Black Female Agency in Hip Hop
When discussing women in hip hop, I’ve found that though it is 2020, people still have a difficult time accepting feminist views and values as well as criticism that is made toward the toxic masculinity that is still prominent in the genre (though not exclusive to hip hop). I would like to present two female artists that I feel challenge the “image of a ‘super moral’ black woman” and “hetero-patriachal notions of what a ‘good Black woman’ should be”. These women fight to “reappropriate heterosexual male linguistic tools in rap” and the arguably “masculinist” HHNL that “operates within the discourse of Black heterosexual male power and privilege to define hip-hop culture and Black sexual and gender relations”. In this post, I’d like to explore TLC and Nicki Minaj and how these two powerhouses have reclaimed black female agency in the world of hip hop.
I found myself extremely blessed to be able to grow up on the music of TLC- they were a group that infused feminist messages into many of their top hits. From “No Scrubs” to “Hat 2 Da Back” and “Waterfalls”, I’ve always counted on TLC for my “girl-power anthems”. In the song “No Scrubs”, TLC essentially discusses men who are “scrubs”- meaning they have no money or goals and are thus not worthy of a woman’s time:
“No, I don't want no scrubA scrub is a guy that can't get no love from meHangin' out the passenger sideOf his best friend's rideTrying to holla at me”
In “Hat 2 Da Back”, the group responds to criticism that people made against their attire: the baggy pants, graffiti t-shirts, condoms attached and the big colorful hats. TLC unapologetically defends and defines their freedom to their gender identity (gender non-conformity).
“So yo gettin' back to this dude wit' the foul attitudeShoot he made another bad move sayin' thatGirls shouldn't wear baseball caps he can go take a hikeCause it's the style I like yeah it's a tripCause somethin' hasn't yet been saidI never talked about them damn fingerwaves in his headTight pants and 2 rings in each earYou know that is dead but it's me instead”
As mentioned before, when “black women reappropriate heterosexual male linguistic tools in rap, they are engaged in a claiming of their sexual subjectivity as well as an even more complicated project.” By “entering the male body” (taking on the “dude wit’ the foul attitude) and flipping the switch on him (criticism of “the dude’s” own fashion), TLC is able to expand their self-definition as women while also tackling the issues of treatment against women. Much like Missy Elliot, TLC was able to question gendered norms in their songs, by taking on the position of power.
Another artist that I’d like to shine the spotlight on is Nicki Minaj- someone that has faced much criticism; However I would like to question the negative attention that Minaj has attracted, and assert that her songs and music videos have fought against the “culture of dissemblance” which produced the need for Black women to project “the image of a ‘super-moral’ Black woman. Case A: Anaconda. Anaconda garnered negative attention, with criticisms stating that she was “oversexualizing” herself and selling out in order to “get views”. In an article titled, “Nicki Minaj: Feminist or Just Another Barbie”, the author acknowledges that Minaj has “embraced some form of feminism” but also questions the effectiveness of it and whether her expression can even be classified as feminism or rather exclusionary. In another article, “Nicki Minaj’s Feminism Isn’t About Your Comfort Zone: On “Anaconda” and Respectability Politics”, the author claims that Minaj becomes “one of the boys, and she does it with the intent to subvert what it means” and the idea of “respectability politics”, in which “marginalized groups attempt to police their own members” in order to become “compatible with mainstream values rather than challenging the mainstream for what they see as its failure to accept difference.” This brings up, again the idea of the “super-moral” black woman.
“Uhh, do you hear me? I can't let a wack n**** get near meI might kiss the baddest bitch if you dare meI ain't never need a man to take care of meYo, I'm in that big boy, bitches can't rent this”
I have found this connection between Minaj and Betty Davis and how the mainstream media and public perceived the two: Davis was most known by the media for her relationship with Miles Davis and her “long legs”, while Minaj has also received much media attention, attributing her accomplishments to the men in her life (Drake, Meek Mills) and to her “oversexualizing” and “selling” of her body to the male gaze. However, it was very opposite- it has been the media and society that has chosen to focus on them as sexual “objects”, rather than their music which sought to fight the idea of “super-moral” black woman.
So, in conclusion, how are TLC and Nicki Minaj alike? I believe that they called out the gendered norms that society, media, and the hip hop industry- systems that seek to confine female artists to the margins of hip-hop culture and use them as “vehicles for notions of ‘liberation’” to preserve hetero male subordination.
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.neu.edu/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2011.581921
https://www.racked.com/2015/3/5/8155311/what-hip-hop-taught-me-about-feminism
https://www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/18859/how-tlc-defined-feminism-in-90s-r-b