Verified Document

Hip Hop Speaking Truth To Essay

men in the hip-hop world. She has been a spokesmodel for Jenny Craig, a company that explicitly utilizes her 'real woman' image to sell its weight-loss product. "She's a CoverGirl and, off-screen, manicures a wholesome image" (What's worse, 2009, Querty). To emphasize her critique of Black male desire and to create another image for a Black woman to 'be' in the world would challenge prevailing norms and the new fascination with Black male power in the mainstream media. Unlike Queen Latifah, some artists have taken a more controversial stance towards heterosexism. Queen Pen brags of taking a woman away from her boyfriend, in her song "Girlfriend" with a playful swagger similar to that of black male rappers: "After all, bragging about luring a woman away from her boyfriend is practically de rigueur on a hip-hop album," and she sings 'If that's your girlfriend, she wasn't last night'" to a man (Jamison 1998). By speaking to a man, and to masculinity in general, Pen makes lesbianism relevant to the typical concerns of testosterone-fueled hip-hop. But Queen Pen aligns herself with male rappers by often adopting their language and attitude. "She calls women 'bitches,' for example, and expresses detached amusement: 'She slid by me four or five times / wantin' me to notice the rhythm...

There is no middle, alternative voice for Black lesbians at present that is openly lesbian and proudly Black, and neither silence nor merely imitating men is a satisfactory solution.
References

Bennett, Jessica. (2008, May 16). Outing hip hop. Newsweek Web Exclusive.

May 16, 2008. Retrieved October 26, 2009.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/137380

Grantham, C. (2001). Why artists defended Eminem. Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, 8(3),

18. Retrieved October 26, 2009, from OmniFile Full Text Mega database.

Jamison, Laura. (1998, January 18). A feisty female rapper breaks a hip-hop taboo.

The New York Times. Retrieved October 26, 2009.

http://www.io.com/~larrybob/queenpen.html

What's worse for Queen Latifah: Outed as gay, or outed for loving strippers? (2009, September

4). Querty. Retrieved October 26, 2009.

http://www.queerty.com/whats-worse-for-queen-latifah-outed-as-gay-or-outed-for-loving-strippers-20090904/

Sources used in this document:
References

Bennett, Jessica. (2008, May 16). Outing hip hop. Newsweek Web Exclusive.

May 16, 2008. Retrieved October 26, 2009.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/137380

Grantham, C. (2001). Why artists defended Eminem. Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, 8(3),
http://www.io.com/~larrybob/queenpen.html
http://www.queerty.com/whats-worse-for-queen-latifah-outed-as-gay-or-outed-for-loving-strippers-20090904/
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Hip Hop Culture the Hip
Words: 1652 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Sadly, what began as a means of artistic expression has evolved into a phenomenon that has centered on exploiting women and glamorizing crime and violence, leading listeners to believe that this is not only the acceptable way of treating women, but also that the crime and violence are socially accepted norms. Works Cited Alridge, D. & Stewart, J. "Introduction: Hip Hop in History: Past, Present, and Future." Journal of African-American History. 90(3) Summer

Hip-Hop Culture in the US and Jeddah
Words: 6190 Length: 18 Document Type: Research Paper

globalization effect or reason for the creation of Hip-Hop Culture in the Western province in Saudi (Jeddah)? Saudi Arabia is a country of variety and as of recently, hip-hop. The hip-hop culture of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's western province, is a culture that signifies not only a new trend of music and interests never seen before in the area, but also an embrace of modern symbols, meaning, and language that could

Hip Hop History and Culture
Words: 2134 Length: 7 Document Type: Essay

How Hip Hop Followed in the Footsteps of Malcolm X Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and the Origins of Hip Hop Abstract This paper examines the manner in which the hip hop grew out of the Civil Rights Movement and became a way for disenfranchised black youths, marginalized by society, to express their thoughts and feelings on a world that did want them to rise up. The history of hip hop and

Female Hip Hop Artists Impact
Words: 1746 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

Women have always been part of hip hop, even though their accomplishments and impact have been understated and unsung. Yet any cursory examination of the history of hip hop reveals countless female musicians and performers. Some, like Queen Latifah, Missy Elliot, Salt-N-Pepa, Lauryn Hill, and Nicki Minaj, become household words. Hundreds of others remain behind the scenes, known mainly to audiophiles or serious music historians. Tracing hip hop back to

Marxist Eye on the Contemporary, Commercialized Corporate
Words: 2094 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

Marxist Eye on the Contemporary, Commercialized Corporate 'I'" Karl Marx, although famously, personally ignorant of his own wife's domestic suffering while he labored in the British Library, still provides an ideologically coherent model to examine how materialism, commercialism, and the oppression of women and other ideologically (though not always economically) marginalized groups invisibly occurs within our class-bound society. One of Marx's most basic claims, and one particularly dear to post-modernists, was

Harm of Rap Music Rap
Words: 3369 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

The first is a test that is spelled out in Electric v. Public Service Commission which states that 'commercial speech obtains a lesser degree of protection from the First Amendment than that of "pure' or 'core' speech. The second of the tests was established in the 1969 Brandenberg v Ohio case involving a Ku Klux Klan leader who was found guilty of advocation of violence and a crime syndicate

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now