The Hip Hop Paradox (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Tha Bomb)

Reconciling a love of hip hop with a feminist agenda is a difficulty that often seems insurmountable. In a culture where women are consistently sexualised to such an extent that being a hole and a pair of bazoomas has become the essence of womanhood, Betty Friedan’s ‘feminine mystique’ almost sounds preferable. And when you would rather be the poster girl for chained-to-the-kitchen ‘I Love Lucy’ fifties housewifery, it makes you wonder whether we’ve moved on at all. As Courtney Love, feminist icon and harbinger of twenty-first century terror, puts it : “She said: ‘I am not a feminist’… FUCK YOU!”

But considered arguments aside, the misogyny of rap has become the interminable broken record of those that would see every black man that stands next to a microphone gunned down like Tupac on the strip. See how street I am? Yeah, Ms Brooke is not all about the lit, players. Holler.

Anywho… When MTV vids are full of half naked women dripping in jewels, gyrating and salivating over the latest hip-pop wannabe, and Ludacris wants a bitch out of his way pronto whilst he confirms who’s a ho (it’s you),  you’d be forgiven for your scepticism regarding what I’m about to put to you. I was recently asked to prove my assertion that there is some feminist hip hop. Well, there is. But there are all kinds of things in this world that we wouldn’t necessarily expect and just because it’s there doesn’t mean we should applaud it. Like Iranian nuclear weapons – self determination = good, nuclear proliferation = not good, jogging = good, David Cameron playing pace-maker with troops in Afghanistan = grotesque. Good music has to be in some way moving. Shampoo’s rendition of ‘We’re in Trouble’, for example, in some vomit inducing and not entirely convincing way could be said to be feminist (they’re not scared of trouble, they don’t’ care about Dad’s rules and regulations), it hardly fits the bill. For one, it’s not hip hop. But aside from that it doesn’t move you. Like Aretha Franklin’s rendition of ‘Respect’ moves you, and Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ has somehow, wondrously, survived repeated cold blooded homicide at every karaoke night across the country. So being feminist isn’t quite enough. Because what all music lovers want is something tuneful and lyrically beautiful – and it has to be both.

This has been addressed much more eloquently by Chris Rock, who asserts that women who like hip hop don’t care what the words say – they just like the beat and sod the underlying patriarchal network of oppression that sustains it. I have my own theories, but that will have to wait for another day. I love hip hop, but the fact is it’s all about the poetry, the lyrics, and I just can’t dance to a song that offends every political sensibility I have. No matter how great the tune.

But this is not about bemoaning the lack of awareness of most. I’m here to do something positive today. I foolishly thought that in order to be feminist a hip hop tune must be written/performed by a woman. But if we’re asking what feminist hip hop is I think we’d do better to see it as a positive portrayal of women. Yeah I know, I might be clutching at straws here. But in world of ‘bitches’, ‘hos’ and seductive Jezebels just out to get what they can (“I ain’t saying she’s a golddigger..”), then any song that presents an image of a woman who is not just out to tease and tickle her man, who has an actual inner intellectual life of her own and is ultimately independent and, and this is important, still incredibly alluring because of this – well, we should all own it and make our daughters and sisters hear it. Over and over again if necessary.

I know, I might be preaching to the converted here – this isn’t a new song, but it’s a goody. And it’s one of my favourites to have on whilst walking down the street before a night out. With this on my stereo I’m just about ready to knock out every tosser that dares to send a whistle or a ridiculously misguided attempt at a pick up my way.

So the next time anyone asks you to provide them with an example of GOOD feminist hip hop you can tell ‘em you heard it from me, innit blad.