Gender and Racial Rolls in Hip Hop

Prophets of the Hood was a very dense book covering a wide variety of social topics and their impact on the Hip Hop world. Although Perry has a keen understanding on topics as varied as commercialism and song structure, I think she over-thinks some topics a little bit. One quote that stood out for some reason: "Much as the crochet cap-wearing and dreadlocked populist Afrocentrist sensibility operates as an affirmation of the black body, those who celebrate the "around the way" people and styles affirm the cultural spaces of the black poor." I think she needs to tone down the adjectives. After a while she starts to sound like a Pitchfork review.

Although some parts were hard to get through, the chapter that really made sense was "B-Boys, Players, and Preachers". This chapter made a lot of good points about how African American males are portrayed in the media, Hip Hop and in society. The chapter started off by telling us the hierarchy of members of society according to gender and race. Perry points out that black men subjugate black women in response to their role that white men place on them. This comes about by white men subjugating black men. So we can already see that black women < black men < white men. The roles that white society places on black men becomes sort of a caricature after a while. Perry points out that hypersexuality and hypermasculinity are attributed to black men by white society. In response, black men embrace these roles and the manifestation is made clear in Hip Hop lyrics and the posturing of black men in the media. Perry points out that these stereotypes filter down and become self fulfilling prophecies. This starts to become a chicken and egg argument after a while but it makes you think about how a culture responds to expectations placed on it by society. I can speak from experance that as a white male I am expected to complete a 4 year degree. Its an expectation placed on me by my family and by others I interact with in the community. I'm not sure I would have the drive to complete college if the expectation was that I wasn't good enough to attend college. Now think about African Americans living in the inner city's being told that their expected to end up in prison. These roles or expectations placed on black society extend to every aspect of a black persons social and private life. . Kind of makes you think about what impact your stereotypes has on others, doesn't it?