despite the overt misogyny, and I’ve ...

Ed. note: This is a guest post from Mychal Denzel Smith. He is a writer, social commentator, and mental health advocate whose work on politics, social justice, mental health, and black male identity has ...

By Sesali B. • 13 years ago

Why Beyonce’s “Bow Down” is not anti-feminist

I didn’t even have time to learn all the lyrics to Beyonce’s new song “Bow Down” before people started policing whether or not the track was anti-feminist. A friend sent me this piece from the Washington Post entitled “Beyonce sabotages her female empowerment efforts with ‘Bow Down.'” I wish everyone reading this could see how hard I am rolling my eyes at this.

First of all, I would like to point out something I’ve noticed about how we receive Beyonce. It seems like unless she’s singing, dancing, or showing off her outfits, we immediately want to critique whether or not what she is doing is feminist. We don’t hold all artists to this standard, and I think the ...

I didn’t even have time to learn all the lyrics to Beyonce’s new song “Bow Down” before people started policing whether or not the track was anti-feminist. A friend sent me this piece from the Washington ...

By Sesali B. • 13 years ago

Yeezy was on to something about the commercial music industry

I know that Kanye West’s intense emotions and antics have made him a bit of a mockery amongst us onlookers of the entertainment industry. I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed tumblrs like this, but I’ve come around. And I have to say, his latest comments at his show in London were a hit with me.

“Remind me again why we in this shit/ Remind me again why we in this/ Since when was making music about getting rich?/ Since when was making art about getting rich/ Remind me again why we in this shit/ Remind me again why the grammies could suck my dick/ Remind me again who’s the original super fly/ And I got love for HOV but I ain’t fucking ...

I know that Kanye West’s intense emotions and antics have made him a bit of a mockery amongst us onlookers of the entertainment industry. I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed tumblrs like this, but I’ve ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 13 years ago

Quick hit: Nicki Minaj endorses Mitt Romney? Also, Bonita Applebum dismisses claims of putting anybody on.

Sometimes, rap lyrics are clear. Other times they’re just oblique disses drawing from zeitgeist. Many times they’re persona pieces, a metafictional voice that is easily conflated with the actual identity of the MC who spits them. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this: NICKI MINAJ IS NOT ENDORSING MITT ROMNEY.

Speculation around the great watercooler that is the internets are drawing this leap of conclusion from a line Minaj’s verse on Lil Wayne’s latest mixtape, Dedication 4, where she says,”I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy bitches is f*cking up the economy.” The line falls in the category of oblique diss in my view (cringeworthy), not a patent endorsement of ...

Sometimes, rap lyrics are clear. Other times they’re just oblique disses drawing from zeitgeist. Many times they’re persona pieces, a metafictional voice that is easily conflated with the actual identity of the MC who spits ...

By Anna • 13 years ago

The Feministing Five: Miss Haze

Miss Haze (aka Hazel Rose) is a San Francisco Bay Area based performer, artist and activist. She’s the front woman of the hip-hop/electronic soul group 40Love. Her raw lyricism combined with her love of the mystic and sprituality makes her a standout artist. Moreover, the feminist themes found in her work makes her an inspiration to hip-hop artists and fans alike. (And a perfect fit for the Feministing Five.)

With her re-writing of Tyga’s “Rack City” hit, she emphasizes the divinity in all of us by saying that we are all “Made of Stars,” (the title of the song) effectively undermining the assumption in hip-hop that women are objects and without agency. The song’s music video (directed by Nina Reyes ...

Miss Haze (aka Hazel Rose) is a San Francisco Bay Area based performer, artist and activist. She’s the front woman of the hip-hop/electronic soul group 40Love. Her raw lyricism combined with her love of the mystic ...

By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

Guy listens exclusively to female rappers for a month, writes smart stuff about it

Ladies in hip hop has been a theme around here recently, with award-winning journalist and Jay-Z inspiration Elizabeth Mendez Berry interviewed for the lastest Feministing Five and the recent Nikki Minaj themed Wednesday Weigh-In.

Female rappers tend to be singled out as a group in general more for political than musical reasons. Like women of color in too many other fields, their identities seem to require special attention, analysis, deconstruction, and qualification before their contributions can be taken at face value (if ever). This is certainly problematic, and damaging to all the talented female rappers who may not have set out to inspire endless conversations about gender and race when they decided to pursue a music career (although surely ...

Ladies in hip hop has been a theme around here recently, with award-winning journalist and Jay-Z inspiration Elizabeth Mendez Berry interviewed for the lastest Feministing Five and the recent Nikki Minaj themed Wednesday Weigh-In.

Female rappers ...

By Lori Adelman • 14 years ago

The Wednesday Weigh-In: Beef, respect, and male crews edition

Nikki Minaj has been occupying headlines all week since she pulled out of the Hot 97 Summer Jam festival after a DJ went on stage and called her single “Starships” “bullshit” and “not real hip-hop” just hours before Minaj was set to hit the stage.

Soon after the comments, Minaj’s mentor and Young Money boss Lil Wayne posted on Twitter, “Young Money ain’t doing summer jam” and Nicki took to Twitter to confirm.

Then, the next day Nicki went on Hot 97 with Funkmaster Flex to address the situation, participating in a heated conversation with the loud-mouthed DJ about respect, ego, and hip hop. The whole conversation was pretty good, and you can read the transcript

Nikki Minaj has been occupying headlines all week since she pulled out of the Hot 97 Summer Jam festival after a DJ went on stage and called her single “Starships” “bullshit” and “not real hip-hop” ...