The female MC. She exists. I know she does. I've seen her at my local open mic. I've seen her on cheesy reality shows. I've heard her on college and independent radio. I've seen her at female MC showcases. I've read her flows on web cyphers. I've seen her on My Space. But how come I don't hear her on KMEL or see her video on MTV or BET? Yeah, I can catch some out dated joint by Lil' Kim or Foxy Brown and Lauryn Hill's flows never get old, but, where is the new generation of female MCs?
It's a man's world. I get this. Men run and ruin this world at their will. Women clean up the mess, however that may manifest itself. Hip Hop, the progressive counter-culture that we may be, still subscribes to sexist values that choke the female MCs voice. The male dominated industry of Hip Hop still lacks faith in the female MC.
A few weeks ago I was at a function when a few men started to talk about Hip Hop. This issue having been on my mind for awhile now prompted me to tell the men that there are no new female MCs on the radio and quite frankly Hip Hop, the industry, doesn't seem to give a hoot. The response, by one Bay Area MC, was "Who gives a shit? If there were females dope enough to be heard, they would be." His response angered me. There are most certainly female MCs trying to be heard who are dope enough to be put on. And there are most certainly wack male MCs getting breaded out for spitting garbage!
One might say that just like the women's liberation struggle, only women can uplift women. Thus, the responsibility of putting female MCs into the mainstream falls on the shoulders of women. But the truth is that the heads of major labels, major radio stations are not women. The labels are run by men. It's a man's world.
So, just like with the women's struggle for equality, the challenge to put talented female MCs into the mainstream, requires that men join our cause. If the same ol' cookie cutter gangster, ride or die female MC is what the mainstream allows for, why haven't we had a new one of those in few years? What's the problem?
The entertainment biz is cutthroat. It's musical chairs, there's never enough room for everybody to play. If you are trying to blow up as an MC, the threat that the next MC will take your spot is real, and can happen at any given moment. The public fan base is wishy-washy and easily distracted, often only offering unconditional loyalty after your dead and gone. Investment into an MC can be risky. But with no female MCs to speak of, why not take the leap? Why not offer up something new to a male gangster MC saturated radio line up? Isn't that why Lil' Wayne gave us Drake or why T-Pain resurrected the auto-tune, to come new? The same shit over and over gets played out, that's why T-Pain's auto-tune craze is already falling off.
I am a grown woman. I have kids to raise. The truth is a pain I need in order to arm my children for the real world. The reality that it's a man's world doesn't distract me from other truths, such as, women have the right to be heard, even if it unsettles their men's world.
The truth is that a crop of female MCs to shake up the game would be both a wise financial and cultural investment into the future of Hip Hop. Let's step our game up!
Can white boys and girls have white pride? Can they celebrate themselves and their history as a people in an authentic manner? What can whites as a people be proud of? When will whites, as a people, be free from the stigma of white supremacy? Never?
The fatalities of white supremacy falls over the globe and manifested itself throughout history in the form of American Slavery, The Holocaust, The War with Iraq, caste systems, and all the previous and current physical and political colonizations we have created globally.
At this point in history, white American youth are the most privileged youth in the United States, even if the playing field is being leveled through human evolution. Turn on MTV, VH1, Bravo, the Disney Channel, any channel with youth or pop culture at the forefront and there are still very few to no women of color with major roles. And the casts are still being filled with white/light skin.
Today I turned on a liberal radio talk show, the host was cutting down a conservative caller who was being racist, kicking him off the air. I turned instantly to Sean Hannity's radio show and they too were talking race. As I suspected. What I heard from my conservative brethren was fear. And while I can appreciate the basic instinct for survival as natural, I cannot grasp why white supremacists are so damn scared.
And this is where I go back to the white legacy. Growing up "white" in America means that you inherit a legacy (or social status) that is institutionally privileged, but when in turn looked at in depth, is morally inferior. Even if as a child growing up you don't fully grasp this, eventually, upon enlightenment, you will have to choose to deny this truth (i.e.: that your ability to claim "white" is perpetuated through suffering by others) and live in either a negative or benevolent ignorance or you will choose to embrace this truth and work to eradicate the consequences of such immorality practiced for so many centuries.
Racial identity is obviously very personal and very political. I was conversing with two good friends, one black and one white, both males. While the white male was not a white supremacist, meaning he did not believe he was superior to black people because he was white, when discussing racial hierarchy and how it was realized in American capitalist society, he failed to see how his "whiteness" put him in a socially privileged position and denied any responsibility for perpetuating white supremacy, purposefully or otherwise (a truth I've seen many white people struggle to accept). In fact, he was angry that myself and the other gentleman were labeling him as privileged. This conversation continued for two or three more days and eventually the two men's friendship was strained. The black friend could not look past his white friend's ignorance.
Unlike my white male counterpart in the paragraph previous, discussing the fatality of whiteness is not new to me nor does it make me uncomfortable except for the fact that I, as a white person, feel an urgent responsibility to eradicate white supremacy due to the suffering that it has caused my fellow human beings. I was lucky to have clarity in this matter at a young age. Many white youth, from the past and still in the present, are not so lucky.
It seems that white youth, including myself, whom embrace the inclusiveness of Hip Hop do so because it allows us to step outside of whiteness. It's like a kid who tells their seemingly oppressive parent they "didn't ask to be born." I, a white kid, didn't ask to be white. When I was born, society put me this label upon me. I don't want people to suffer so I can have socio-economic superiority. I want people to thrive even if that means I have to sacrifice my unearned privileges obtained through a fatal system of white supremacy.
My generation of progressives, of all racial identities, did not expose the truth nor the consequences of a brutal American racial hierarchy, but we did make the choice to work against it at the highest and most public levels of community. In fact our revolutionary stance manifested itself into a global culture: Hip Hop.
The positive impact that Hip Hop has created for race relations is quite profound. In fact, it's impact, much like feminism and the civil rights struggles of the past, is now taken for granted by a younger generation, our kids! However, white Hip Hop heads, when confronted with their whitness still resist the truth. (Scroll down to my past article about MC Serch and Sage Francis).
And this brings me back to those white kids growing up in Hip Hop. What will white pride mean to them?
