Give It Up To Me Pop Culture, A Nice Serving of Racism

The other day I found a song that has become one of my favorites of the 2010 music scene, it's "Give It Up To Me" by Shakira feat. Lil' Wayne. I have always liked Shakira and this song is very different than her previous hits, I can tell by the way the beat and lyrics are she has become consumed with pop culture since her older stuff all has a latin flare but this has a complete new feel and honestly if she didn't have such a particular sound in her voice I would've never guessed her as being the singer behind this song. In this song I feel like she's lost touch of her Colombian heritage.

This notion of mine became official when I saw the music video, as I said I love this song and to be completely honest I love it even more when I see the amazing choreography used in the video (surprise surprise, it's Shakira). Though there is one problem I noticed with the video, I wonder if you'll notice or catch on so watch the video before you go on.



I wonder what you noticed...well obviously the outfits are kind of degrading to women, but that wasn't the topic I noticed in particular; it envoled the back up dancers. Since they're all black did you notice that in combination with the lighting on Shakira that she looks white instead of her Latin descent? Re-watch it and see if you notice it if you didn't already catch that. She almost looks like a completely different person, combining this with the blonde highlights in her hair she looks like a young white woman. Why would she do this? All the songs before this one the singer seemed so proud of her racial background but when I watch this one I see a big change in not only her appearence (more "white") but I see her ethics blowing out the window.

I've made the realization that the way the song flows, the way the lyrics were written and how the appearence of Miss Shakira was all done purposly to make her seem white versus making it obvious of her decent. This is the result of pop culture at its worst, but its also the reality...the potentially upsetting reality. I believe that this video is just one of the MANY examples of racism that commonly go un-noticed by the general public. The video to me is a combination of active and passive racism, 'how is that even possible?' you ask? Well in this case it is very possible, I would put money on the argument that I bet Shakira was told that she's going to be represented as white and if she has a problem with it she can say goodbye to all the fame and money; I'm sure most if not all musicians, actors/actresses, etc. get this sort of off the wall offer and are told "take it or leave it". So Shakira (wanting to or not) created a piece that stripped her of her racial background and was molded into a completely different human being.

So you saw how the video is an example of active racism, but how is it passive if they blatantly created a "white" woman using lighting, new hair style, and black back up dancers to contrast her and make her seem lighter? The passive isn't in the creator, it's by the consumer, viewer, or whatever you would prefer to call the general public that the video was created for. It's us, you and me, him and her, etc. that are being passively racist because we don't care or even notice that this video has active racism in the roots of its creation. I hate to say that because like I said, I love this song and music video, but it's so true and since we've now all watched it we supported this unjust cause.

All I have to say for myself is that I hope people start to realize all the racist things around us that we don't ever pay attention to on a given day and continue to fight it off and attempt to make everyone equal. Sure that's a tough goal since everyone will come from different childhoods and families which then in tune forms a different adult with different values than the next person. But I can only dream that one day it becomes acceptable for a popular musician to represent her culture in a hit song instead of hiding her true self.

Female Rappers

So I have a feeling that most people will be surprised by this blog, at least a little bit if not alot. Mainly because I'm gay and I don't listen to the music that "typical" gay guys do; i.e. techno, pop, etc. Britney Spears or Lady Gaga for examples. My music taste is a pretty decent variety, but the music that fills most of my iPod is Hip-Hop, Rap, and R&B music: shocked? If you don't know me then typically you are when I tell you that Trina is my favorite music artist instead of someone like Miley Cyrus or Madonna. For my first entry I decided I would relate something I enjoy to the class topics, so I'm going to analyze the Rap industry primarily focusing on female rappers and how they relate to the male rappers. Also keep in mind throughout this blog, my intention is not to hate on the male rappers out there, I actually like most of the songs I include here I'm just using them as more evidence.

The first thing you can notice by female rappers is that the way their voices soundwhen rapping, they have a manlier tone. Definetly not all of them have slightly deeper tones in their voices but Lil' Kim for example has a slightly deeper voice. Notice it in this video of her song "How Many Licks?"

http://www.mtv.com/videos/lil-kim/9097/how-many-licks.jhtml#artist=934 (there wasn't an option to embed it, so here's the link)

Also if you've ever heard any music by Trina, Eve, etc. you'll notice they all have deeper voices than other female artists out in the music industry. Why is that? Could it be because they want to give them a "male-appeal" as if they were more like a man because they're rapping? That question is impossible to answer, but i do believe its a possibility.

Do you think people still have the views that women can't do certain jobs like a man could? I believe that this strain of sexism is still very strong to this day in 2010. I've noticed that people get all upset when a woman rapper says "dick", "cock", etc. yet a man can say "pussy" and get alot less negative responses. Why should a woman have to watch her mouth if the men doing the same job as her don't watch their own?

For example, the song "I Wanna Love You" by Akon was the radio released version of his song "I Wanna Fuck You" and it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2006. Can you think of a song that was just as vulger that was rapped by a woman AND was a number one on the Billboard Hot 100 list? Well I can't, I don't see it as fair when men can rap whatever they want and insinuate all they want with their lyrics and get this number one spot on the charts. There are so many other male rappers that have gotten their name at a number one spot with a song insinuating degrading things of women: "Low" by Flo Rida & T-Pain, "Slow Motion" by Juvenile, and "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent.







Also something very stereotypical that occurs in music videos for these female rap stars is that they are always wearing skimpy clothing. This isn't a very big surprise to me because it's not just rap that slutty clothes are worn. But the thing that's different about female rappers is no matter what song their in, their portion always has something about sex. Even if their rapping about stuff like their money or having their diginity still intact they still degrade themselves by what they wear and/or by what they say. You can see that in the "5 Star" video by Yo Gotti, when Trina and Nicki Minaj rap their raps they don't rap about sex at all; only about money and being rich and running the show. But not only are they wearing sexual outfits especially when compared to the very casual outfits of Gucci Mane and Yo Gotti but its also insinuated in the lyrics of the song when Gucci Mane refers to a girl as a "5 star clit" and then he also says "we can find a 5 star hotel we can meet".



Though on the defense of Nicki Minaj (who has been more recently starting her rap career) I found a quote from her on her Wikipedia page that was taken from an interview of her with Fadar Magazine and she said "I don’t know where I fit in the spectrum of rap yet; I think now I’m kind of proving myself, but before, people thought I was more of a sex symbol or wannabe sex symbol. That’s why I make the goofiest faces; I don’t want people to think I’m up here trying to be cute. I’m trying to entertain, and entertaining is more than exuding sex appeal. I don’t think that’s fun. I don’t find it fun watching someone trying to be sexy." I'm sure that Nicki isn't the only female rapper that feels this way, I just wish more female rappers would speak up for themselves so that they wouldn't get segregated out into their own group of "female rapper" and be apart of the Rap industry as a whole with gender on the side and an unimportant factor.

These are just a few things explaining female rappers and their different treatment when compared to the male rappers in the world. The female rappers that succeed primarily have a deeper voice, the possible reasoning of having more of a manly appeal. Showing that it's very un-ladylike to say vulgar things so if they aren't censored then they just look bad or like a ho and in return they don't suceed like the male rappers do because they basically say anything they want and get far less critisim than the female rappers do. Then there's the sex appeal, they are ALWAYS wearing the clothes that show off their bodies more and give them higher sexal desire. And dispite if they're contribution to a particular is sexual or not, there is always a sexual reference to either them as an individual or a degrading way to describe a woman in general.