The Rise of Women: Hip Hop’s Diversity Problem
“I have a hard time accepting diversity as a synonym for justice. Diversity is a corporate strategy”
- Angela Davis
Last month, the artist with the number one song in the country, a Black woman, was the victim of domestic violence; this odd mixture of capitalism, gender and race has led me to question whether hip hop has truly accepted the women’s movement taking place within the genre. I can audibly hear readers exclaiming “of course not”, but as a cis-gendered male hip hop fan, I was immensely proud of my beloved genre for its proliferation of feminine voices. I relished in the fact that not only were women rappers being noticed in a traditionally hyper-masculine genre, but that they were also mustering commercial success. Until that commercial success did not save Meg the Stallion from being the victim of a gendered crime.
It should be no surprise that wealth did not void Meg’s minority status, instead what is surprising is hip hops unpreparedness for women’s issues in the midst of women’s success. It seems as though hip hop was not only resting on the laurels of simply including female bodies in hip hop, but was benefiting off of that cursory inclusion. I call such inclusion cursory, not to belittle the battle that women have fought to claim a portion of their own space in this genre, but rather because of the lack of depth or fullness in which that inclusion was realized. Hip hop accepted women like a corporation accepts a diversity hire.
As Angela Davis poignantly pointed out, diversity is not centered on equity or freedom, but rather a capitalist strategy that reduces the fullness of minority experience to a singular cog in the corporate machine. For example, law firms are currently hiring Black attorneys at unprecedented numbers; however, this is not due to some restorative justice or reparations plan, but rather simply because clients are demanding it (the demand for which is driven in no small part by minorities who have been pushed out of law firms and now work in-house at said companies). As such, the hiring of Black attorneys at law firms is a corporate strategy for the benefit of the company, not the benefit of the minorities hired. This in and of itself is not surprising as capitalism is going to capitalize. However, what is discouraging is the limitation placed on Blackness in the workplace as the presence of Black bodies increases. This expresses itself in many ways, but may be most clear through the several summers of political upheaval spurned by racism in America. The cog in the wheel is expected to keep churning work product whilst the fullness of the Black experience has been crippling.
Domestic violence cripples many women in this patriarchal society and Black women suffer at higher rates; as such, with the proliferation of Black women in hip hop this particular societal baggage was almost inevitable. However, I am unsure that hip hop cared enough about its women to see this coming. Hip hop has a long history with domestic violence, most often as the perpetrator. Many of hip hops greats who have been immortalized are known abusers (i.e. Biggie and Pun) and many of hip hops current stars are known abusers whose abuse has been seen on camera (i.e. Fabolous and NBA Youngboy). However, Meg’s victimization shifts the paradigm. Hip hop is forced to view domestic violence from the lens of the victim, rather than the perpetrator. Instead of finding excuses for the actions of a perpetrator, as hip hop has done in the past, to come to the protection of its stars, now hip hop is forced to speak out against the very same actions that were once excused. In this there should be a kind of cognitive dissonance in which there is a reckoning for the decades that hip hop has made excuse upon excuse for perpetrators; however, I have seen no such thing. Hip hop is enjoying the benefit of women rappers without accepting the fullness of their experience within the genre.
The benefit to hip hop has been clear; women artists are some of the highest selling acts this year. As stated before, Meg had the number one song in the country in the middle of dealing with a domestic violence dispute. As such, these women are fueling the industry in innumerable ways and as such are part of an overall capitalistic corporate scheme in hip hop. The rise of women rappers could be seen as a numbers game for the corporate structure, in which there is finally an opportunity to capitalize on a huge segment of the consumer population: women. It should be no surprise that women are able to sell huge amounts of records to other women who can identify with their lyrics (which is truly the essence upon which the hip hop community and consumer base is built). As such, similar to law firms, hip hop has filled a need voiced by its customers, but has not done the work to accept the fullness of the minorities they seek to capitalize off of.
An easy critique of this is to say that I am blending hip hop’s culture and business which has often notoriously been at odds. However, I retort that patriarchy is a mutual language of both the culture and the corporation, which makes them far less dichotomous than usual. The hyper-masculine is rampant in both sectors of hip hop, and in an effort to protect that fragile conception of masculinity, the two may fuse. This can be seen in the meeting point between the silence of national publications/outlets on the matter despite Meg’s superstardom and the initial internet response policing how a victim may bring justice to their abuser. Both action and inaction are rooted in patriarchy.
Lastly, I would like to say that I did not mention T*ry Lanez until now because I did not want to center him in a piece where I am considering women’s liberation. However, I want to make clear that Tory L*nez is an abuser. I am interested to see how hip hop at large reacts to this fact and whether, as it has done in the past, the culture will simply move on and allow a man to degrade Black women and further solidify that this is not a space for Black women. I hope not. What I can say is- there will be no T Lamez streamed in my house hold. Signed a former fan.