I had mixed feelings towards Drake for a really long time then all of a sudden I heard "Best I Ever Had" and SRSLY HAVE YOU HEARD THAT CHORUS?! It's good. He's obviously kind of an arsehole but I am literally at the stage now where I expect that sort of thing from rappers, male and female. Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim have beef basically because they are both women who rap and are quite good at it so they're not allowed to be pals?! What?! I can't pretend to know a whole lot about hip-hop and RnB but I do like some of it so bear with me here. (Due to my crazy addictive personality every time I hear an artist I like I get a little wound up and need to know everything about them. Mental, sorry.)
The feminist rage issue that I have today basically comes from one single lyric in "Make Me Proud" by Drake and Nicki. There's a whole lot else wrong with the song too but even I don't have the time on my hands to be analysing every word. SO listen to the song first because out of context it might not be as annoying? Maybe it is. Dunno.
Blacked-out chebs on a sculpture... Does this means boobs aren't arty enough to escape censorship?
Now that you've watched that:
"Running on the treadmill and only eating salad"
RUNNING ON THE TREADMILL AND ONLY EATING SALAD.
That makes you proud of a woman? To be so consumed by what she looks like that she doesn't get to eat cake? EVER? That isn't a life, Drake! Come on now!
Nicki's verse (I love her. I would not bring this up if it weren't bothering me) also has it's issues. Liiiiike how she seems to hate women half the time and be talking about pulling 69 of them in others. "All of dem bitches I'm badder than" because she has to compare herself to other women constantly. Even one of her rap alter egos is Barbie which is weird because Barbie is becoming generally accepted as a symbol of all the things that we should never teach little girls. Moving on. And this is the worst bit. THE WORST BIT.
"Baby, if you asked me to take a break, I'd give it all away."
DO I EVEN NEED TO.
Whole song about a successful woman getting her degree and her dolla and whatever and then OH BUT YOU PROBS WANNA BE THE BREADWINNER, YEAH???
For lessons in some more lady-positive rap please see: Tupac "Keep Ya Head Up" (I realise this is something of a one off for Tupac but it's bangin': "Since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman I wonder why we take from our women") and also I am kind of coming to love Iggy Azalea because she hasn't fallen in to either the "femcee" trap of trying to over feminise her music, nor has she gone the other way and tried to deny her gender by ironically rapping about sucking her dick all the time. It's not post-gender or post-racial or whatever, it's just fun and naughty and I genuinely think that she's a well good rapper.
I will now resume being white and European and talking only about things that I know about. Like gin.
No comments:
Post a Comment