ABSTRACT
If you were to construct an image of rap music via accounts of rap in the established press, you would (besides betraying limited critical instincts about popular culture) probably perceive rap to reflect the violent, brutally sexist reality of a pack of wilding “little Willie Hortons.”1 Consequently, you would wonder what a group of young black women rappers were doing fraternizing with these male rappers and why they seemed to be having such a good time. If I were to suggest that their participation in rap music produced some of the most important contemporary black feminist cultural criticism, you would surely bemoan the death of sexual equality. As Public Enemy’s Chuck D has warned regarding the mainstream press, “Don’t believe the hype.” Sexism in rap has been gravely exaggerated by the mainstream press. Rap is a rich, complex multifaceted African-American popular form whose male practitioners’ style and subject matter includes the obsessive sexism of a 2 Live Crew, the wacky parody of Biz Markie, the “edutainment” of Boogie Down Productions, the gangster-style storytelling of Ice Cube, the gritty and intelligent speed rapping of Kool Moe Dee, and the explicit black nationalism of X-Clan. Women rappers are vocal and respected members of the Hip Hop community, and they have quite a handle on what they are doing.
