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Misogyny in Hip-Hop: "Take it Personal"

© Steve Juon

Keith Elam, the rapper known as "Guru" from the hip-hop group Gangstarr, was arrested in Long Island, New York on the 25th of March. He is alleged to have committed second degree assault on a female friend who accused him of being hypocritical for dating white women. This is an allegation that would be easier to make against Hieroglyphics crew member Del the Funky Homosapien, who rather bluntly wrote "Dark skin girls are better than light skinned" on his debut album; but nonetheless Guru apparently imitated the motto of one of Gangstarr's more popular songs and decided to "Take it Personal".

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Hip-hop's history has often been marred by incidents which go beyond the often misogynistic lyrics. Many of us remember that N.W.A.'s (now-solo) Dr. Dre beat up "Sister Dee" Barnes from the rap video show _Pump It Up_ for allegedly dissing N.W.A. during a show. The diss in question never occured, although the show's editors did juxtapose some N.W.A. clips with some Ice Cube clips, who was engaged in a war of words with his former crew. For his assault, Dre plead guilty to a lesser charge and agreed to probation and community service; in addition to a public service announcement commercial condemning violence against women.

Many people have often tried to excuse the misogyny of hip-hop as only words; to some extant the point is valid but it by turn makes obvious that the underlying hip-hop culture that music comes from has some very misogynistic tendencies. Few would say that anybody ever "slapped a hoe" because of a Too $hort song, but many would argue that hip-hop culture condones this behavior regardless. In some sense, this is a reflection of the even larger problems American culture faces with patriarchal domination and an attitude of "machismo" (the more male, the better).

This article should not be taken as a blame of hip-hop which is singling out artists like Guru and Dr. Dre for criticism. The reason these artists are noteworthy is rather that we are singularly shocked that such otherwise positive role models (Guru raps about conciousness and stopping street violence, Dre owns his own record label) would commit such bizarre acts. Have we in hip-hop been negligent in our attitudes towards females? Have we condoned misogyny by not speaking out when it takes place? Do we create an environment which encourages such otherwise positive people to commit negative acts against women simply for being women?

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