Rihanna & Jay-Z
A female artist that I have and will always look up to is Rihanna- I believe that she represents very strong feminist views and values in a fight against toxic masculinity that is very prominent in the entertainment industry. I believe the she, through her actions, has challenged the “image of a ‘super moral’ black woman” and “hetero-patriarchal notions of what a ‘good Black woman’ should be”. In and outside of her music, she fights 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 what Rihanna has done in order to reclaim black female agency in the male dominated world of hip hop.
Time and time again, Rihanna has claimed herself, for herself. In her music video for “Kiss it Better” Rihanna has a solo on-camera experience featuring her body from a variety of angles- communicating an energy that she is there for herself and nobody else. Through this she challenges the idea of the ultra modest, “super-moral” black woman. Additionally, in her video for “Work” with Drake, she dances on him, for her own amusement. Through this, she shows that Drake does not own her and that her dance is not an invitation for sex. She is comfortable in her body and confident in self-determination.
Like many other women in the hip hop industry, I believe that Rihanna has a connection with 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 Rihanna has also received much media attention that tend to focus on the men that she’s been linked with, such as Chris Brown and Drake as well as the “oversexualizing” and “selling” of her body to the male gaze. While the media and society that has chosen to focus on them as sexual “objects”, and accessories of the “more influential” men in their lives the two of them have sought to fight the idea of “super-moral” black woman.
I believe that Rihanna has called out the gendered norms that society, media, and the hip hop industry- systems seek to confine female artists to the margins of hip-hop culture and use her as a “vehicle for notions of ‘liberation’” in order to preserve hetero male subordination.
Meanwhile, after reading about “hip hop moguls”, discussed by Mark Anthony Neal in Up From Hustling: Power, Plantations, and the Hip-Hop Mogul, I immediately thought back to Jay Z.
“"I'm not a businessman / I'm a business, man."
While Neal addresses an issue where systems similar to the plantation continue to exist in today’s society, specifically pointing out the “exploitation of black expression”. This problem is only further supported by the fact that these are industries that have a long history of having talent that is “black, but most of the decision makers are not”. Jay Z connected with the “hip hop mogul”- as someone who has, as the second richest hip hop artist in the world, emerged, through taking a part of this exploitation and commodification of black expression.
After a leading Def Jam Recordings as CEO between 2004 and 2008, Jay-Z left his longtime label and teamed up with entrepreneur Jay Brown and created the well known entertainment label Roc Nation in 2008. Rihanna followed Jay-Z from Def Jam to Def Jam in 2014 which now has a roster of J. Cole, Shakira, DJ Khaled, T.I., and Big Sean. In 2015, Jay Z launched Tidal, the music streaming service which has fought among tough competitors such as Spotify and Apple Music. A decade ago, Carter rapped that he wouldn’t rest until he was “the hundred million man.” Though a conclusive accounting is impossible, it seems certain he’s surpassed that figure, and on Magna Carta … Holy Grail, he sets a new goal: “Fuck it, I want a billion.” However, different from the “overseers” that Neal discusses, Jay Z seeks to use his success to help others in the black community. Jay Z has recently spoken up about mental health in black communities and the “need for normalization of mental health care in communities of color” and on top of this, has sought to assist black businesses through developing technology to promote them.
Neal asserts that hip hop moguls “sanction black-on-black exploitation in the name of black economic and political development”, when in reality, they are more concerned in holding a high position of power for themself as well as personal wealth. This, in turn, has allowed “pundits and politicos hoping to wish away America’s complicated racial history” to point to these hip hop moguls and use them as examples of the good that has come from the music industry “status quo”. However, Jay Z has made efforts to step away from positions of power under white decision makers and while he does seek to make money, he also seeks to help the black community and solve the issues within the hip hop industry, acknowledging that he has power and influence over the industry and society. He is an example that hip hop moguls can seek success for himself and for others.