From New York to Los Angeles, Miami to Portland, and every city in between, there is a new issue brewing among the female gender and hip-hop. However, this time the issue doesn’t lie with a Lil’ Kim album cover or the abundance of flesh showing on the females in hip-hop videos. Instead, these things are serving as underlying reasons why, from suburbia to inner-city ghettos, people are questioning the lack of female representation at hip-hop shows.
Let me clarify. I am not speaking of the Jay-Z, Nelly or Eminem concerts. I’m digging a bit deeper to The Little Brother, Roots, or even open mic audiences. If you’ve ever been to any of these events, you can testify that besides the cocktail waitresses, females are scarce and rarely sited. The source of this mystery is birthed from the perception that females have a different interpretation, relationship and exposure to music. Like in any music community, hip-hop especially, females like to dance while the males usually lay back and play it cool.
At underground shows where many women don’t know the majority of songs, they have a tendency to become easily bored. Hearing a familiar mainstream song is more enjoyable, because they can familiarize with it. We want to hear rhythms and beats that we can feel throughout our bodies. Saying that, it’s safe to say that many underground and middle ground hip-hop shows aren’t booty-shakin’ friendly. The majority of hip-hop shows aren’t plagued with catchy, Neptune hooks. While there are a handful of women involved in underground, in observing the audience, it’s obvious to see that we are the minority.
The reflection of hip-hop is a direct image of its key players. Sadly enough, women don’t get the proper respect when it comes to emceeing, break dancing, graffiti writing or DJing. Men tend to dominate each element, and have so since the beginning of culture.
Therefore, hip-hop only has itself to blame for letting the role of women slip through the cracks. Besides the underexposure of women in the culture, we have to pay attention to the ignorance and imagery that is put on the value of a woman. From the videos to the groupies, women tend to be looked at with objectivity. This is a huge turn-off to those of us that wear the culture on our backs. Why should women support hip-hop if they are going to have to deal with the heckling and stereotypes? The marketing and whoring of the hip-hop culture plays a substantial role.
While the females are being fed the 50 Cent club mixes and remixes, the deep, thought – provoking, true hip-hop is marketed and targeted towards males, as if women don’t have the intelligence to be included in this market. Promoters have tried to tackle this problem by offering ladies a discount at certain events. Think that is helping? Think again! While we enjoy free stuff and discounts galore, that’s not enough appeal to get the venue packed with women. How are we going to solve this? The hip-hop culture has along way to go in order to embrace our gender. Perhaps mixing the line-up to include a commercial and underground act, female opening act, or female emcee battle would shift the vibe to a more ambiguous atmosphere. It’s frustrating to see that quality hip-hop of any kind isn’t exposed to females properly, and sadder still to see this being acceptable in the culture. For hip-hop and its intertwining elements to fully grow, it must become more palatable to the female fan. Beginning now.