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Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Re: Conspiracy Against Smart Female Rappers?

Posted by on January 3 at 17:06 PM

There is nothing I hate more than a sexy, spoken-word sounding rapper. Sex is for singers. Spoken-word is for the gutters. The best hiphop is hardcore hiphop; to be real, you have to sound like a black man who means business, which is exactly why the top female rappers in the 30-year history of hiphop, Heather B and Queen Latifah, are essentially butch lesbians. (Indeed, in the movie Set it Off, Queen Latifah convincingly plays a butch lesbian—the feminization of Queen Latifah after her Black Reign album [1993] ultimately cost hiphop one of its most important voices—“who you calling a bitch?”). The sole exception to this rule is, of course, Roxanne Shante, who didn’t sound sexy like the horrible Roxanne Roxanne, her rival from UTFO, but like a tough boy whose voice is cracking.


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Oh, dear. I can only imagine, Charles, the vitriol you are about to experience for saying female rappers can not be "real" unless they are "essentially butch lesbians."


I suspect the larger portion of the critisicm will take the form of "SALT N PEPPA, DUHHHH?"


I, however, prefer to ignore the many obvious counterexamples which could poke holes in your thesis.


I ask, instead, "what are the cultural roots of this curious creature, who will gladly grant full cultural legitimacy to almost any of the peoples of this earth, yet deny it to black, musical American women (unless they are gay)?"


I had thought, Mr. Mudede, that you had, through your extensive studies, freed yourself of the regrettably many and various strains of African sexism.


I may, of course, be once again reading a narrow western scholar's viewpoint into a perfectly innocent comment, but I must say, it will require rather overwhelming argument to convince me.

at core, rap is a male art form and anyone who thinks otherwise has obviously not been listening to it for the past thirty years. as for salt and pepper, their only real contribution to hiphop was introducing go-go rhythms to the trusty boom bap. this achievement, however, had more to do with herbie luv bug, the group's producer, than the two lady rappers or their dj, spinderella (who, we are reminded, is not a fella).

So, where does Lady Sovereign fit in?

she doesn't, really. Grimester most deserving of a Def Jam deal? Kano.

ah charles, you have such a way of turning a person off ENTIRE GENRES of music. first reggae that sounds like a waterlogged spider, and now this. bah.

Mudede: Loud, Confident & Wrong. Love ya anyway, you Hegel-besotted wino.

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