Hip hop Feminism and Failure

Abstract

A few years ago, I attended a hip hop conference at a revered university on the East Coast. The final panel of the evening featured a number of prominent writers, scholars, and activists, each presenting important research at the nexus of hip hop and social justice. The session was riveting, as the presenters dissected the prison industrial complex, hip hop and human rights discourse, issues of commoditization and cultural appropriation, and a host of other topics. After the discussion, I joined a few of the speakers at a nearby restaurant and lounge for drinks. As we settled into a corner near the bar, sipping ginger ale and other libations, 50 Cent’s “Disco Inferno” blared in the background. The age range of my cohort spanned roughly twenty years, and to the best of my knowledge, none of them held 50 in especially high esteem as a lyricist. “Socially conscious” does not begin to describe the attitude of the group; again, the presenters live at the intersection of hip hop education and activism. But everyone hypnotically nodded his or her heads as the chorus hummed, “do ya thing like there ain’t nothin’ to it/ shake, sh-sh-shake that ass girl.” This essay addresses hip hop feminist failure and frustration. Much feminist analysis rightly focuses on those who remain hostile to antisexist activism, and the deep institutional roots of male supremacy and heteronormativity. Since the publication of Joan Morgan’s When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip hop Feminist Breaks it Down (1999), a number of writers, scholars, and activists have claimed the “hip hop feminist” label and added to the intellectual tradition.1 Members of this group assert themselves as part of the hip hop generation(s) or lovers of hip hop who are committed to combating sexism without condemning all hip hop cultures as fundamentally sexist and socially toxic. The disjuncture between traditional (white bourgeois) feminist theory and personal experience lies at the core of Morgan’s text. This essay moves one generational step forward, attending to the challenges of melding the theory, lived experience, a commentary