Death Rap-Degrading Women

http://www.metrolyrics.com/light-my-fire-lyrics-necro.html

                        

Rap music has changed dramatically over the years. This change, I believe has been for the worse. Rap music goes all the way back to Africa when people were performing stories in a rhythmic matter. Slaves used to sing about the hard work they endured and their struggles. Rap artists today believe that they are doing something similar when they talk about their “struggles” growing up and how they got to where they are now, but the fact of the matter is, is that degrading women in songs has nothing to do with struggles one grew up with unless you have a pure hatred for women by some traumatizing experience. Unlikely. What’s even worse is that there is now a subgenre of rap referred to as death rap. In the song “Light my Fire” by Necro, he degrades women in a way I have never heard before. There is absolutely no care in how he is portraying women. He manages to objectify women in every way possible and use profanities all the way through. Necro makes it clear throughout the song that all women are good for is sex and doing anything to please a man.

According to Kellner, “in an era of globalization, one must be aware of the global networks that produce and distribute culture in the interests of profit and corporate hegemony” (Kellner, p.11).  The reason why songs like this are able to be sold is because it is what the people want. If a rap artist isn’t willing to degrade women and talk about all of the “bitches” and “hoes” out there, then chances are the music will not be as popular. Similarly to female artists, if they aren’t willing to be sexualized then they won’t be able to make it to the point of fame that they desire nor have the fan base that they want. Ultimately, these artists are forced to be sell-outs. This is what Kellner would refer to as the political economy of culture.

There are several ways that Necro goes about degrading women in his song through his lyrics. Kellner states, “Traditionally, the qualitative analysis of texts was the task of formalist literary criticism, which explicates the central meanings, values, symbols, and ideologies in cultural artifacts by attending to the formal properties of imaginative literature texts-such as style, verbal imagery, characterization, narrative structure and point of view, and other formal elements of artifact” (Kellner 11). There are several lyrics in the song that prove the attitude and ideas that Necro is trying to convey through his music. One of the first things he says in the song is, “fuckin whorebags.” He has no respect for women. Necro also gives off the notion that women will do absolutely anything for a man. In the article “There Are Bitches and Hoes” by Tricia Rose, she says “Some hip hop artists defend their endless salf-aggrandizing talk about dominating bitches and hoes by saying that they are not talking about all women” (322) but he places all women into this category, “work it, you’re all babes doin it/Bitches down to drink piss, fluid, plus manure shit.” He makes it seem as though women have no morals. Another idea that Necro conveys through his text is that there is no need to reciprocate any sexual favors. Male dominance is portrayed throughout the song as well because he is always directing the women what to do, “suck my dick, show me your tits, rub your clit, you’re a fuckin twit.”  He is making a mockery of women because he is saying that women are stupid enough to act like this. Although all of these lyrics are horrible, the section that really gets to me is “I feel women should be stripping and sinning, syringes in em’ trippin’ while their pimp brainwashes them in a building, you OD’d now you hooked up to an intravenous, it’s a minor inconvenience from the hospital bed you’ll suck penis.” This statement touches upon the idea of radical feminism and focuses on the idea of patriarchy and men trying to oppress woman. Necro’s lyrics definitely display his values and ideologies.

“Members of distinct genders, classes, races, nations, regions, sexual preferences, and political ideologies are going to read texts differently, and cultural studies can illuminate why diverse audiences interpret texts in various, sometimes conflicting ways” (Kellner 13). Different people interpret things differently. One person may interpret these lyrics as totally vulgar and offensive but another may not take them seriously because this is what the music industry has become unfortunately. Music is all about the audience and there are different kinds of people who are into different genres of music so what one person is into another person may not. There is no winning in this category because there is no way that everyone is going to be happy.  

Works Cited

Kellner, Douglas. “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. 3rd ed. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011. 7-18. Print.

Rose, Tricia. " There Are Bitches and Hoes." In The hip-hop wars ( pp. 167-185). New York: Perseus.