Should Black Women re-think their allegiance to the “style of Hip Hop that degrading to all black women and their daughters?

Music has long influenced, styles, clothes and attitudes of the day.

“It has a good beat and you can dance to it”  For those who remember’s Dick Clark’s American bandstand.  

“Beat” was the sign of approval for the introduction of a new song .  For nearly four decades that was the line………  Young listeners initially respond to the beat, then the lyrics.  

I am closer in age to Ice T and Dr Dre.  I can clearly remember when I first heard “Rappers Delight” by the Sugah Hill Gang.  We begged the DJ to play it over and over as we were trying to learn the lyrics.    Rap (Hip Hop) during that time was light hearted and fun. Rap evolved with artists, rapping about what was happening on the streets of America.   The big music labels initially ignored rap. The tone was too dark, too gritty, too angry!

  Black and Hispanics in New York and later in Southern Cailfornia, started their own record labels.  There were many records you couldn’t buy outside New York City because the smaller labels had limited distribution, over time some of the records made it on to the airways, first late night on small radio stations and later on larger mainstream radio stations.

Overtime, Hip Hop expanded It could be a call to arms, a love story and it can be heartbreaking, or just silly. Hip Hop was initially confusing to those in the suburbs. Then young white kids discovered the bass.

While the hook, for younger listeners is the beat. Older listeners focus is the lyric.

Some viewed rap as angry and dangerous, stirring up the black youth in the cities.  A track ,in Ice-T’s in 1992’s “Body Count album’ called “Cop Killer” was the lead story on the News for several weeks.  Politicians, Police Associations all over the country, asked citizens to boycott Warner Brothers.  Based on media coverage, many people unfamiliar with music dismissed Hip Hop. Despite the negative press, hip hop was rapidly growing in the suburbs.     

The industry could not ignore the growth of hip hop. The large music companies created separate divisions for the genre. In the US, hip hop is dominated by black performers.   Nearly every genre has its extremes, and hip hop is no different.  

Hip hop is BIG business. Last year more than last year over 30% of the audio stream is hip hop, Rock was 17% It’s not an accident that “nigga ” is prevalent in hip hop. The use of “nigga” in hip hop is a profitable, very profitable.  Due to the influence of hip hop the use of “nigga” is common in the suburbs, it is commonly used by whites and non blacks  

The music business is just that, a business! The Industry isn’t in the business of making art, its not concerned about the content and the artist rarely has control of what is released as the industry has an financial investment into the artist and wants a return on their investment.

In response to corporate pressures, many rappers abandon political and social messages and focus instead on material wealth and sexual exploits.  In his documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Byron Hurt (2007) asks one aspiring rapper why rap artists focus on violence and misogyny. The rapper freestyles a verse about whether he could have been a doctor, a father, or police officer. He then says, ‘‘That’s nice, but nobody wanna hear that right now. They don’t accept that shit

The Degradation of  Women

After decades of love songs of men climbing the tallest of mountains to prove his love to the woman of his dreams. There was a shift at the beginning this Century. Women, specifically black women. became bitches, sluts, and disposable whores.   Their only redeeming value is to sexually satisfy a man.   Of course these songs had a good strong bass beat and you could dance to it.  Young girls as young as twelve years old, would sing these songs out of the presence of adults.  Many would mimic the dance of these uncelebrated women from the video’s in their bedrooms and bathroom of their schools. ,

On Feb. 24, 2018 out of 25 of Billboard’s top rap songs—most of which are also classified as hip hop—had lyrics referring to women as “bitches,” “hoes,” or “whores.  In “Gummo,” number 12 on Billboard’s Top 25 as of Feb. 24, 6ix9ine says, “Your girl on my phone / she wanna fuck but… I only want the jaw / that’s really all I use her for as I kick her out the door.” The next song on the chart, A$AP Ferg’s “Plain Jane,” contains equally demeaning lyrics: Towards the middle of the song, he says, “I fuck yo bitch for the irony. From the Harvard Crimson

In a 2016 study a by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. When middle school youth listen to rap music for three or more hours each day, they are more likely to believe that their peers are having sex and subsequently more likely to initiate sex by ninth grade.

“Rap music influences your beliefs about what you think your peers are doing. It’s a norming agent that tells you that certain things are ok, like drinking alcohol or having sex. It gives you the idea that everyone is doing it. And the more you’re listening to it, the more you’re conforming, so you could see how it would set up a belief about what your peers are doing,” said Kimberly Johnson-Baker, Dr.P.H., lead author and faculty associate in the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research at UTHealth School of Public Health.

Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion have ripped a sizable hole in Hip Hop, a field is dominated by men.  Like their male counterparts, many of their songs are sexually charged, like some of women in males video they are sexual objects of men and sometimes women,the difference is, these women are in control of the sexual act. 

Young Men taking their cues from Hip Hop

Like young women, young men take their cues from music. In small gatherings, they are talking about sex and in those circles many will try to one up the other man on how they will use women using a song as a reference point.   Male performers have slapped, shoved and punch women during their concerts.

On July 25th ,at the Rolling Loud Miami concert. Jonathan Lyndale Kirk (DaBaby) told the crowd:”If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up! Ladies, if your pussy smell like water, put your cellphone lighter up! Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up!”

Because this was a music festival, many of the acts were outaraged by his words, and the news spead like a wildfire in California. This is likely the most press Dababy has received, unfortunatly the news is negative.

The next day he was confident as ever and showed no remorse as he said:  “Y’all niggas trippin’. Y’all niggas bringing negative attention and energy upon y’all selves and the ones that’s doing it is people who didn’t even attend the show, so this shit don’t concern y’all at all.”,

His comments has cost him dearly as some of the largest music festivals in the nation ,including Lollapalooza, he Governors Ball and Austin City Limits Music Festival, UK event Parklife and A  Day N Vegas canceled his appearances, and he lost a sponsorship deal with the clothing brand BooHoo. nation.  

He has apologized to the LGBTQ community, and yet bleeding continues.

Kevin Powell, who’s written extensively about hip hop and toxic masculinity in American culture, says the language in DaBaby’s apology is important.

“I believe in counsel culture, not cancel culture,” says Powell. “Do we just want to keep canceling people out because of their racism, their sexism and homophobia, transphobia? Or do we actually want to educate people so we become a more educated populace so this does not become a normalized thing?”

He has to be serious. No matter who you are you have to be serious about making amends. You have to become an advocate for women and girls. You have to become an advocate against homophobia and transphobia. You have to make amends by your actions or your deeds. It can’t just be an apology just because you’re trying to save your career,” Powell adds.

Accept that your children are listening

If your nine year old has an electronic device he or she has complete access to the uncensored version of the music and video.  Out of your presence they are listening and watching When the sensors said Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallons video WAP was too sexual, it simply generated more views.

This is when your child needs an adult.  The adults need to be exposed to what his happening in music and remember how music influenced them. Its is the parents or adult job to reinforce values. To remind the young girl is isn’t a bitch at anytime and should never accept being called a bitch by a male and violence is never acceptable. Someone should tell the young man, his sister, mother, grandmother, and every female should always be respected.  Reinforce despite what he hears in a record, his mother or any female he knows is a not bitch or someone to be used by men and violence towards a women is never acceptable. 

Parents need to look back and remember what artist influenced them when they were 13 or 14. Remember how those artists influenced what they and their friends wore. Today, its a badge of honor for some male artists to impregnate many women without support.  Watch a few episodes or Love and Hip Hop and other reality shows directed at young women.

Gays are off limts and dehumanizing Women is Acceptable?

From this day forward, Dababy and other artist, will use extreme caution before saying anything dispraging about gays.  However,women are safe. 

On Tuesday,(Aug 3) rapper Azealia Banks took to her Instagram and questioned why Dababy wasn’t cancelled long ago after hitting a woman in her face.

“Y’all should have BEEN canceled dababy when he was caught on camera punching a female fan in the face. I’m not believing any of this performative canceling ppl are doing now when everyone was so quick to forget that happened. Apology or not, keep him canceled.”

No one seems to be outraged, when a male “Hip Hop” performer hits a woman. If a woman climbs on stage and gets hit by the artist, did she just have it coming? If its a male fan, usually the security staff intervenes. The silence from the music labels is deafening, One wonders, if the music labels quietly sanctions the attacks on black women and one wonders why we don’t hear white Hip Hop artists dehumanzing whitewomen? 

Perhaps the issue is black women?

The gay community and supporters of the Gay community clapped back, the reverberations may shake Hip Hop forever. Black women are strong and powerful and yet some endorse the disrepect and violence by buying and attending the concerts of an artist who suggest that they are disposable after spreading it wide.

Many of Dababy’s fans have cried foul. In the United States of America, cittzens are allowed to speak freely and to express any opinions without censorship. However, there are consequences, from expressing ones opinions. From factory workers, to Politicans and Celebrities. Careers and ended due to a momentary slip of tounge or expressing an opinion.

I’m not suggesting that careers be destroyed, however some artists are being destructive and damaging a community and nothing has more successful than changing the direction of a organization or company than than the old fashion tried to true attack on income.

If enough black women, chose to boycott an artist or a music label it would likely have an instantaneous effect. effect.

, The one beat that every business can dance to,is money!

Should Black Women re-think their allegiance to the “style of Hip Hop that degrading to all black women and their daughters?

I’m not a woman, just CityFella