I love hip-hop music. I think when done well it can be lyrically the most progressive genre on the planet, and for me it has produced some of the best music of the last 30 years. With albums like The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sitting among my favourites, I love the complexity of its subject and while I'm perhaps not the most typical fan, I do feel a real connection to the artists and music. But I also have an issue, and that is; can I, as somebody who loves and respects women, really have feminist sensibilities when I listen to the music I do?
This topic is something I've thought about for a while, but it was recently brought to the front of my mind while idly listening to music on my way to work. Within a playlist of all kinds of stuff, this lyric from The Weeknd found its way into my ear "I just f*cked two bitches 'fore I saw you". It isn't by any stretch the most extreme lyric in hip-hop, but I actually found myself turning it off and removing the song from my playlist. It felt so aggressively disrespectful, and it made me start to really thinking about what I was listening to as I blindly flip between tracks and half listen to music.
Suddenly so many of the songs I regularly listen to became really offensive, and while I of course always knew the lyrics existed, I was shocked at myself for not really questioning them sooner. New Slaves by Kanye West includes this: "F*ck you and your Hampton house, I'll f*ck your Hampton spouse" - so clearly using women as objects in a game of power between two men. On Roman's Revenge, Eminem puts out these lyrics: "Every last woman on Earth I'll kill off, and I still wouldn't f*ck you, slut" - that needs no explanation. Even less immediately shocking moments like Jay-Z joking about domestic violence while rapping on his own wife's song, or the endless use of the word "bitch", have suddenly made me feel quite sour.
When you then think about how women are sexualised visually in hip-hop, and how often masculinity is considered the most important quality of all, you do have to concede there is at least some validity to the commonly held view that modern hip-hop is intrinsically misogynistic. Of course on the flip side there are many artists, and many songs, who use none of those words or visuals, but it is undeniable how common that misogynistic theme is.
To be upfront about this, I am as happy with a Taylor Swift song as I am a Jay-Z, so you aren't reading the words of a diehard aficionado. Clearly I'm coming at this from a very mainstream point of view, but actually that might be okay. With Iggy Azalea on the latest Britney single and indeed pretty much every other teen song including some form of guest spot or remix, hip-hop is reaching far and wide, so its fair to assume its influence will follow suit. With more and more young people listening to the words of megastar hip-hop artists, perhaps it's time for the industry to think about the impact those words will have. Self-esteem and self-worth are vital to every human's success, and words can destroy them.
This issues of female objectification and sexism are of course not exclusively the problem of hip-hop. The prevalence of similar imagery in pop videos is clear, and how disposable female pop stars are is of course another feminist issue (why else is Madonna to be stopped, when Jagger still has the moves to be celebrated?). Girl in a Country Song sums it up nicely for that genre, and the lack of real female rock superstars is yet another glorious example of a glass ceiling. So no, sexism is not a hip-hop only issue, but it does seem to be more explicit than in any other type of music.
I don't really have an answer to my own question when looking for a conclusion. I do still love hip-hop music, and I will still stand by a lot of it, but I am starting to be more considered with my taste. I was raised by an incredibly strong woman, and have spent much of my life surrounded by empowered, independent and confident women, and I think that is a blessing. No man should consider women as disposable, irrelevant or only as sexual playthings, even if he can sell a million copies of the track by doing so. I guess all I'm saying is let's drop some feminism into hip-hop.