Hip-Hop At a Crossroads
What Do Black Women Need From Hip-Hop in 2020?
Four women in different parts of the culture discuss how hip-hop can value and embrace them like they deserve
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
For all of hip-hop’s undeniable good, in 2020 it has seemingly counteracted every positive with a negative — and worse, one that further marginalizes or mistreats Black women. Talib Kweli went on a weeks-long abusive tirade against a Black woman. J. Cole’s first rap response to the moment was a song demanding Noname watch her tone when correcting him. After Tory Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion, 50 Cent posted memes making fun of it while Cam’ron posted a transphobic joke about it. All the while, rappers like Cee-Lo were publicly clutching their pearls at the way “WAP” gave women agency over their bodies. And bubbling below the surface, as detailed in the documentary On the Record but muted by the hip-hop industry’s deafening silence, were Russell Simmons’ longstanding sexual assault accusations.
Admittedly rap is, like so many other cultural products, a symptom of the rest of the world. But while arenas are awakening — or being forcibly awakened — to their…
