GRSJ224/Masculinity in Hip Hop Music

Music is a form of mass media that has a profound effect in shaping and influencing our society’s values. Hip Hop is the most consumed music genre in North America, dethroning this title from “Rock” back in 2017. The genre originated in New York in the 1970’s by inner-city African Americans, and quickly rose in popularity, spreading to wide audiences and transcending both racial and economic boundaries. Black males dominate hip hop: a genre and culture often associated with hypermasculinity. Hypermasculinity depicts men always having to be non-emotional, aggressive, competitive, confident and strong. This ideology is engaged by many impressionable youth and influences them to imitate how the artists themselves portray that stereotype. Hypermasculinity is a toxic notion that refutes the idea of being one’s self, endangers male identity, and ultimately supports inhumane behaviour. Before exploring the effects that hypermasculinity in hip hop has on society as a whole, it is important to identify the factors that have lead to a culture of hypermasculinity in African-American communities. Institutionalized racism in our society in the form of racist drug laws and trigger-happy police officers leads to a disproportionate amount of black people ending up in prison. Black people only make up 12.3% of the U.S. population, yet constitute 34%, of the total 6.8 million correctional population. These laws and policies also prohibit black people from having access to the same educational and economic resources, resulting in economic and social disenfranchisement. Many popular black artists grew up in poverty and surrounded by violence, and hence that lifestyle is reflected, and even glamourized, in the music they create.

Black Masculinity

Masculinity is often associated as male conquering and violence in western society. This preoccupation with violence is not something that is unique to Hip Hop culture. We see it show up in almost every other form of media as well. These include films, advertisements, video games, and sports coverage. Young men and boys who grow up in a society that signals to them that being a “man” means being powerful, often look for ways to gain this power that they perceive as a measure of their self worth. However, people of colour who are living in poverty rarely have access to any real power. One thing they have access to is their bodies and the ability to present themselves as a person who is deserving of respect. Jelani Cobb, a writer for the New York Times explains, “The reason why braggadocio and boast is so central to the history of hip-hop is because you’re dealing with the history of black men in America. And there’s a whole lineage of black men wanting to deny their own frailty.” Representing oneself as deserving of respect entails having a rough exterior, being fearless, and using violence when faced with confrontation. These ideals are one of the reasons behind inner city gang violence and why these themes show up so frequently in Hip Hop music.

How Hip Hop Artists Portray Masculinity

In a society where violence has become so pervasive, many people have become desensitized to it. It comes as no surprise then, that Hip Hop artists who rap about violence in their music can still be commercially palatable to the masses. Furthermore, the hyper-masculinity is self-perpetuating: the more masculinity on display, the more popular the artist. To gain notoriety, therefore, aspiring rappers find themselves forced to exaggerate their masculinity and reject vulnerability, and the cycle thus continues.

Take for example YG, one of the most popular hip hop artists today. The cover of his album “My Krazy Life” is a mugshot of him, shaved head, covered in tattoos, looking coldly into the camera. The lyrics in his album glamourize his life of crime and gang affiliation growing up in Los Angeles’s notorious Compton neighbourhood. His music video for the song “Left, Right” features scantily dressed women twerking on cars, barking pitbulls, excessive drinking and gambling, and YG threatening to rob a liquor store. YG is just one of the hundreds of hip hop artists who rap about violence in his music and portray an image of being a thug. This carries a heavy influence on the behaviour of impressionable youth who idolize artists like this. Since these artists are what they deem as “cool”, they try to emulate the behaviour under the false notion that it will bring them power and popularity.

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  Rapper YG performing on stage at Coachella Music Festival in California

How Hip Hop is Confronting Toxic Masculinity

While there are still many artists that integrate harmful messages of toxic masculinity into their lyrics and videos, there has been an increasing trend towards contemporary hip hop artists showing vulnerability in their music. These artists challenge the misconceptions of what it means to be a man and show young boys and men that they don’t need to hide their emotions out of fear that it makes them look like less of a man. One such artist is Kid Cudi, who admits to depression and suicidal thoughts in his song “Soundtrack 2 My Life” released in 2009. The lyrics go “My heart's an open sore that I hope heals soon/ I live in a cocoon opposite of Cancun/ Where it is never sunny, the dark side of the moon”. There exists a sincere vulnerability throughout this song. Cudi doesn’t feel an obligation to hide his emotions due to some vague allegiance to the typical notion of masculinity.

Another example of artist who expresses emotional vulnerability in his music is 11x grammy and Pulitzer prize winner Kendrick Lamar, arguably the most popular rapper in the world right now. In his critically acclaimed album “To Pimp A Butterfly” he deals with suicidal thoughts, battling with substance abuse, falling victim to peer pressure, and plenty of other issues that rappers would previously avoid. Lamar talks about his fall into depression with dexterity, employing different narrators to highlight the experience. He does so pessimistically in the song “u” - “The world will know money can't stop a suicidal weakness” - and optimistically in the song “i” - “Blow steam in the face of the beast/ Sky could fall down, wind could cry now/ Look at me motherf*cker I smile.” Lamar stretches his vulnerabilities throughout the album, sometimes reverting to bravado, but never finding redemption.

It is important to recognize that a culture, once so deeply entrenched in the hyper-masculine, is rejecting one of the most damaging aspects of masculinity. Traditional masculinity dictates that men either reject vulnerability or hide their vulnerability with bravado. Artists such as Kendrick and Kid Cudi do neither, instead they wholeheartedly embraces vulnerability. This sends an important message to the audience that it is okay to feel vulnerable, and most of all that it is okay to be human.

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  Contemporary rapper Kendrick Lamar

Summary

Hip Hop music is a genre created by inner-city African Americans, and has long been associated with hypermasculinity. Being at the intersection of being both black and having low socioeconomic status means these men don’t have any real power that comes with wealth and status. But in a society that associates masculinity with power, these men must find other ways to exercise power. This is done by presenting themselves as hardened, and deserving of respect. Through systematic racism and lack of access to resources, a culture of hypermasculinity in the black community emerged. Black artists who grow up in these toxic environment often reflect this rough lifestyle in their music. This music is consumed by young people who buy into this toxic notion of what being a “man” is, imitate the way they see their favourite rappers behaving, and hence the cycle continues. Recently however, a new wave of contemporary Hip Hop artists such as Kid Cudi and Kendrick Lamar have rejected the status-quo of what rappers can cover in their music, and expressed emotional vulnerability. This send a message to the audience that they too can reject one of the most damaging aspects of hypermasculinity: the notion that real men aren’t supposed to express emotions.