By:Becky
Listening to many rap/hip hop songs or watching their music videos, the degradation of woman is obvious. It is clear that the women in these videos are there to entertain the rapper and their friends. Take for example a popular song at the moment Waka Flocka’s song “No Hands”. The whole song is pretty much about watching girls dance and throwing money at them for it. The chorus goes like this;
Girl the way you movin’ got me in a trans
Dj turn me up ladies this yo jam (Come on)
Imma sip mascato and you gon’ loose them pants
And Imma throw this money while you do it with no hands
Girl drop it to the floor I love the way yo booty go
All I wanna do is sit back and watch you move and I’ll proceed to throw this cash
Most of this is not even proper English, and the lyrics get more offensive as the song goes on. Lyrics like this send the message that women are nothing more than sexual objects, and it is okay for men to treat them that way.
The music video is not any better, with Waka Flocka and his friends rapping and drinking alcohol while scantily clad women dance around at a party. This is not an uncommon type of music video for rappers: fully clothed rappers and women with hardly any clothing on. Other videos feature barely dressed women moving their back sides up against a males’ groin area while the rapper is saying things like ‘bitch’ and ‘ho’ repeatedly.
I feel that most people listen to this music because of the catchy beat, and not for the lyrical content because I don’t think that there is any other explanation for liking music like this. Most of these songs are not relatable to the many teenagers and young adults that listen to it. The lyrics consist mostly of expensive cars, having lots of money, and violent and offensive acts directed at women or law enforcement.
The violent and offensive lyrics in rap music are something that a lot of people are aware of, but it is continually played on the radio and found on the top of music charts. It is a shame that this type of music gets the attention that it does when there are so many great artists that have talent and a message or purpose for their music, but do not get recognition or heard from by a larger audience.
Popular Culture 
Music is an industry it airs what sells. Sex is what sells a good portion of music wether it be rap or some rock and roll of the “good old days”. The materialistic is a cultural reaction to the poverty that black people face. More so than white people ownership is really a need that is desired since it is missing. The white demography is more likely to listen to anti materialistic stuff since they lack are more likely to lack what people desire after money, purpose. This is just my observation, what do you think
Brilliant! This is exactly what I wrote a speech on this year. I wrote about how Top 40 music is destroying the youth. I’m in Grade 8 and everyone around me likes and listens to this sort of music. When I read my speech aloud to the class everyone fell silent, it was awesome. thanks for some inspiration. It really helped me with the part about how men treat women in music videos and how this normalizes these actions for boys these days, even in my own class guys think it’s acceptable to degrade me and my friends with name calling. I think something should be done and I find it cool to have read this post and to know that someone else thinks the same way as I. Anyway, haha thanks. 🙂