Request for info: sexist and anti-sexist rap.

NWA 'A Bitch Is A Bitch' maybe, atypical really.

4 Women (and almost anything else) by Talib Kweli

you could write a bit about artists like Missy inverting the misogynist perspective in tracks like 'one minute man'.

also, mebbe you should write about how many of the biggest thug-lifers, tupac and biggie included, hymned many a respectful paen to their mommas?

the skit at the end of Common's 'Sixth Sense' on his album might be interesting to talk about, tho i can't really remember the details right now.

which 'cleverly' also managed to have luda boasting about his schlong too. wow, what an inversion.

Yeah, this is certainly one of my themes. 2Pac is another rapper who I'm not that familiar with, but I've heard he has both pro- and antimisogyny songs, can anyone give some examples?

'Superman' ("End up with two back hands, put Anthrax on a Tampax and slap you till you can't stand"), Kim ("Sit down bitch, if you move again I'll beat the shit out of you"), Kill You ("Just criminal intent to sodomize women", "I ain't even drug you in the woods yet to paint the forest") are pretty good examples. Or Just The Two Of Us/Bonnie & Clyde, a song entirely about letting your child help drown her mother because "She was bein mean to dad and made him real real mad".

Actually, that's possibly worth a whole paper in and of itself, the embracing of Eminem within the mainstream despite the content.

etc

are you going to mention misandry as counter-attack? eg lil kim 'suck my dick'.

also, UGK - pregnant pussy

slick rick - treat her like a prostitute (this one has a particularly compelling take on misogyny. rick actually admits vulnerability. the solution? treat her like a prostitute!)

"A Bitch Is A Bitch" actually attempts to argue that the word "bitch" should/is reserved for describing the enactors of bitchy behaviour, and inferring it as a blanket slander for all women is a textbook error, bitch. See also Ice-T's "Bitches 2" on this topic - "some of y'all niggaz is bitches too". For more on Ice Cube's particular explorations see the line "A black woman is my manager, and not in the kitchen -- so could you please stop bitchin'?" line on The Predator, and the second verse of Gangsta Gangsta, which paints women-dissing as the defensive male-bonding behaviour of frightened little boys. (For outright stupid misogyny see, I dunno, any given Cube song from the last ten years, probably) (Nappy Dugout off Death Certificate is also pretty harsh, though obv. in character to outrage the father).

You definitely want We Want Some Pussy on your 2 Live Crew list. And dozens of other 2LC songs, but We Want and Me So are actually good songs, where most of their catalogue is not.

Be sure to post your paper here for Ethan's feedback.

There's a strong puritanical streak running through a lot of this kind of (now mostly defunct, late 90s?) 'conscious' rap. See also Jeru's 'Ya Playing Y'self' - "with those skin-tight jeans baby, ya playing yourself, put some clothes on that ass if you respect yourself". Women should dress conservatively, and not express their sexuality.

You could look at the ways in which the difference between different female artists arguably correspond to different forms of feminism, such as so-called "pro-sex" and "anti-sex" feminism. So with Lil' Kim it's all gender play and claiming the role of sexual conqueror as her own and talking about fucking guys up the ass, whereas Lauryn Hill's god-bothering second album has a song about a woman who is so "confused" that she "thinks she's bisexual". Then if you wanted to get really interesting you could examine the overlap of musical and moral values in Sarah Jones' much-lauded 'Your Revolution' and question whether it's unequivocally a good thing - the assumption that writing your own lyrics is an accurate indication that you're a feminist, etc.

I can see where you're coming from, but is it OK to just say afterwards "Oh, I was only joking" and then everybody forgets everything?

When does Bernard Manning, for example, become a racist as opposed to somebody who tells racist jokes? When does Benny Hill become sexist rather than someone who plays a sexist character on television? And where does the recent 'blackface' Hallowe'en thread on ILE fit in?

The content may well have been "hugely debated" by boards like this and music magazines, but it sure as hell wasn't by the vast majority of people who bought the records.

"I Want To Say a Little Something That's Long Overdue
The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through
To All The Mothers And Sisters And the Wives And Friends
I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End."

That song still gives me goosebumps, because it all seems too real.