What does the author propose the listeners of female Hip-Hop acts do differently in understanding the full value of their lyrical contents and how can this potentially lead to societal changes for followers of this music genre?
Azikwe (2007) writes descriptively on how hip-hop music should be deconstructed correctly through a black, modern, progressive, feminist lens which would make any of the legions of San Franciscans who subscribe to this ideology ecstatic that a non-white woman has adopted these same well-known beliefs towards her own race and also is promoting them in a published form. The author recommends that hip-hop followers and a group I have yet to meet, "Hip-Hop feminists", should look at the underlying themes present in the music and video images of women as rappers and that are not entirely represented in this music, but are nevertheless needed to comprehend the most significant and cutting-edge findings of black motherhood defined in the works of the Haitian rapper/singer Lauryn Hill. She recognizes that Hill made songs which spoke volumes of her pregnancy and how it shaped her life. This rarely documented take on the subject has not been a trademark of hip-hop music and based off of her own experiences as a black mother raising children not to be "knuckleheads, ruffnecks, or gangstas" (p.142), Azikwe (2007) feels that this topic should be highly regarded and used to determine if and how other female rappers are covering such an important aspect of their community amidst their "strive to assert sexual freedom" (p.139). For, according to Azikwe (2007), they "do not attend with as much vigor to the related issues of the mothering body and how that subject position is exploited to continue to oppress all black people" (p.139).
Further, the author feels that this embracing of motherhood and the abilities endowed upon black women to effectively enhance the outcome of their children can be transformative within the context of a revolutionary music that has proven it can establish change throughout the globe. Azikwe (2007) makes a personal plea to her black hip-hop community of feminists, radicals, progressives, and everything in between these sub-cultures, that the music of her people can enhance the daily struggles women endure and how they personify and overcome them heroically although this unfortunately is not cited in music because it is not commercially viable. She insists on more rappers-whether female or not-to not idealize women and their issues or make narrow-minded,one-sided and repetitive songs that serve to not symbolize the whole woman which include her many responsibilities as mother, child-bearer, matriarch and in the case of the oftentimes referenced Lauryn Hill, revolutionary alpha female/refugee turned mega superstar rapper, who managed to balance these roles while still at the tender age of 23.
Therefore, Azikwe (2007) makes the claim that all who listen to hip-hop music attentively should take it upon themselves, regardless if the rap icons are extremely renowned or esteemed , to ask the question: how do they make songs that reflect women and their strengths which stretch well beyond the maternity ward? Judging by Azikwe (2007) this should be done in order to hold rappers to higher standards of narrative writing and correct depictions of the gender which not only put them on this earth but also gave them the foreground for how they would eventually comport themselves in life especially in terms of how they feel about their better half and/or all female relations they may have.
Hello, I am Edward Ernest Salcedo, a final semester MA student in the IME department at USF enrolled in Dr. Taylor's HR and Media class where it is my wish to come to a greater understanding of human rights violations in the world and how they pertain to us in this country.I am eager to bring my perspectives on analyzing the media, particularly TV and film, as I have significant experience in both realms through having a BA in Radio and TV and a minor in Cinema Studies from SF state. I also direct and edit small-time film productions so have developed quite an eye for understanding the effects of the media and how it can potentially move the viewer to have a visceral reaction to a screening.Aside from this personal endeavor, my research interests include American Indian rural and reservation education and the ways in which individuals of mixed Native & European ancestry in the southwestern U.S. self-identify and what their experiences consist of in the overall Indian and mainstream community.
Human Rights video clip on Indians at Crow Creek
Dines and Humez text, Part 2: Why TV keep re-creating the male working-class buffoon
