Women in Rap Music Stylistic Choices As Acts of Defiance Or Compliance? Baby Blue
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Feature Women in rap Amplify Dot appearing at Wireless Festival In the male dominated world of rap music female performers are often presumed to have feminist intentions. Kate Moore’s analysis of 10 contemporary male and female British artists aims to determine whether this was the case. Women in rap music Stylistic choices as acts of defiance or compliance? Baby Blue Babel The Language Magazine | February 2014 29 Feature Women in Rap “They say that he real cos he say what he feels” Blade Brown, In your dreams ap is one of the most popular yet controversial genres of music to emerge in the 20th century. In Rthe 1970s a youth movement which became known as hip-hop developed in the Bronx region of New York City, comprising many different art forms, one being rap music. Stereotypically rap has been seen as the music of black, inner city male youth. The controversy surrounding rap comes from the fact it is seen to promote a way of life in which crime and extreme violence is normalised. Adding to the sea of controversy was the emergence of a sub genre in the 1990s known as ‘gangsta rap’ which, along with tales of violence and crime is also overtly misogynistic and homophobic. However the popularity has continued to rise in the 21st century, receiving huge amounts of airplay on both Ms Dynamite mainstream radio stations and often used in the performances Style and identity television music channels across of black male rap artists. Style is a key concept in the world. However my analysis also sociolinguistics and early It is a genre that is looks at a number of different definitions suggested that style frequently associated with linguistic resources and how they was influenced by contextual hyper-masculinity, with lyrics are combined in order to create factors, such as the formality promoting sexist attitudes and a unique identity for female of setting. For example, a job even violence towards women. rappers. interview setting might invite I am interested in how female the interlocutors to use a more artists use linguistic resources, Jamaican Creole Patois standard accent and formal such as lyrics and pronunciation, A Creole is a language style. Other work suggests that in order to forge a female identity originally derived from two style (in the form of accent or amid misogynistic rap culture. or more already existing dialect) is used by speakers in I am particularly interested languages. Jamaican Creole order to associate themselves in features of the female has its origins in slavery, with a group of people they performers’ language that could which resulted in many wish to identify with. These be classified as variants of the languages coming into definitions initially appear Jamaican Creole Patois; previous contact. It was brought to relevant when analysing the research has found it to be an the UK mainly in the 1950s pronunciation of artists during accent and dialect frequently due to mass migration. their performances. We could associated with masculinity and suggest that female rappers 30 Babel The Language Magazine | February 2014 Feature Women in Rap Variant found six female artists and four dentals with either /t/ or /d/ as male artists whose work was opposed to Standard English If there is more than one appropriate for this analysis. The /ð/ or /θ/. This means that possible pronunciation of female artists I analysed in this words such as ‘thing’ would be a sound we say there is a study are Lady Leshurr, RoxXxan, pronounced ‘ting’ and ‘that’ linguistic variable. Each Amplify Dot, Baby Blue, Lioness would be pronounced ‘dat. possible pronunciation is called a variant. and Mz Bratt. The male artists Another two variants of word included in the study are initial dentals are also possible Variationist Research Sneakbo, Blade Brown, Skepta in the performance of all but Research which looks into and Youngs Teflon. Despite one of the artists; these are /f/ the differences which the focus of the study being on or the deletion of the dental occur in the speech of female artists, it was important altogether. This means ‘three’ people who speak the same to analyse the work of their could be pronounced ‘free’ and languages. For example male contemporaries in order ‘them’ could be pronounced differences between to see how a male identity was ‘em’. The pronunciation of word genders, geographical projected, and how this differed initial /f/ as opposed to /θ/ has locations, ethnicities. (if at all) from the projection of been documented in another a female identity. Among the study regarding pronunciation in popular music, with the indie rock band from Sheffield, Arctic Monkeys, using the pronunciation in their song ‘Mardy Bum’. It is not surprising that both urban rap artists from London are using this variant along with northern indie artists, as the variant has frequently been documented as a ‘youth’ feature which is spreading across the country. This means that for the rappers analysed it is possible to use variants which can be classified as Standard English, Patois and ‘youth’. Stylistically Lady Leshurr – Female rappers may not rap about being the boss, but they wear it on their T-shirt this is interesting as it suggests that variants are used creatively use Patois variants in their many strategies used by female by performers, and are not just performances because Patois is artists during their performance a result of appropriateness to appropriate within the rap genre, to participate in rap culture their the genre or an attempt to align and they are trying to identify use of Patois, dialogism and themselves with a certain group; themselves with male rappers, as naming terms stood out. this is clear from the wide range rap and masculinity seem to be of variables used by each artist. intrinsically linked. “We run tings” The highest users of Patois The majority of previous I analysed each artist’s variants are two female artists. research into linguistic variation performance in order to This goes against much previous in popular music performances identify variants that could be work in sociolinguistics which has focussed on all-white, classed as the Jamaican Creole suggests that women use more all-male samples and research Patois. Despite there being standard forms than men in into rap music has focussed on many possible Patois variants the case of variables which are American artists. Therefore I available to each artist, only few not undergoing change. One analyse the lyrics of female, black variants actually appear in the explanation for this finding may British rap artists. Using the performances. By far the most be that because rap is heavily video sharing website YouTube commonly used variable by both marked as a male genre, female along with a popular website male and female performers is artists use Patois variants as a for urban culture ‘grmdaily’, I the production of word initial way to appear more masculine Babel The Language Magazine | February 2014 31 Feature Women in Rap is not simply borrowing the original meaning of the words, but recontextualising the lyric in order to create new meaning whilst simultaneously working within the larger discourse of rap music as a genre. One song I analysed was Rock the Mic performed by a group of six female artists, the main refrain being “la di da di, we likes to party, we don’t cause no trouble we don’t bother no body”. These lyrics were taken from the song Lodi Dodi by the famous American rap artist Snoop Dog. The male rapper Blade Brown aligns himself with a significant hip-hop artist, Alpo in his song In your Dreams: “Throwing money, popping bottles, feeling like Alpo”. Here we can see dialogism is being used by male and female artists in order to associate themselves with prominent artists in the hip-hop genre, “I’m badder than a boy named Diddy, run the city either by mentioning them by like a unit led by Fi’ty” name or by reusing their lyrics. RoxXxan as part of the Female All Stars, Roc the mic In the song Rock the Mic the female artists celebrate their skill and power as rappers with lines in in an attempt to define each performer, whether they are such as “I’m astounding the flows themselves as credible and male or female. cold” or “Females in the thing got authentic rap artists. I found to accept it”. The use of the lyric that male and female artists History repeating itself from Lodi Dodi highlights the only used Patois on a partial Another recurrent feature I inherent problem for female hip- basis, and stuck to features found in the songs analysed, hop artists attempting to project which were easily usable and including those by male artists, is a strong female image. Lodi Dodi recognisable as Patois. For the use of dialogism. Dialogism is was produced by the prominent example artists occasionally used a concept first introduced by the American producer and rap artist copula deletion, which means Russian philosopher and literary Dr Dre, who publically assaulted the verb “to be” is missing from critique Michael Bakhtin, and female rapper Dee Barnes, not a sentence, therefore instead essentially means that everything to mention his reputation for of “we have been running this is understood in the context domestic violence. thing so long” we get “we [ ] of a greater whole, which leads running this thing so long”, to ‘meaning’ being constantly “I spit bars like a beast, which is a feature of Patois often renegotiated. Dialogism occurs that’s my mojo” stereotyped and commented on in rap when an artist references by prescriptivists.