Experiences of Feminism in Hip-Hop

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Gender Studies, grade: 1,3, University of Siegen, course: Literaturwissenschaft Englisch, language: English, abstract: Hip-Hop is known as a culture and music that is dominated by men. Especially in the 1990s, this subculture and music genre was at its height. Many male rappers like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre had been more successful than ever. They sold millions of records on which they rapped about several themes. For instance, male rapper always promoted their gangsta image and their criminal life in the streets. Furthermore, their lyrics maintain life experiences of poverty, drugs and financial instability. Besides all this, one significant theme in male rap music is womanhood. Particularly, the black womanhood, the women which they have met. Mostly, women are depicted as bitches, sexually open and subordinated. By using disgracing terms and notions, rappers illustrate their attitude towards black womanhood. But what about the female rapper? Do they have any impact on this patriarchal and misogynist system? Is there any feminist movement within the Hip-Hop scene, or does this subculture remain in the hegemonic power of masculinity? These will form some of the guiding questions of the term paper, which will be structured as follows. Firstly, I will provide an introduction to black feminism and to Hip-Hop feminism to create a foundation for the following parts. These chapters maintain the main fundamental notions of feminism, which are relevant for my further intention. Afterwards, an analysis of the different views of women in Hip-Hop comes next. With this, I want to work out the various opinions of women and men regarding feminism, femininity and black womanhood in general. As a counterpart to these differing views, I will take Lauryn Hill as a representative in consideration to elaborate more on feminist thoughts and views. My goal in this paper is to contradict the common assumption that black women are not recognised in the culture and music of Hip-Hop.