Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2005 Schoolin' women: hip hop pedagogies of black women rappers Nichole Ann Guillory Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Guillory, Nichole Ann, "Schoolin' women: hip hop pedagogies of black women rappers" (2005). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 173. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/173 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. SCHOOLIN’ WOMEN: HIP HOP PEDAGOGIES OF BLACK WOMEN RAPPERS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Curriculum and Instruction by Nichole Ann Guillory B.S., Louisiana State University, 1993 M.Ed., University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 1998 May 2005 ©Copyright 2005 Nichole Ann Guillory All Rights Reserved ii For my mother Linda Espree and my grandmother Lovenia Espree iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am humbled by the continuous encouragement and support I have received from family, friends, and professors. For their prayers and kindness, I will be forever grateful. I offer my sincere thanks to all who made sure I was well fed—mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I would not have finished this program without my mother’s constant love and steadfast confidence in me. I cannot capture in words the extraordinary-ness of her heart, spirit, strength, and courage. Throughout my life, and especially during this doctoral program, she has made countless sacrifices—big and small—for my happiness. I am truly honored to be Linda Espree’s daughter. I thank my grandmother Lovenia Espree for teaching me that greatness is measured in how many times a woman picks herself up after a struggle and moves forward to face another day. I am especially grateful for my life partner Jerome Bennett, who helped me to survive the daily ups and downs of writing a dissertation. He gave me exactly what I needed to write: love, laughter, reassurance, and hope. I look forward to writing the next chapter of our life together. I thank my cousin Elizabeth Fontenot Richardson for her phone calls and emails of encouragement. The goodness of my Aunt Betty lives in her. I extend my appreciation to my other-mothers: Lucille Woodard, my favorite “aunt”; Easter Bennett, the world’s best mother-in-law; and Maude Minnis, my newest other-mother. They are all wise women who continue to teach me the value of patience, humility, and faith in God. iv I thank my dear friend Patricia Brazier-Carter for giving me an office with a computer all to myself. They saved my writing. Thanks to Tyler and Tysyn Brazier- Carter who keep me laughing and hopeful. I thank Angela Newman, my neighbor and friend, for lifting my spirits with her thoughtfulness. I thank Melonee Wicker for always making me feel calmer and more confident about writing my dissertation. I thank Tonia Williams-Horton for listening, listening, and more listening. I am very thankful to my LSU family, especially Brian Casemore, Tayari kwa Salaam, and Eugena Whitlock, who served as peer readers, and Lavada Taylor Brandon, Denise Taliaferro Baszile, Hongyu Wang, Pamela Autrey, Al Alcazar, and Donna Trueit. They are a group of brilliant and beautiful human beings. I am also very thankful to my new SU family, especially Mary Robertson, Pat Hebert, Jacqueline Boutté, Doreen Miller, Russell Dawkins, Marilyn Seibert, Samuel Geralds, JoAnn Martin, Preston White, and Rachel Carriere. Their continued support makes me feel at home. I am indebted to Bill Pinar for serving as my major advisor. He has become my most important teacher, helping me to understand myself and my world in more complex ways. I am deeply grateful for his unwavering confidence in me during all phases of my project and for the kindness and concern he has always shown for my well-being. I am also indebted to Elsie Michie for doing much more than just serving on my committee. She has spent a lot of time helping me to become a better writer and thinker, and she knew exactly what to say to help me to move through the most difficult moments of writing this dissertation. I also thank the other members of my committee for their openness to and support of my work: Nina Asher, Becky Ropers-Huilman, Petra Munro, v and Leigh Clemons. I am also thankful to Flo Durway and Jeannine Johnson, my teaching mentors, for supporting me since my student teaching days. Finally, I thank all of my students—past, present, and future—who keep me hopeful about the world and help me to imagine exciting pedagogical spaces. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION...................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................x CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION.......................................................................... 1 Chuck D, William Wordsworth, and Arbor Heights High: The Day (in English class) I Fell In Love With Hip Hop........................................................................................... 1 Mother Audre, Auntie bell, and Cousin Tricia: En-gender-ing My-Selves.................... 4 Bitches, Bling, and BabyMamas: A Contradictory (Hip Hop) Con(Text) ..................... 8 Overview of Study ........................................................................................................ 13 Significance of Study.................................................................................................... 17 Method .......................................................................................................................... 20 The Chapters ................................................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER TWO: WOMEN RAPPERS ENTER THE CURRICULUM CONVERSATION ........................................................................................................... 31 Introduction................................................................................................................... 31 Sound Identities: Popular Music and the Cultural Politics of Education...................... 35 Popular Culture and Critical Pedagogy: Reading, Constructing, Connecting.............. 51 KRS-ONE Going Against the Grain: A Critical Study of Rap Music As A Postmodern Text ............................................................................................................................... 61 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER THREE: REPRESENTIN’ FOR THE LADIES: AN OVERVIEW OF WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN RAP .......................................................................... 75 Introduction................................................................................................................... 75 Pink Flowers, High Heels, and Patriarchy.................................................................... 76 Come(In) Hard.............................................................................................................. 82 “Daughters of the Blues”: Fly Girls, Queens, and Lesbians......................................... 92 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 108 CHAPTER FOUR: FRAMING THE STORIES OF “SWEET MAMAS” AND “BAD SISTAS”: A REVIEW OF TWO CRITIQUES OF BLUES AND RAP WOMEN’S TEXTS ............................................................................................................................ 110 Introduction................................................................................................................. 110 Blues Legacies and Black Feminism .......................................................................... 111 I Used To Be Your Sweet Mama: Ideology, Sexuality, and Domesticity .............. 112 Mama’s Got the Blues: Rivals, Girlfriends, and Advisors ..................................... 116 Here Come My Train: Traveling Themes and Women’s Blues ............................. 122 Blame It On The Blues: Bessie Smith, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, and the Politics of Blues Protest ........................................................................................................... 124 vii Bad Sistas: Black Women Rappers and Sexual Politics in Rap Music ...................... 127 Courting Disaster .................................................................................................... 130 Preeminent Emcees: Who’s the Boss?.................................................................... 139 Express Yourself: Black Women’s Bodies in the Public Sphere ........................... 143 When and Where I Enter: White Feminism and Black Women Rappers............... 153 Conclusion .................................................................................................................