DJ Phatrick

Via Nah Right.

Wow…BET doing something with substance?? Is Fox News going to actually report the news next?!

This is a very insightful review and commentary about the history and politics of female representation in the Hip Hop Industry. Educators, I highly recommend you watch it and include it in your curriculum as something to spark some real thinking around how gender issues come up in the pop culture industry.

The film is BEAUTIFULLY shot. All the women artists are interviewed with the camera directly in front and them looking straight into the camera, which serves to empower and bolden their words (MC Lyte IN YO FACE! Literally!). Men who are interviewed are shot in more traditional “look-at-the-interviewer-not-the-camera” way, but still in interestingly artistic angles and lighting (Questlove has a nice profile shot).

There was only one part in the film’s analysis that I was uncomfortable with, and that was when they were explaining the “glam” factor as being a part to the femcee’s demise in the early 2000′s. The film and the MCs being interviewed (Missy, Trina, & Eve) essentially were saying that women require more care and delicate handling than their male counterparts and thus cost record labels more to have them on their roster. This point to me is flawed because it’s still examining women under a misogynistic context where a woman HAS to look “good”…HAS to be “done up”; whereas that same requirement isn’t required of men. I’m pretty sure Invincible, Medusa, and Mystic has MUUUCH smaller hospitality requirements in their tour rider than many of the male emcees out there.

Overall, the film brings up many good points which, for newbies to gender politics, will get them to start thinking critically about gender and pop culture; and for longtime gender equality activists, will serve as a good review and tool for discussion.

I’m embarrassed to say this but…uh…[whispers]thank you, BET!??

PS: Never realized this (me slow) but the film brings up a good point: Nicki Minaj = Lil Kim (sexuality) + Eve (swagger) + Missy (creativity)

PPS: Nicki’s verse on Monster, will make you a believer if you ain’t one already.