GWSS blog #2

As I read through The Rise of Seattle Hiphop by Kyle Fleck, there were a few points that caught my attention. Whenever I thought of the Seattle label, Subpop, I always thought of bands like Nirvana and indie bands in Seattle today but I never once questioned if they signed hip hop artists so it was interesting to see that the first hip hop act they signed was only in 2014. This ties back to how Seattle is not necessarily known for hip hop and rather rock instead. But of course there are the two artists that have made themselves widely known, Sir Mix-A-Lot and Macklemore. In my own opinion, I was not a huge fan of Macklemore and felt like his music was a little silly and too close to pop. Fleck states about his stand out track “Thrift Shop”, “The attention it brought to the town’s rap scene was welcome, while the track’s obvious wackness brought no small amount of shame.” Maybe that says something about the way we view hiphop, how it should be hard rather than soft and that we are still trying to change the way we view genres. On the other hand, there is Sir Mix-A-Lot, his song “Baby Got Back” feels like a timeless 90s anthem. But in reality, the song sexualizes women into an object and again emphasizes the toxic masculinity men obtain. It is just another popular song known to many that influences how male artists write today and the topics they use. This does not take away from Nicki Minaj’s remake in 2014, “Anaconda”, and how she made a platform for women to feel confident. This leads into the theme behind hip hop feminism and the article The State Hip Hop Feminism Built by Aisha Durham, Brittney C. Cooper and Susana M. Morris. As hip hop has evolved over the years, we have gained more female artists of color finally receiving national recognition for their work. In the article they discuss how hip hop feminism has tackled pro-sex issues among artists of color, they go on to write, “This framework involves coming up with language to talk about both the pleasure and pain of sex and sexuality outside a singular heteropatriarchal lens while also looking at the nexus of hierarchal structures that shape our sexual selves.”(724) Like Minaj’s remake, “Anaconda”, hip hop feminism today has allowed a freedom of expression for female bodies and to get out of heteronormative ideations in American instead of men in the past writing about them as objects and as if they belong to them. 

I am selecting Cash Shit by Megan Thee Stallion because she embodies a powerful female that cannot be bothered by men who try to be with her. Also I am choosing Cyber Sex by Doja Cat at she discusses the ins and out of online dating and sex in her own words empowering a pro-sex stance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xe7OAFljOA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDr9hRJqPX4