This Women's History Month, we may ask how Minaj's question goes to the heart - or, perhaps, breaks the heart - of our ongoing conversation about gender and sexual politics in Hip Hop Culture.
Women's History month is the perfect time to reflect on the fact that many women unapologetically support both Hiphop and feminism. When I teach college courses on language use and identity, I ask all of my students to write the words they hear and use to describe women in their communities and on their campus.
Say My Name (2009) is a documentary that excavates many of the lost voices of women in Hiphop. Directed by Nirit Peled and produced by the production company Mamamess, the film presents a broad look of past, present and future female MCs of Hiphop music in the United States and London.
As hip-hop is expanding its paradigm for what is normative and authentic, women should be encouraged to create their own niches and define their music and their images outside of the archetypes that have traditionally been placed before them.
In celebration of International Woman's History Month we went digging in the crates and pulled up some old yet timeless tapes of Sista Souljah. Many of y'all may know her as an author. She's given us two incredible books called 'No Disrespect' and the 'Coldest Winter Ever'.
When Pam the Funkstress started out as a member of East Oakland's all-female hip-hop group 3 Deep in the early '90s, she was one of the only woman DJs in the local scene. Today, that's not the case -- she points to numerous women who spin regularly in Bay Area clubs, such as Backside, Neta and Daniela, to name a few.
