The essay From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos written by Joan Morgan basically describes the rap music of the black rapper. She criticizes with understanding the attitudes of the black rappers that can be reflected through the lyrics of their songs. It is very noticeable that what Joan Morgan tries to point out in her essay is not only the attitudes expressed in hip hop rap music but also the reasons behind the existence of these attitudes.
Morgan started her essay by giving some examples on how black men currently treat the black women: a decline on black-on-black relationships which is a reflection of the fact the black men cannot love women of their own race; and crimes involving black men with the black woman and a black family as the victims which are reflections of how black men inconsiderably hate their own race.
In the essay, Morgan critically describes the hip hop music of the black rappers to embody depression: alcoholism, drugs and violence, reflecting that these rappers hate themselves, or in one way or another, pitied themselves and do not give much important to themselves because they belong to the black community. In the lyrics of their songs, they told about the things that happened in their lives such as their experiences as the children of broken homes or how they experienced “war” inside their homes; how they committed robbery; being in jail; drug-dealing; attempting suicide; and how they would think of their death.
Morgan demonstrates this attitude of black rappers being depressed by giving examples based on the lyrics of the songs of Notorious BIG that goes: “I don’t wanna live no more/ Sometimes I see death knockin’ at my front door (Morgan). These lyrics revealed that black men are in pain which can be perceived to be brought about by the racial discrimination rooted in the history of the black. As a result, these black rappers felt discriminated and have low self-esteem, making them frustrated with their own lives. They can only express their depressions and pain through composing and rapping hip hop music.
The feeling of depression has also brought another attitude that is embodied in the music of the black rappers: racism. Racism and sexism are very noticeable with the hip hop music of the black rappers. Morgan gave emphasis on what these rappers called the black women in their songs, bitches and hos, which she said reflects that black women cannot be loved by men of their own race. Morgan became emotional as she expressed her feeling saying that it is not how these black men called them (the black women) that hurt her but it is incapability of black men to accept and respect black women or even treat them fairly.
Morgan described the disrespect of black rappers to women by describing how women are treated as a sex object, not only with the lyrics of hip hop songs but also on the music videos in which black women are seen half naked running after a black rapper. Morgan added that because of the inaccessibility of black women to power and wealth, as it is the norm set by the society, some black women use sex to somehow gain material things. This has brought black men rappers to racially and sexually discriminate women of their own race.
Conclusion
In summary, the common attitudes that are embodied in the hip hop music particularly that of the black rappers are the attitude of being depressed and having lower self esteem and the attitude of being racist and sexist.
Morgan seems to blame the history and the society for the depression, pain and low self esteem prevalent to the black rappers. When we hear their music, the sound and the beat seem to be aggressive but when we listen closely to the lyrics, one can notice the pain these rappers are experiencing. They seem to have low respect to themselves that they even want to commit suicide and crimes and they loved hurting people including themselves in order to express their pain. Their pain also resulted to hating their own race that they cannot accept and respect the women of their own race thus their music reflects racism and sexism.
With this essay, Morgan relied on her being a black and a woman in order to analyze and describe the music of the black rappers. As a black, she herself knows the discrimination that black people is experiencing. She criticized how black men hate their own race and she seems to sympathize on the pain they are experiencing. However, as a woman and a feminist, she also realized the importance of expressing her opinions and the need to criticize the way how black men treat black women. Although there are women who use their sexuality to gain material things, it is not right for black rappers to generalize that all black women are just sex objects and should be placed in lower lever in the society.
Morgan understand that black rappers have found a way to express their feelings, hatred and depression in the hip hop music but it is not right for them to express their hatred to their own race at the expense on the black women.
Reference:
Morgan, Joan From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos retrieved online on September 27, 2006
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~rshultz/musicclass/Morgan.htm
