How can you ever reconcile a love of Hip-Hop with feminism?

[BeastlieBoys]

There are groups out there (Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul - all golden oldies) who didn't feel the need to be bitching and ho'ing all over the place but I have to admit that I still like a dance to some of the worst offenders such as Busta Rhymes et al.

I have loved the music since I first heard Ice-T sample Curtis Mayfield on Superfly (and it inspired me to dig back and discover artists like Curtis etc) aged 13 and I still love it now 21 years later.

But morally and intellectually so much of it offends me on two levels:

(a) the revolting attitude to women displayed in a lot of the music; (not to mention the videos - the most recent posting about Kanye West's Monster video on YouTube was extremely repugnant - now for a woman to be of interest they have to be dead apparently); and
(b) the stereotype it perpetuates of black people and particularly black men (gun-toting gangsta) which I think is damaging for the black community as a whole

But what do you do? I long for the good old days (SugarHill Gang) when it was all (good-natured) bragaddocio about who had the best rhymes but it looks like that time has past. I no longer spend money on artists that are anti-women, doesn't stop me liking a lot of tunes that if you listen to the words are just dire and reprehensible.

Flame away if you need to. Have namechanged and am not just posting to be 'controversial' - I just wondered whether there was anyone in the same boat out there and if so, what do you do? Have been thinking about it a lot recently (more so because my DS is 1 and we play and dance to music a lot and I am VERY careful with my choices)

I know where you're coming from, I like a lot of that music but the anti woman stuff is just awful. I don't 'do' anything about it particularly though I suppose I don't tend to buy their music but then, I don't buy music much anyway. I don't have children so don't have the added guilt of polluting young minds yet!

I would say firstly not to actually buy the music, so your money isn't going towards funding more sexist crap. Secondly, say to whoever's listening with you, particularly children, 'I love this tune, but aren't the lyrics vile!?' and tell them why.

I have this same issue.

I have 'sort of' decided that I am allowed to enjoy it for the sake of the music rather than the lyrics, in the same way that I don't censor swearing in this type of music for the DCs. It is part of popular culture and it doesn't go away by our burying our heads in the sand/bleeping out expletives. A lot of parents might think that wrong of me, but rap didn't teach my DS to say fuck for sure.

So, by the same token I don't think rap or hip hop will make mysoginists of my boys.

Whether it is appropriate to 'fund' such artistic expression is another matter.

And I would let my children read Enid Blyton...added in with a large dose of context from myself!

Agree with dittany, it's music and the music industry reflects society as a whole, where sexist views have always been pretty welcome. I would agree that not paying money towards people you know are bastards is good. Also supporting artists that aren't bastards, and women artists, must be a good thing. I had to choose a load of hiphop music for a playlist once and went with one simple rule: no-one who is known to have beaten up or raped a woman to be played.

I agree with Dittany (never thought I'd write that sentence ) think rap music singled out and identified as misogynist unfairly.

There is plenty of feminist or pro women rap as well - Salt N Pepa / Ms Dynamite (can't think of any more recent - I ain't down with the kids)

There are a lot of hip hop artists whose songs are not like that. What's funny though is that sometimes music artists who do can still come out with pretty deep songs like this one

Agree with the pps - I don't want to pay towards perpetuating the ridiculousness of the gangsta. But I do love hip hop.

Have you ever heard this?

I love love love that track. That's a version without music (though kick ass) the best one is a remix by ninja tunes which is amazing - annoyingly not on YouTube but is on spotify/iTunes.

Also I listen to quite a bit of uk hip hop as they are not quite so bad. Tricky's new stuff is pretty good and I haven't heard a bitch yet!