It’s in the music

Posted by: casespace on: September 11, 2012

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Le Sigh. I wasn’t sure where to go with this blog today, but my mind is heavy so that’s what you get.

A friend of mine shared a video on Facebook of the rapper 2Chainz and Kanye spittin verses about a birthday cake and fat booties. I’m sure they were equivocating the two, as if it hasn’t been done before.

I didn’t even turn up the sound on the video because I didn’t need to listen to know that it was probably too gross to listen to. My friend and I noted that this song like many in the hip hop genre did nothing but objectify and degrade the women in the video. But really this is par for the course for 80-90% of rap songs these days, even a few R&B songs. Yeah, I’m looking at you Trey Songz (“2 Reasons”).

Not going to lie, there was a time in my life I was heavy into almost every rapper. I’m pretty sure I even rapped and danced to Jay-z’s “Big Pimpin,” as degrading as that song is. Today, knowing what I know, and growing every little step closer to knowing what it means to be a woman, especially from a spiritual perspective, I hardly feel right bobbing  my head to certain songs. If I’m in the car with a male friend or my brother, I can usually only take so much before I plead for them to turn it down or turn it off. Incidentally, how do you as a man feel comfortable playing certain misogynistic and degrading songs around a woman? You may as well be saying it yourself. But that’s another blog.

So how do I feel? In general, disappointed with hip-hop. It’s sad because I know the misogyny thing is so prevalent that it’s not going to change. This is why I generally gravitate towards other genres. I love Gospel, I love Soul. I love that with soul music at least they seem to appreciate the outer and inner qualities of a woman in their lyrics and in their videos in a way that doesn’t destroy them. I’m not a piece of meat, after all. I’m a human being. I’m a woman.

So that’s generally how I feel. I’ve been in a club-atmosphere or an actual club in a few instances this  year where I stopped myself dancing cause I was like “For real? Eww.” I really feel that convicted.