Itâs officially Womenâs History Month, and Iâve been writing Sneaker Wave for a while now. Itâs time to talk about my relationship with hip-hop.
First off, I donât identify as a âhip-hop head.â I like other genres and artists, too! That surprises a lot of people, because I can often be found in the front rows of local hip-hop shows every weekâI have my own goddamn column because of it. But the truth is, while I do love hip-hop, itâs pretty complicated between us.
Iâm sick and tired of having to endure, overlook, and weigh the damages of the sexist, misogynistic lyrics in some of my favorite songs. I know some of you niggas are going to read this and ask, âHow come youâre spotlighting hip-hop as misogynist when other genres like rock are just as bad? Youâre racist toward your own community!â My hypothetical response? I have a Portland-focused hip-hop column, not a rock column. Just because other genres are sexist doesnât mean Iâm not going to address sexism in my own community. WTF? Thatâs some Cosby apologist shit.
ANYWAY! Whenever Iâm listening to projects from Kanye, 2Pac, Travis Scott, or even Drake, thereâs one girl atop my left shoulder unabashedly twerking her heart out. But on my right, a tiny feminist sparks a joint and begins to deconstruct the way each songâs lyrics uphold the patriarchy by positioning women as disposable sex objects. And itâs not just about calling us âbitchesââa term Iâve made an individual effort to reclaim. Itâs annoying that Iâm put in a place where I have to decide whatâs okay versus whatâs inexcusable. Femme, queer, and trans folks have to accept so much misogyny in order to participate in hip-hop culture at all. (R&B, too!)
Obviously I canât cancel everyone if Iâm still going to enjoy some of my favorite music. Even rap-singers like Drake spew a lot of slut-shaming that makes me roll my eyes whilst I twerkâbecause I truly love Drake and his music! âHis misogyny isnât intentional,â says my Twerking Devil. âHis lyrics are catered to college grads like me, he loves badass women, and his slow jam catalog is dope AF!â
Thatâs all true, but the intersectional feminist on my right shoulder points out that great songs like the Drake-fronted âNo Lieâ and âKaraokeâ contain lyrics that make me want to cuss Drake out. Even the seemingly innocent âHotline Blingâ is directed at Drizzyâs ex, whoâs not acting how he thinks a âgood girlâ should. Why does her going out, showing skin, and having drinks with her friends make her a bad girl? Iâll wait.
Admittedly, I think my tolerance for misogyny is directly correlated to the quality of the music itself. For example, in the Weekndâs âTell Your Friends,â he disturbingly sings, âGimme head all night, come four times.â While that suggestion would be greeted with an open-mouthed cackle IRL, I let it slide in song form.
Alternately, when an amateur artist performs a song that isnât sonically or thematically original, my tolerance for ignorance is much lower. One time I actually walked out of someoneâs set at the Thesis (the artist shall remain nameless) because I just wasnât in the mood to stand there and listen to him yell-rap his âfuck your bitchâ-type lyrics. I said to myself, âSelf, I donât have to listen to this shit,â and my shoulder companions and I left. Instead of forcing myself to hear this verbal abuse, I could be listening to much higher quality (and more original!) work from one of your more conscious feminine peers, like Karma Rivera, Vytell, or the Last Artful, Dodgr.
In Portland the standard is the same as it is anywhere else: Womenâespecially women of color and/or members of LGBTQ communitiesâhave to be twice (probably more like thrice) as good as most of their cis male counterparts to get booked and recognized. The result is that Portlandâs hip-hop scene is overwhelmingly dominated by men, many of whom are honestly pretty mediocre.
There are so few women in Portland hip-hop right now that I can name a good 97 percent of them. I asked Blossom, arguably one of the most-booked women in town, for her thoughts on misogyny within our local scene.
âNo complaints whatsoever about the men in this industry I have worked with,â says Blossom. âItâs just frustrating to work extremely hard and promote and push a message that is in no way sexual, to still be DMâd, Facebooked, or texted to âcome thruâ.... Nah.â
Luckily, Blossom notes that women in the game are starting to get the respect they deserve. âEveryoneâs kind of coming out of hiding and asserting their confidence in themselves and their talent,â she says. âMore people are realizing the game is genderless and anyone can kill it. This is our space, too.â
I tend to agree with Blossom. Have I heard some ignorant perspectives from male hip-hop artists and fans on social media? Absolutely. Do rappers sometimes flirt with me in futile attempts to push their music into the news cycle? You bet your ass! But in general, I feel like the musicians in Portlandâs community have good intentions and at least try to be self-aware. Our city is also relatively tolerant of the LGBTQ community, so it makes perfect sense that our scene is, too.
Though Blossom says she mainly only listens to hip-hop when she wants to dance or ârelease aggression,â she points out that itâs much stickier to reconcile when an artist is problematic IRL, not just in their music.
âI have a harder time separating my love of an artistâs music from their offensive personal life,â she says. Hear, hear! When itâs behavior thatâs damaging to women, queer, and trans people, I simply wonât support it. However, despite their anti-gay rhetoric IRL, I do enjoy Migosâ track âBad and Boujee.â And Iâve been known to bump a good portion of Chris Brownâs catalog, even though heâs proven to be a violent stalker (pray for Karrueche). But you wonât see me at Brownâs The Party Tour (with 50 Cent, O.T. Genasis, Fabolous, and Kap G) at the Moda Center this May. Because fuck them niggas. They can keep the few cents they get every time I ashamedly listen to âLoyalâ on Spotify, but what they wonât get is my fangirling.
Iâm not going to just cancel every male rapper whoâs not fully woke about gender and sexuality, because I know that takes time. As a magical Black woman, I plan to âgo highâ like Michelle Obama saysâIâll hold our community to a high standard, but Iâll also be forgiving and strong at the same damn time. (However, Chris Brown and other O.J. Simpson types will continue to be cancelled.)
The truth is I donât want to drag you niggas. I just want yâall to do better in the Trump era and to stop talking down to the women who support the fuck out of your careers. As BeyoncĂ© says at the end of Lemonade: âPull me back together again the way you cut me in half. Make the woman in doubt disappear.â If you donât, there are plenty of âfemalesâ (as you like to call us) who are more than deserving of my full support and cover charge.
All that being said, please know that any criticism of my own community is not an invitation for ignorant hip-hop critics to come at me sideways. If youâre not a fan of hip-hop because you think itâs misogynistic, then I highly recommend listening to Chance the Rapper or Lizzo. Or just mind your business, and worry about gathering your own people.