Misogyny in Hip Hop

In the past few years the hip hop music industry has stereotyped women and exploited

their sexual roles to society in a pessimistic light. Specifically African-American rap music

degrades women and revoke them of any positive image in society. Videos, lyrics and many

other aspects of hip hop all downgrade and victimize women. A lot of rap songs are about gangs

and violence but “Content analyses have found that approximately 22% to 37% of rap lyrics

contain some misogyny”(wikipedia).

It all started in the 1990’s when sex, drugs and violence became very popular in hip hop

rap music. Rappers like “Plies” and “Too Short” were known for there sexism toward women.

Plies and Too short became very popular in the rap industry, which made a lot of the rap artist

take up the misogynistic behavior and tendencies. For example, in Too Short’s song

“Freaky Tales” he exposes all the women he has had sex with and calls them by their names,

“When I freaked Michelle,I freaked her well,Her pussy got hotter than flames in hell”(rap-

genius). “Freaky Tales” blossomed the sexist and misogynistic behavior in rap music and

ultimately Hip Hop culture and African American society.

African American males are the main source of this behavior, but women also partake in

the exploitation of their body and sexual experiences. In the past year a song was released by

Jay Z and Beyonce Knowles called “Drunk In Love”. This song is about the love the artist share

outside of their careers. Beyonce said “Then I fill the tub up halfway then ride it with my

surfboard, surfboard, surfboard” which is a pretty nasty sexual reference(rap-genius). Surfboard

is a sexual position when the couple is in the bath tub and they are having sex while

submerged in the water. The song is downright inappropriate and absurd but because hip hop

has brainwashed people into believing that sex, drugs and violence is acceptable in rap music it

doesn't seem to bother most people.

Misogyny isn’t beneficial in any type of way to society. Sexism completely ruptures the

common good and all that is stands for in today’s society. Back in BC times women didn’t have

a meaning of the basic human rights. Women were mostly viewed upon as objects and not

humans. Women basically did the maintenance of the house and were “were viewed as

property” to their husbands(sojourners). Now women have an understanding of their basic

humans rights and attempt to fulfill them. Since hip hop and rap music influences society,

in theory it influences the common good because “the common good can often change”

from person to person(wikipedia). If someone was taught to disrespect women and treat

women unfairly their common good would differ from someone who was taught the opposite.

For example, the basic requirements for staying alive is food, water and shelter and a person

with a misogynistic background would solely believe those things are to be kept up by a woman

not man. Those kind of people still exist because of the impact that rap music and hip hop have

on society and its sexist background.

The misogynistic acts of hip hop and rap music deeply effect its fans and society as a

whole. It influences the fans because the fans support the sexist rapper or singer and typically

fans relate to their favorite artist. Fans are fans because they like or agree to what a certain

person is doing, and the more fans that certain person has, the more the views and ideas of that

person is expressed in society. In this instance, rappers like Lil Wayne, Eminem and Chief Keef

all have a pretty strong fan-base of about one-hundred million plus fans and all three of those

rappers talk and rap about sexism and misogyny. Matured black women are widely effected

because it degrades them beyond belief and it also makes them feel lesser than