Hip Hop Wars: Chap 7 Overview/Critique

Chapter 7 of Hip Hop Wars critiques the argument that “Hip hop is not responsible for sexism.”  Tricia Rose uses some quotes and breaks the argument down into 6 points.  These points are as follows: “1) society is sexist, 2) artists should be free to express themselves, 3) rappers are unfairly singled out, 4) we should be tackling the problem at the root, 5) listening to harsh realities gives us a road map, and 6) sexual insults are deleted from radio and video airplay.”    Rose points out that none of these arguments actually address the issue of sexism, and explains how this makes these claims false, but more so unproductive.  With the first point, hip-hop’s defenders claim that sexism is a “deep-seated problem” in the U.S.  While this may be true, it doesn’t make it acceptable that artists promote sexism.  The second point is mostly used by record companies’ heads.  This defense is that artists have freedom of expression.  This, however, is a conundrum, because record companies themselves constrict artists to only use subjects that they deem profitable.  The third point is a childish, “Oh, why me?” defense, claiming rappers are singled out.  It’s impossible for rappers not to be singled out, though, since they are the only musicians with whom this issue is such an integral part of their music.  The fourth defense, that people should ignore sexism in hip-hop and tackle the problem at the root, simply ignores the issue altogether.  Just because hip-hop does not represent the origination of sexism does not mean it wouldn’t benefit society if such representations of women were eliminated.  Rose says that the fifth point, that it gives a “road map,” makes no sense, and I totally agree with her.  To where is promoting sexism taking us?  She further explains through a few quotes that this means that using sexism can successfully and meaningfully educate or represent poor black people.  However, it puts black women down, so how does it help at all?  And lastly, the pointless argument that radio and TV bleep out “bitches and hoes.”  If people listen to hip-hop, they know it’s very gritty and harsh.  Rose used an example in which Snoop Dogg had gone to a bat mitzvah in which 12 year old white kids were singing explicit lyrics from a song he had made.  It’s no secret that those who listen to hip-hop prefer the “authentic” version instead of the edited version, no matter what age.  Bleeping out cuss words on national media does not effectively help solve the issue of sexism in any way whatsoever.