Almost all of us have heardof 2 Live Crew, who almost had their record banned in the early nineties for their horrible lyrical content. Here is one example why: �By the looks of her mouth, she was a dick-eater/ I said, "You raggedy bitch, don't play dumb!/Put my dick in your mouth and make this motherfucker cum!!"/ Yeah! This bitch was ON!!� (lyrics.astraweb.com, 2001)
Recently, the comparable Eminem has taken the same criticism from practically everyone but young white males. One of his songs includes the lyric, �Punch a bitch in the nose til the whole face explodes/ Three things I hate: girls, women, and bitches.� He also disrespects his mother, and describes murdering his baby�s mother while his daughter watches. (Morgan, 1999)
Just as hard as it is to escape Eminem these days, there are the bar and party favorites �Shake That Ass Bitch,� �Gimme That Nut�, which has a lyric that says, �Fuck this shit, just let me put my dick inside�, and �Ass and Titties,� which talks about �broke ass hoes� and �hoes� that �need soap and water� in their genital areas.
Predictably,the music videos for these songs are just as bad as the songs themselves. They offer a visual aspect that makes the messages even more powerful. There are women hanging all over the rappers in bathing suits, implying they are just there for his pleasure. Some videos even portray women being pushed aside or having alcohol poured on them. All these videos can be seen after school on various music networks. Not only do they cause a loss of innocence in the children that watch them, they learn this behavior at a young, impressionable age, practice it, and assist in the perpetuation of this derogatory treatment of women.
As you may know, the demographic for rap music is primarily young black males but the young white male audience is just as large. But it doesn�t stop there. Rap goes mainstream with the help of Mtv and its play at parties and bars. And when it goes mainstream, that means the people consuming it start to include more women and kids. My 11-year-old brother just e-mailed me a list of songs he wanted me to put on a CD for him. It included every mainstream rap song that is popular right now. And with Eminem being so mainstream, even my 31-year-old sister who works for the state of Michigan owns his album. Fortunately Insane Clown Posse hasn�t had such mainstream success. The New York Times describes their demographic, �This misogyny is part and parcel of the wrestler-ruled B-movie,comic book culture Insane Clown Posse inhabits.� (Powers, 1999)An article on Sistahspace.com comments on the effects of rap�s sexist lyrics, ��whitecollege students with impeccable gender credentials buy nasty sex lyrics under the cover of getting at some kind of authentic black experience. What is potentially very dangerous about this is the feeling that by buying records they have made some kind of valid social commitment.� (Sistaspace.com,1995) Stanley Crouch, a music critic, describes rap�s demographic as whomever has an appetite�for vulgarity, violence, and anarchy inside AfroAmerica.� (Sistahspace, 1995)
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