In the past Hip Hop has been labeled with a hard masculine look. In the same way, women have been seen in a feminine way, and women weren't really involved in the whole Hip Hop scene when it came to making the music. A pioneer of the women rap culture is Lauren Hill often regarded as the greatest female rapper of all time, she paved a way for a woman to also participate in rapping. Without Lauren Hill, we may never have heard of female rappers such as Nikki Manaj, Cardi B, Missy Elliott, etc. Before this rappers like 2Pac, B.I.G, Jay Z dominated the Rap scene and they often rapped about girls in a feminine way. Click here to see the data which i based part of my answer on also shows more examples of female rappers who paved the way.
Doo Wop by Lauren hill is one of the most successful female rap songs of all time amassing over 100 million views on YouTube. In 1998 most female rappers had fallen off females where mainly singers for example Whitey Houston. In this song it tells guys and girls to watch out for men and women who are just using them for their body this goes against norm because usually it is men who are being told they are using people for their appearance.
Missy Elliott faced a lot of backlash from this song and many others because it was very sexual and inappropriate. But she responded with a statement regarding how men are able to speak about the same things but they don't receive any backlash however this didn't stop her from creating music like this and still is till this day.
this song release in 1987 was a massive hit having over 123 million views on YouTube. This song goes against the stereotype of women because they made a song exactly to the fit of the music at the time this showed that women were capable of making the same music that the men did and the song was a success and has only gotten bigger to this day
Not a bad effort, collating findings on how women are represented in the hip-hop genre, but there is a lot you can talk about here that you missed. The feel from this research is more of a history of women in hip hop. What I wanted you to do was look at music videos and analyse how women are represented (not just the role they played in bringing the genre to a place where women's voices are heard and respected, more). - There was a missed opportunity here to look at the 4 technical elements and analyse how women are represented (how meaning is created using those 4 elements) and what messages the audience is presented, about women.
Are women in hip-hop seen as... strong? empowered? liberated from 'oppression of a male dominated genre/ industry?' are they actually still objectified (male gaze theory), through what we see in mise-en-scene (costumes) and sound (lyrics) etc.
Hi Levi
ReplyDeleteOverall Score: 13/20
Not a bad effort, collating findings on how women are represented in the hip-hop genre, but there is a lot you can talk about here that you missed.
The feel from this research is more of a history of women in hip hop. What I wanted you to do was look at music videos and analyse how women are represented (not just the role they played in bringing the genre to a place where women's voices are heard and respected, more).
- There was a missed opportunity here to look at the 4 technical elements and analyse how women are represented (how meaning is created using those 4 elements) and what messages the audience is presented, about women.
Are women in hip-hop seen as... strong? empowered? liberated from 'oppression of a male dominated genre/ industry?' are they actually still objectified (male gaze theory), through what we see in mise-en-scene (costumes) and sound (lyrics) etc.