P.I.M.P remix by 50 Cent featuring Snoop Dogg

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=P.I.M.P-50+cent

               Women have been shown as sex symbols in music videos for years. The genre of music that takes the most heat for this is the hip hop industry. Due to the high interest in the sexual exploitation of women in the hip hop industry I will be analyzing the music video P.I.M.P remix by 50 cent featuring Snoop Dogg. I will use Kellner’s 3-part approach as well as Nakamura’s “Cybertyping and the Work of Race in the Age of Digital Reproduction” when analyzing the video.

               Kellner’s 3-part approach consists of production/political economy, textual analysis, and audience. The production and political economy contributes to textual analysis and critique because the political economy helps elucidate features and effects that textual analysis may down play. (Kellner, 12) The system of production determines what structural limits there will be as to what can and cannot be said and shown. Global networks often produce and distribute media culture in the interests of profit and hegemony. The way that the music video P.I.M.P was produced was meant to glamorize the life of a hip hop artist. How it glamorizes the hip hop industry life is by showing stereotypes of a black man that have become somewhat of a norm when classifying black men. 50 cent is shown with multiple women lusting over him while being decked out in fine clothes and jewelry. The women are dressed promiscuously and shown to be fawning for 50 cent and his friends. This lifestyle appeals to the producer’s audience which will in return allow them to gain a large profit because they will be interested in purchasing music made by 50 cent.

               The second part of Kellner’s 3-part approach is textual analysis. The textual analysis of cultural studies combines’ formalist analysis with critique of how cultural meaning convey specific ideologies of gender, race, class, sexuality, nation and other ideological dimensions. (Kellner, 14) Sexuality is a large part of the music video’s appeal. The women in the music video are scandalously dressed which implies their willingness to engage in sexual activities. Gender is also demonstrated in the music in the music video. Men are always classified as more dominate then women. In the video all the females are either following a man or nurturing a man. At one point in the video two females walk in with dog collars and a leash on. The person walking them is indeed a woman but the woman is dressed in a man’s suit. This is implying that the only way a woman could be dominating is if she acts like a man. Race is also important in the video because as previously stated the video stereotypes 50 cent as a womanizer who is covered in diamonds which is a normal perception people have of a rapper. This image that rappers portray isn’t always considered to be a good one either which links how he is dressed and acting towards race.

               The third part of the 3-part approach is audience reception. Members of distinct genders, classes, races, nations, regions, sexual preferences, and political ideologies are going to read texts differently. (Kellner, 15) Kellner states that men use sports as a terrain of fantasy identification. Music videos do the same thing; they produce a fantasy of a world that involves beautiful women lusting over them and other fantasies such as expensive jewelry that is not attainable to the average man. 50 cent and his producers know that their audience is mainly men which is why the degrade women in the video by placing them in sexual clothing and have them following them around. They know these appeals to their audience because the people identifying with this fantasy identification are men who enjoy or want control.

               Now I would like to discuss the Nakamura piece “Cybertyping and the Work of Race in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” Nakamura defines cybertyping as the distinctive ways that the internet propagates, disseminates, and commodities images of race and racism.(Nakamura, 3) How I feel the music video P.I.M.P shows raciest tendencies is black women are classified in videos as sex crazed wild like creatures. 50 cent has multiple black women fawning over him and in some parts dressed wild like dancing or banging drums. I know I have said this multiple times throughout the blog but the video is very stereotypical towards race and gender. The part where the two women are walking in on a leash is almost slave like because it shows they have an owner and are weak. The fact that in the video 50 cent allowed into the pimp council or whatever goes back to the stereotype that black men are usually classified as womanizers. Also all the men in the council are black and dressed like pimps from the 70’s.

               The music video P.I.M.P is a great example of how stereotypes and sexuality are marketed to make a profit. The video clearly degrades women and strengthens poor stereotypes society has on black men but because it is appealing to a specific type of audience and is producing a video that is normal for what is occurring in today’s society as far as music videos go it is over looked.

Works Citied:

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.

Nakamura, Lisa. “Cybertyping and the Work of Race in the Age of Digital Reproduction.”