University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository English Faculty Publications English 2001 "Hair Drama" on the Cover of "Vibe" Magazine Bertram D. Ashe University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/english-faculty-publications Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Music Commons, and the Race and Ethnicity Commons Recommended Citation Ashe, Bertram D. ""Hair Drama" on the Cover of "Vibe" Magazine." Race, Gender & Class Journal 8, no. 3 (2001): 64-77. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Race, Gender 6 C lass: Volume 8, Number4, 2001 (64-77) Race, Gender & Class Website:www.suno.edu/sunorgc/ "Hair Drama" on the Cover of Vibe Magazine Bertram D. Ashe, English College of the Holy Cross Abstract:This studyconsists of a culturalreading of the cover photograph of the June-July 1999 issue of Vibe magazine. It explores the relationship between Mase, an African-Americanmale rap star, and thethree anonymous African-American femalemodels that surround him. The studyinterprets the cover through the long, straightenedhair of the models,locating the models' hair in a historically- informedcontext of blackhair theory and practice. The studyargues that the models' presenceon thecover, particularly their "bone straight and long" hair, "enhances"Mase in much the same way breast-augmented"trophy women" "enhance"their mates. Ultimately,the studyencourages and validatesa wide varietyof black hair styles- includingstraightening - even as it urges the acceptanceof black hair as a sitewhere the demonstration ofthe struggle for black consciousness(however one exhibitsthat consciousness on his or herhead) can be observed. Keywords: African-Americanhair, hip hop culture,African American music, beauty BertramD. Ashe is AssistantProfessor of English and Directorof the African AmericanStudies Programat the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts.He has publishedin AfricanAmerican Review and Signifying), ' Sanctifyinand Slam Dunking : A Readerin African American Expressive Culture , 9 andhas articles forthcoming inAfrican American Review and Makin Whoopi: The Paradoxthat is WhoopiGolberg. "Hair Drama" is froma manuscripttitled Hair, Hoops, andJazz: Explorations in African American Expressive Culture . Address: EnglishDepartment, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01610- 2395. Ph: (508) 793-2497,Fax: (508) 793-2601. " "Hair Drama on theCover of Vibe Magazine 65 The Vibeissue arrived wrapped in cellophane,the warning screaming at me: "Your subscriptionis at ... THE END; unless you send us your renewalinstructions now!" torethe plastic away. As faras I'm concerned,my "instructions" are to letit end,and I probablyshould have endedit sooner. No doubt, I readingVibe is an excellentway to keepup withhip hop culture;I beganmy subscription with the first issue, volume one, number one. ButI've got youngkids in thehouse. I'd growntired long ago ofhaving to eitherhide or rip the coveroff the magazine everymonth - mychildren aren't ready for nearly nakedJanet Jackson, Toni Braxton,and Lil' Kim covers,if they'll ever be. This lastissue, though, pretty much did it forme. Now I'm trulythrough. ThisJune- July, 1999 issuehas not one but three bikini-clad young women on thecover. And it isn'tso muchtheir visible skin that grabs my attention. It's theirhair. In frontof a tealbackground the rapper Mase, wearinga RalphLauren t-shirtand visibletattoos, stands in theright-middle of the cover gazing up at me. Strategicallydraped around him are threelight-brown young African- American women,each with breast-length straight hair. Completing the image is a platinum pendantdangling from a platinumchain around Mase's neck. The pendant,about thesize of a toddler'sfist and restingan equal distancefrom each woman'sface and hair,appears to be a blackhead wearinga knithat, from under which flows evenmore long hair. Intentionallyor not,Marc Baptiste,noted photographer, drawsa peculiarconnection between the long-haired, inanimate piece of jewelry wornby Mase and thethree long-haired women who almost seem to be "worn"by Mase as well. The coverblurb? "Don't Hate Because theLadies Love Mase." I shakemy head. These,apparently, are "theLadies." I'm standingin myfoyer, a fewsteps from the mailbox, trying to figureout exactly what it is that bothersme so muchabout this cover. I flipbackwards through the issue as I walk to thekitchen table and sinkslowly into a seat,the same way I do when I've openeda letterfrom home in thehallway and getengrossed in itby the time I sit down. But thisis no letterfrom home. Inside,I movefrom back to front,past reviewsand advertisements,past a vacuousBritney Spears "beauty secrets" page, pasta photolay-out featuring actors from HBO's prison-blockseries OZ, onlyto stopstock still at a coupleof arresting, one-two punch images of Treach of the rap groupNaughty By Nature. One shotcaptures him in all hisbald-headed, tattooed, thick-muscledglory (the page lay-outcompletes the image withtop-to-bottom " 66 "Hair Drama on theCover of Vibe Magazine linksof chainrunning down theleft side of thepage) (Diehl, 1999:112). The other photo is a black-and-white,head-and-chest shot of Treach wearinga startlingblack leather face-mask; one penetratingeye is exposed(1 10). In this photohe is flankedby his boysfrom Naughty By Nature,Kay Gee and Vinnie, who are lookingseriously and intentlyinto the cameraover each of Treach's shoulders.The darknessof the photo is palpable. I flipbackward just one page, and there'sa full-colorphoto of Mase, clean-cutand dressedin whitefrom head to toe,one eye-browarched in classic ain't-I-cutefashion (Diehl, 1999:108). The lightnessof this photo is remarkable- particularlywhen contrasted with the "treacherous" image awaiting the reader on thenext page. The restof the photos accompanying the Mase storyinclude the threewomen from the cover.They're wearing different outfits, but the same amountof skinis exposed,and theposed positionsare similarto thoseon the cover. It occursto me thatin muchthe same way Vinnie and Kay Gee heighten Treach's"dangerous" identity, part of the reasonthese three women surround Mase is to projectMase's identityas theman ladies love to love. The difference is thatKay Gee and Vinniespin and rap behind frontman Treach; they have their ownidentities, however subordinate they are to Treach's. These women wrapped aroundMase arenameless and mute. In theabsence of any contextual personality, theirskin color, expressions, and, especially, hair, "speak" for them. I don'tlike whatI'm hearing. It is a case of"women's bodies as objectsof consumption," writes Tricia Rose,in Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culturein ContemporaryAmerica (1994:169). "The aesthetichierarchy of the female body in mainstream American culture,"Rose explains,"positions many black womensomewhere near the bottom"( 1 68). Andhip hop, "like other contemporary popular music, has become a highlyvisual genre that depends on video[and photographic] representations to authenticatethe performer' s ghetto roots and rough exterior," writes Robin Kelley. "In a worldof larger-than-life B-boys surrounded by a chaoticurban backdrop, thereare few spaces for women outside the realm of hypermasculinity" (1997:70). Andyet, Rose argues, "we cannot escape the reality of black women's complicity" in displayssuch as thisVibe cover. "In a widevariety of videos, photos, and other aspectsof creative production and marketing,women who are called 'hotties'or morederogatorily 'video ho's' or 'skeezers'are willingparticipants in theirown exploitation." Rose quotes Carmen Ashhurst-Watson,president of Rush Communications,as saying,"we neverhave any difficultyfinding women to appearin thevideos." One producertold Rose thathe keeps"'hottie files' with thevital statistics of innumerable young women, so thatone can be locatedat the dropof a hat"(169). So are thesewomen on thisVibe photo shoot from someone's "hottie " " Hair Drama on theCover of Vibe Magazine 67 files"? Thereare severalmore photos of Mase and thewomen, posed in various "glamorous"positions. The modelsare clearly playing a role. Butof what? I flip backto thecover. JoanMorgan, in Black IssuesBook Review , calls womenlike thesemodels "chickenheads," saying, "It's a mistakefor women to act likeerotic poweris [their]only available power source" (Chideya & Morgan, 1999:46). Morgansays it's importantthat young women understand that the "glamorized sexuality"portrayed on magazinecovers and musicvideos "is notultimately the wayto playthe game and win." These "chickenheads"think "if I wearmy skirt up tothere and myhair down to here, [Sean] Puffy[Combs] will come and whisk me offin a Learjet," says Morgan. "The younggirls I have interviewedweren't completelyclueless," she emphasizes, "but young girls are so male-identified.. ." (46). That'sit, I realize. The "male-identified"aspect of these young women in thephoto wafts off the page likea foulscent. Vibe's editors seem to have posed thesewomen around Mase to havemales identify with Mase, evenas thewomen appear"male-identified" themselves. Both sides ofthe representation appear to foldinto the male gaze. (And it getsdeeper: when I sharedan earlierversion of thisessay withmy