Lights Please, Lights Please| Commentary on Misinterpretation and Sexism in Hip Hop

As flattering as it may be, does Nicki Minaj want to be best looking female emcee in hip hop, or does she want to be the best emcee in hip hop? It’s hard to tell right now. With dozens of pictures circulating the internet showing off her camel toe and booty, it is hard to say what her purpose as an artist in hip hop is. Sadly, she’s evidently not that great of a rapper. Surely, that’s no secret.

In the 90’s, hip hop experienced the same thing during the Lil’ Kim/Foxy Brown era of female emcees. Sadly, it’s the emcees of the sexy and scantily clad value that get the most airplay, the most fame, but not necessarily the most respect. Leave that for the more classy (and in this writers opinion, much sexier) and more skilled MC Lyte, Lauryn Hill, Jean Grae, Eternia, and even though she recently admitted to a brutal lie, Roxanne Shante. Now here, classy doesn’t mean “classy” in the traditional sense, I’ll use it in this context here about being more about hip hop and less about public perception. Ironically enough, for the traditional hip hop head, its joints like “Cappuccino,” “Lost Ones,” “Hater’s Anthem,” and “Struggle” that take them to a special place and cause eargasms to erupt; a feat that the naked eye never could accomplish.

At this point, it’s bigger than misogyny. Well, misogyny is pretty big, but this is bigger than the visual aspects. It’s gotten to a point where an emcee, male or female, can’t rap regarding a female without being listed as “conscious” or “misogynistic.” This is where the title of the article relates. To some “Lights Please” by my new favourite rapper, J. Cole, is a song that’s about using women as an object to entail in sexual acts. I laugh at this interpretation and blame MTV and BET for allowing mentalities of this kind to suffice. Metaphors are cool, and yeah, they are a tool rappers use sometimes. Oh, hey! Maybe J. Cole used them as a metaphor here too!? Isn’t that a crazy idea? That he may be implying that other interests and temptations in his life conflict, to a point where the lights were once on (and he is enlightened), but are turned off by this other temptation (money, greed, women, etc.) that lead him to call for the lights to go off. Bingo!
Moreover, Drake’s largest fan base is females. Younger females, at that. But, somehow, lyrics like this slide under the rug when labeling him a “big, bad misogynistic rapper”: I sent your girl message/Said I see you when I can/ She send me one back but I ain't never read it/ 'Cause pussies only pussy and I get it when I need it.” In fact, it’s even more hilarious when a crowd full of ladies rhyme this lyric for lyric. My point here is not to attack Drake, in fact, I think he’s an immensely talented emcee that’s reminiscent of a late 80’s early 90’s LL Cool J for 2010, but my point is to show how blind listeners are. So blind, that it leads to a misinterpretation on both accounts. So think about it, how many great rappers are being reviewed as “conscious” or “misogynistic?” How many great rappers, such as the aforementioned female emcees aren’t getting a fair shot because listeners – and moreover, pop culture – are shutting the lights off on them, succumbing to the temptations of hype, appearance, and affiliations.

One has to think, the aforesaid LL Cool J didn’t spring up to popularity until 1989’s Walking With A Panther, which included joints like “Big Ole Butt” and “Jinglin’ Baby,” songs that took away from other beauties like “Jack the Ripper” and “Nitro.” Then, he once again fell out of the limelight and started showing off his sex appeal, abs, and definition on the 1995 Mr. Smith, falling back into a trap of lower quality music and amplified record sales via his then-famous Ladies Love image. It is possible to walk this line though. We’ve seen Talib Kweli, Common, and Mos Def do it. Hell, even Cool J did it (see “Around the Way Girl”). But now, the horny minds of male and female teenagers are getting raped by misconstrued opinions and visions on a search to find the “greatest of all time” with the most minimal exposure.

So, one has to think, if great female artists like Eternia, Jean Grae, and MC Lyte were given the proper exposure, would they have succeeded on the charts and be as talked about as Lil’ Kim, Foxy, and now, Nicki Minaj. Granted, Lauryn had tremendous success (Grammy’s and record sales, regardless of the New Ark situation), but she could be the one exception to this trend. This theory of image linking to perceived skill and evident attention leads me to believe Baudrillard’s Simulacra is in full effect; that what we conceive as the “best” and most “beautiful” is really just a façade of something else. That something else is our misinterpretation.

Yes… we misinterpret the misinterpretations.

Lights please.

-Sean Deezill