Beyond Money, Cars, and Women
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women:
Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
By
Jasmin S. Greene
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity in Hip Hop Culture,
by Jasmin S. Greene
This book first published 2008 by
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
15 Angerton Gardens, Newcastle, NE5 2JA, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2008 by Jasmin S. Greene
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-84718-495-2, ISBN (13): 9781847184955
This book is dedicated to Dr. Clifford Greene and Sharon Greene
For supporting, loving and letting me discover me
For their sacrifice, commitment, and hard work
For being my role models
For being my friends
For being my parents
But more than that
For being mom and dad
And being the best
At that
Also for Forrest
Because you really Are
My best friend. And
Your humor
Brightens
Any
Day
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .............................................................................................. viii
Chapter One................................................................................................. 1
Black, Horny and Angry: Black Masculinity
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 25
The Streets Are My Teacher
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 54
Yes Massa
Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 67
Video Vixen
Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 77
Every Day I’m Hustling
Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 84
Pass the Gunja
Chapter Seven............................................................................................ 91
The Message
Bibliography............................................................................................ 116
INTRODUCTION
“Now I aint tryna be the greatest. I used to hate hip hop. Yep, because the
women degraded. But Too Short made me laugh. Like a hypocrite I played
it. A hypocrite I state it. Though I only recited half. Omittin the word
bitch…” (lyricsandsongs.com)
—Lupe Fiasco, No Place to Go, Hurts me Soul
These words stated from rapper Lupe Fiasco can easily be related to by
many people who listen to hip hop around the world. Hip hop has some
very negative aspects to it. Women are degraded. Men are emasculated.
Often drugs and violence are glorified. Yet, in hip hop there exist
something so powerful that it cannot be ignored. Hip hop can uplift. It can
encourage. It can spread vital messages. Hip hop has become the defining
cultural movement of this generation, and is celebrated around the world.
So while there are problems and much to criticize about hip hop music and
culture, we must also realize that therein lays much beauty.
As I am in my twenties one of my favorite past time activities is to
party. I love to go out with my friends, whether we go to a small artsy
lounge or to a huge club atmosphere. I am the one you will find dancing
non-stop all night long. The energy that is created when a great song
comes on and everybody in the room is grooving is unsurpassed. I truly
enjoy dancing to the latest mixes. I love hip-hop and the way it makes me
feel throughout my soul. I love when the DJ plays that one song (we all
have one) and it is as if nothing else matters or even exists at that moment
and for the next few minutes it is just the DJ and I.
I became fond of one of the most influential music genre’s of all time
somewhere between middle school and those tumultuous teenaged years I
discovered hip-hop and have not looked back since, Biggie, A Tribe
Called Quest, Common, The Fugees and others. I loved them. Half way
through my academic career at Hampton University, it was no wonder that
I fell so deeply in love with Hip Hop that I thought I saw forever. Or at
least a long time. And I still do. I will love hip-hop and rap until it evolves
into some other genre of music. And then, I will probably love that new
Hip Hop too.
It was during the end of my junior/early senior year at Hampton
University in Virginia when I began to realize, really realize that there
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
ix
exist many elements in rap that are abusive and are possible deeply
affecting the African American community. As I sat in my classes filled
with women and a handful of men scattered about…I began to wonder,
what is wrong with this picture? Hampton University is supposed to be
one of the Ivy League’s of historically black colleges. I thought when I got
there I would be surrounded by a plethora of educated black men. They
were there, but in small numbers. During the time that I was a student at
Hampton University the administration even had to completely change a
male dorm into an all female dorm because there were so few men coming
to Hampton University. My female friends at other institutions have had
the same observations. Where are all the black men?
I knew I wanted to write about hip hop culture and black men but I did
not know where I really wanted to take it. Not to say that I do not believe
that young black women are also affected. It definitely takes a toll on a
young black girl’s self-esteem when she internalizes the messages the
women in the music videos are projecting and how she sees women in the
video being treated. The black girl sees the male rappers talk to the video
woman in vulgar language, disrespecting her in countless ways, and yet
the video woman seems perfectly fine with it. (In fact she seems to enjoy
the attention). The child sees the video woman in scantily clad clothing,
shaking her behind everywhere, with money being thrown at her. For the
young child whose mind is like a sponge, this has damaging effects on her
self esteem. It is easy for the young black girl to think that in acting in
such a manner she will be popular and it is easy to think that behaving in
that way is the only way to get a man, especially a man with money. While
this relationship is extremely damaging, I am most concerned with the
images that black male rappers put out and how young black men perceive
them and shape their black masculinity. The development of black
masculinity has become quite complex, in part because of the pressure to
be a black man in a white man’s world. Additional factors may be due to
the lack of a father figure in the young black boys life, and the known
statistics of black men today that we all so often hear (fewer of them going
on to higher education, death rates, etc). I also believe in the positive side
of Hip Hop and I know that it does exist. In many songs and through many
artists current and past political situations are discussed. Rage and turmoil
over the conditions of America’s urban communities are addressed. Hip
Hop is a major part of American culture. I want to prove that Hip Hop can
be used as a positive vehicle for change in urban communities.
Throughout this book you will see that I have included case studies of
black men. I interviewed black men from a variety of US cities on their
opinions of black masculinity, the crisis with black men in higher
x
Introduction
education, their opinions of certain songs and more. I have grown tired of
reading reports and comments about how black men are thought to feel,
without actually asking them. To know how hip hop culture affects black
men, I believe the first step is asking them. The names of the interviewees
have been changed to preserve anonymity, as I wanted the interviewee’s to
be completely comfortable and free with their responses. I have also
interwoven my own experiences as they relate to hip hop culture. I begin
with discussing the problems in hip hop culture, as it is important to open
dialogue about these issues. Although I am critical to many sexist and
violent aspects of hip hop culture, I recognize hip hop is not dead nor is it
all negative. There is still beautiful works of art being created. Many hip
hop artists are more than just rappers. They are philanthropists. Activists.
Positive role models. I end my examination with illuminating the positive
aspects of hip hop culture. Far too often academics solely criticize. It is
necessary to understand both sides, the good and the bad, so we can take
hip hop to the next level and use it for a positive vehicle for change. What
follows is a personal and scholarly testimony of one of the most influential
music genre’s of all time…
This book is for everyone. Not the least Hip Hop…
CHAPTER ONE
BLACK, HORNY AND ANGRY:
BLACK MASCULINITY
History of Black Masculinity
Bulging muscles gleaming with oil. Loose fitting jeans slung low
around the knees. A never ending canvas of tattoos starting at the neck and
stopping at the wrist. A baseball cap worn low over the eyes. Two
diamond studs adorning the ears. I am sure after that short description of a
man, the person you are envisioning is a young black male. Probably from
an urban community. Non educated. Running the streets. Involved with
drugs. Perhaps he is even a gang member. Am I wrong? The sad thing is
that generally when one thinks of a young black man, this is the way he is
perceived. As many scholars in the past have said, the black man as a
subject was invented hundreds of years ago. He is oversexed,
hypermasculine, and enraged. But the truth is black masculinity is a topic
that is widely discussed and debated but minimally understood. Black
masculinity is so complex perhaps because it is extremely difficult to
discover self as a black man in America. Being a black man can be
thought of as challenging because the cards are never in a black man’s
favor. The challenge is daunting and an uphill battle.
The American black male is a subject that has endured much adversity
over time. Taken from his native land and forced into a harsh servitude, it
is no wonder that he has suffered from tremendous psychological anxiety.
His manhood has been tested and in fact controlled by external forces for
centuries. Scholar and psychologist Na’im Akbar writes, “In fact, the crisis
of the African American male in America began with the landing of the
first slave ship in the vicinity of 400 years ago”(Akbar 1991). Problems
with this black male and the black family have its roots in slavery. As a
people, African Americans are still suffering from the effects of being
taken forcibly from the native continent of Africa and subjected to a harsh
servitude. African Americans have not fully recovered from slavery and
continue to suffer from its effects. Black men suffered psychologically
2
Chapter One
because their whole gender and purpose of being was stripped from them.
Black men were at the lowest of the totem pole. White men, white women,
and black women were held in higher regards than the Negro slave man.
He was valued more as a worker while the black slave woman was a
worker and breeder, making her important to the continuation of the
institution of slavery. In slavery, black males were not men. Nor were they
animals. They were less than that as they were viewed as tools to get a job
done. In a world where generally men are supposed to be the most
powerful and the most respected members of society, the African
American slave man was stripped of this right. Scholar Earl Ofari
Hutchinson writes that “The white master was THE only man on the
plantation” (Hutchinson 1994). Because the slave master made sure he
was known as the only man on these plantations, the concept of manhood
for African American’s became complicated. Male slaves were stripped
of all traditional manhood rights. They could not help their families as
they wanted to, often they had to watch their wives and children get
whipped in front of them and could do nothing about it. He had no control
over his day, his life, or his family’s lives as the traditional man usually
does. The male slave was reduced to less than a man, to a thing for the
slave master, THE only man, to use at his whim. The African American
male in slavery was not defined as a man and thus continues to suffer from
that slave status in today’s world.
Professor T. Denean Sharply-Whiting writes of the complexities of
black masculinity as a result of American ideals of manhood and black
inferiority,
“It is a new black gender politics complexity in the service of a jack-legged
black masculinity. And that black masculinity has been cobbled together
from the stultifying remains of white supremacy, media, and the
undeserved privileges accrued globally by American manhood” (SharplyWhiting 2007).
Black masculinity will continue to suffer if it is left to be defined from
white rule and superiority. In white America being a black man will never
equate to being a white man. Therefore, African American’s should stop
trying to define a black man as such.
This modern day black man, deemed the “strong black man” by scholar
Mark Anthony Neal, is in dire need of a re-construction of identity. Neal
writes that
“The ‘strong black man’ is the flagship product of nearly 400 years of
lived experiences by black men in North America, black men who in the
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
3
process of resisting enslavement, economic exploitation, random and
calculated violence, and a host of other afflictions that usually befall those
with a foot on their neck, created a functional myth on which the black
nation could be built” (Neal 2005).
This myth of black masculinity has been a hindrance on black society ever
since it was created.
People of this generation are very detached from slavery as the thought
circulates that it happened many years ago. But it has been less than 200
years since its abolition so it is not surprising that African American’s,
only a few generations removed, are still living with the effects of slavery.
With that first slave ship, the whole structure of American society was
forever changed. Black masculinity became hybrid, an amalgamation of
different elements while overall being a subordinated masculinity. After
emancipation black men felt the need to better define their masculinity
because their manhood had been stripped from them in slavery. Black men
sought to create everything that they never were allowed to own, seeking
to define themselves as the men that they were never allowed to be. Wide
ranging ideas of the definition of manhood circulated. Whether that meant
being oversexed, subordinating their women, or the flaunting of money,
black men felt the need to encompass because in slavery they were unable
to. Scholar Clyde W. Franklin states that “as long as the black male was a
slave, property, a thing, he had no claims to being a man.” (Franklin
1994). So it is understandable that after slavery black men would want to
try to reclaim their manhood.
Black men saw their masters with an abundance of materialistic goods,
and able to be with any woman they wanted. To black slaves white males
were in charge of what seemed like everything and to the observing male
slave these things were equated with freedom and manhood. So when
emancipated, newly freed ex- slaves sought to be like their masters in that
respect only more intensified. Black men want women, but now in a
surplus. They want materialistic ownership, often in ridiculous amounts
with the most ridiculous items. And they want to be in charge of their
women, they want to be able to keep their women in line as they were kept
so in slavery.
In a world where men were not allowed to be men, how does a black
boy learn how to be a man? Traditionally, boys learn about manhood and
how to be a man from the men who raise them. Scholar David Cohen
writes that “in theory, boys are supposed to take their fathers and
grandfathers as role models” (Cohen 1990). However, we see too
frequently this theory excludes African American boys because for
centuries many African American males have had to deal with the absence
4
Chapter One
of a father figure. Whether in slavery where men had to spend their
waking hours working for their master, or in modern day society where the
black family system is matriarchal and often lacking of a father figure in
the household, African American boys have had to deal with a male role
model void. For a young boy growing up having a father figure in his life
is extremely important to his development. Scholar Jacob U. Gordon
writes that there are five essential benefits to having a father in a child’s
life, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(2000). These are:
“1. Father involvement is critical even for very young children. This
contributes to the development of emotional security, curiosity and math
and verbal skills. 2. High level of involvement by fathers…are associated
with fewer behavior problems, higher levels of sociability, and higher level
of school performance…3. Active involvement in the child’s schooling…is
associated with higher grades, greater school enjoyment, and lower
chances of suspension or expulsion from school. 4. There is also an effect
on daughters as well as sons. Girls do better academically. They are also
less likely to engage in early sexual involvement…5. Both boys and girls
have reduced risk of drugs and alcohol use if their fathers are involved in
their lives” (Gordon 2002).
I recently had a very interesting conversation with a male friend of
mine. We were talking about friends and people our age that we know
who have children. The discussion soon got on the topic of black fathers
and their absence in their children’s lives. My friend, we will call him
Mark, grew up fatherless. His parents divorced before he knew how to talk
and he has not heard from his father since. I then posed the question, when
black boys grow up without their father and then they have a child, are
they more likely to be absent in their child’s life as well? Or are they more
driven to be a “dad”? In other words, does history repeat itself?
Mark- That’s an interesting question. My dad was a dead beat, and I know
his dad was one too. I don’t want to be a dead beat. I would like to find
love and make a child out of that love. I want to raise my child. But I can’t
lie, I am afraid that it’s in my blood to be a playa. Like no matter how hard
I try, I’m going to mess up like the rest of the men in my family.
Interviewer- Sometimes I think we act out what we know. So maybe being
a parent is like that, like if you had no father figure in your life then you
don’t know how to be one yourself? And then maybe that just messes it up
for generations to come. It’s not your fault you don’t know how to act, you
just never had an example. You know, how the saying goes you learn by
example.
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
5
Mark- Yea that’s real. Like if I never learned how to change a tire how am
I supposed to know how to change one?
Interviewer- Right. But on the other hand, that absence could lead to a
burning drive to want to fill that hole for your own child. If you want it bad
enough, you don’t have to have a teacher. You can teach yourself. Like my
dad, his father wasn’t always in his life but he has always been a part of
mine and he has been a great dad and role model for me growing up. No
one teaches us really how to love. We may be told what it is, and what you
are supposed to do. But when we enter into a relationship and for the first
time we have fallen in love, this is an unprecedented event. And despite
what we have heard or seen about love, we teach ourselves by actually
going through the notions of loving.
Mark- That’s real too. I guess it just depends on the person. How much
drive they have. How much they have been influenced by the streets.
Sometimes being fatherless and growing up in the streets, having a rough
life, leaves you very hopeless. You have a kid and you don’t even care
because you don’t even care about yourself.
Interviewer- Yea. That goes back to the whole thought of you have to love
and respect yourself before you can love and respect others. You think the
problem with black men could be deep down they really lack self love?
Mark- Hell yea. But no black man is ever going to admit that to you or
anyone else (Mark 2007).
Rapper Lupe Fiasco has a great song entitled, “He say, She say” from
his debut album “Food and Liquor”. One of the verses goes as follows,
“Now he’s fighting in class. Got a note last week that say he might not
pass. Ask me if his daddy was sick of this. Cause you aint never pick him
up. You see what his problem is? He don’t know where is poppa is. No
positive male role model to play football and build railroad models”
(Fiasco azlyrics.com)
This song represents what many young black males experience in life. It
is a song to which black boys can easily relate. There is a lack of a positive
male figure in his life, to even teach him simple things that only men can
teach. This void has an effect in every aspect of his life, where we see in
this song he starts to fail in school. The absence of a positive male figure
amongst the male adolescent psychologically affects him for years. As an
adult he may come to terms with that absence, may go on to accomplish
great things, but nothing can make up for that early childhood empty space
in his life.
6
Chapter One
It is clear to see that having a father in a child’s life can have a profound
impact on the outcome of the child’s future. So when there is no father
figure in the child’s life, as in the majority of black boys, the boy then
suffers from the absence of his father. Without the father, the black boy
must then look towards different outlets in discovering his manhood. In
doing so, black masculinity has become complicated. Really only a mature
black man should teach a black boy how to be a man. By looking
elsewhere for this lesson, this idea of black masculinity becomes distorted.
Clyde W. Franklin writes that
“When black males are peer group controlled, the types of masculinitive
evolving generally are based on the key traits of aggressiveness, violence,
competitiveness, heterosexuality, cool poses, dominance, sexism, and
passivity/indifference in mainstream society” (Franklin 1994).
The same holds true when black males look to the media to define their
masculinity. Wrong ideas about what manhood entails are created and
reinforced. The time has come to challenge these ideas and to teach the
community what comprises being a real man.
General Masculinity
To better understand black masculinity it is a good idea to look at
masculinity in general. Masculinity is comprised of a countless number of
traits that make up manhood. For example, masculinity could mean having
a certain social and economic status. Some men may think that being the
breadwinner in a relationship is part of masculinity. To others being a man
may mean concealing true emotions and never showing signs that might
be seen as weakness. Showing such emotion can be considered too
feminine. Scholar and activist bell hooks writes that “For black men of all
ages it is more acceptable to express rage than to give voice to emotional
needs” (hooks 2001). Still for other men masculinity involves taking care
of business, being in control, and never letting anyone see them sweat. The
list could go on and on.
One black male I interviewed stated that
“To me, being a man in general is knowing and accepting who you are,
being secure in your masculinity and in yourself. Being a strong figure,
positive and influential enough for someone else to look up to or draw
strength from. I grew up without a father, but I did have uncles and cousins
I could look up to. For boys without a father figure boy’s look up to the
closest thing to a father they can get. For some fatherless boys, the mother
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
7
steps up and becomes both a mother and a father. So the boy looks up to
the mother. However, a lot of boys look to famous figures. Boys without
their father look up to and learn how to be a man from whoever they can.
Some never learn because they don’t have anyone. Some learn the wrong
things because they look up to the wrong person” (Steve 2006).
Another interviewee declared,
“Black manhood should represent to the fullest who and what you stand
for as a black man: your lifestyle, culture, belief system, and your way of
life. Many black men’s manhood’s are fucked up…black men should
always assert and represent themselves to others as strong, confident, and
willing to always provide for his family, especially black babies who are
growing up in the streets with no black father figure. I grew up with my
father but unfortunately I feel the streets become father figures to boys
without them. Whether this be through rap videos, hustlers, or drug
dealers, they will learn some type of way to be a man” (Chris 2006).
Scholar D. Marvin Jones writes that
“The athlete, the gangsta rapper and the criminal merge into a single black
persona…the predominant image of black masculinity in the US and
around the world” (Jones 2005).
The black man in America is expected to be one of those characters.
White society expects it, as well as elements in the African American
community expect and perpetuate it. Often when an African American
male does not fit the stereotyped mold there is a feeling of surprise. “A
doctor? Wow!! A college graduate and a business man?” It is a shock. But
it should not be. The African American community needs to set higher
standards and expectations for its men. There is a similar supposition that
is said about relationships…if you expect less then that is just what you
are going to get. The community needs to stop accepting these roles as the
norms. For example, I expect my younger brother to be a successful man
when he grows up. I expect my husband to have a college degree. And I
expect my unborn sons to be prominent and influential members of
society.
Something else that the African American community must confront
and challenge is the life expectancies of its young men. The leading cause
of death amongst young black males is homicide. We hold our breaths
while our black men are growing up, and if they make it to 25 years old
we seem to let out an amazed sigh of relief. This mentality, the
complacency towards black men dying at young ages, must be challenged.
8
Chapter One
Our standards for black men are so low. It is disheartening and it is killing
our brothers and sons. To hold the expectation that African American men
are likely to die before their thirties is beyond tragic. We have become
conditioned to the murders of African American men. Why is there not a
louder outcry? Why have any efforts been unsuccessful? Why has no one
stood up for our black men and declared a state of emergency? Instead we
are so complacent with this fact that all we do is shake our heads, let out a
sigh, and move on. This is completely unacceptable. African American
men and women must come together and fight for the lives of our dying
brothers. We must raise our expectations throughout the African American
community.
In African American relationships, many women expect men to mess
up. They hold the attitude that “black men don’t know how to behave” and
then get mad when they do just that. I was told that in relationships I
should never settle and never accept anything less than the best. Whenever
I lowered my standards, or gave a man a little leeway, I got less than what
I hoped for. But in relationships where I expected my boyfriend to exude
excellence and nothing less, I got far more in return.
Our standards for the accomplishments of black men are very low as
well. Our expectations may be for a black man to finish high school. Or
just not die or not go to jail. Yes, statistics show that it is an extraordinary
accomplishment for an African American man to graduate from college. I
believe that if we stop treating it as if it is out of the ordinary and start
expecting it, then far more black men will graduate from college. We
should not just settle for a high school diploma. We should expect our men
to excel and go on to college, and if they do not we should be surprised.
Our standards must be raised in order to help our community. I believe
that when standards are set high, a person will work hard to meet them. In
high school my parents expected me to excel and bring home good grades.
If it were not for these high standards I know I would not have cared as
much. But because I knew that my parents would accept nothing less I
worked hard so that I would not disappoint them. In due time I
internalized these standards and they became my own. I think that this
same mentality would work if as a black community we had higher
expectations for our young men and young women.
In a similar fashion, we do not expect our black men to be dynamic
fathers. The general thinking is a black father will be just that…a father. A
sperm donor. A “baby daddy”. Rarely do we expect our black men to be
dad. And by expecting “baby daddies” we get much less; drawn out court
procedures to fight over child support and more broken black families.
Mark Anthony Neal writes,
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
9
“The fact that so many black fathers weren’t expected to be involved
fathers speaks to an underlying ‘father bias’ that exists in the larger society
and so often discourages men from playing such roles” (Neal 2005).
In other words, black fathers often will shrug off their role as dad
because we do not expect them to encompass the traditional traits of dad.
In her book We Real Cool, bell hooks writes that black men are
“taught to believe that a real male is fearless, insensitive, egocentric, and
invulnerable (all the traits powerful black men have in movies {and I add
rap}) a black man blocks out all emotions that interfere with this ‘cool’
pose” (hooks 2004).
Black men put on this cool pose, this so called hardness, to prove their
masculinity but they are really hiding their insecurities, their self-doubt,
and trying to make up for a void in their lives which is happiness with self.
For many it is much easier to hide ones feelings, doubts, and insecurities
than to confront them. It is much easier to run away or ignore than to meet
problems face to face. No one wants to be seen as weak. But that is the
problem. Why have we decided that for a man to be emotional means that
he is weak? The cool pose, the strong black man ideology and the hard,
non punk philosophies are all the same. They are all myths that are
holding African American men back from growth. They are myths that are
damaging the African American community. Black male “hardness” has
become the leading element in establishing one’s manhood. Neal
continues to write that
“But somehow when our mythical black nation is under siege and in crisis,
the only thing that is not allowable, especially when at war, is the demise
of the ‘strong black man’” (Neal 2005).
African American women put so much pressure on black men that it is
no wonder that they have so many issues. The African American woman
needs to embrace black men and all of their emotions. We need to show
them that it is alright for them to be emotional. This does not reduce his
strength, but makes him stronger. Neal goes on to state that
“…models of black masculinity that ventured too far from the ‘strong
black man’ are seen as suspect: not quite black enough, not quite man
enough, not quite Blackman enough” (Neal 2005).
10
Chapter One
Black men and women both look at black men who are not “hard” as
either gay, suspect, or as a punk. Black society puts extreme pressure on
black men to be hard. Once black men openly deal with their emotions,
with the support of black women, this community can begin to rebuild
relationships with one another.
The black community crucially needs a diversity of black male
expression. The African American community and even communities
across the world have allowed the black male to become void of emotions.
It has become unacceptable for black men to show fear, anxiety,
uncertainty, and any other emotion that is not rage. These communities
have trapped the black male in a box, and it is hindering his and our
growth. It is necessary to create a space where it is acceptable for a black
man to show a range of emotions and not just be angry. It is necessary to
create a place where the black man can love, be happy, and experience all
the emotions of life, and unfortunately right now that place does not exist
within the black community.
In her “We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity” book bell hooks
writes,
“Young (black) males embrace a notion of cool that is about getting pussy
and getting ready to kill (or at least to make somebody think you can kill)
because as an identity this one is easier to come by than the quest to know
the self and create a life of meaning” (hooks 2004).
Black men are taught in the community and through the media that they
must be “hard” or they will be considered a punk. My male friend recently
told me that the worst thing for a man’s pride would be for someone to
attack his manhood. He said he can handle everything and anything
else…but for his manhood to be attacked would mean World War III was
about to take place. No black man wants to be a punk because that hurts
his masculinity.
Black men are able to behave like animals, and still be called a man.
They are able to treat others, especially women, with disrespect and then
think that builds up their manhood. They can do all of these things, but if
they at all show signs of caring, gentleness and the like, they are no longer
black men. T. Denean Sharpley- Whiting writes that
“Fathering children with other women while married, adultery, “messy”,
“growling”, “average” sex are all considered “what men do”” (SharpleyWhiting 2007).
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
11
In the rap community, it appears that black men calling each other
“bitches”, “punks”, “niggas” and other obscenities is what makes one a
strong black male rapper. Many popular rappers lack respect for each other
as men and human beings, and therefore show that they have little respect
for themselves. It is all just to hide their insecurities. The names they use
to refer to each other, the violence they say they will use on one another is
nothing short of tragic. Yet it perpetuates in the rap community. It is a way
of life to look at other rappers with rage, with a look in the eye as if one
wants to kill the other. They say they will hurt each other and have sex
with their wives. They call each other the worse obscenities. All to build
one’s own self esteem, making him think he is more of a man. But really,
he is the punk. Black men are brothers. It is time to start acting like family.
African Americans need to help each other and care for one another. The
time has come to stop treating one another with such disrespect. Black
men go through common struggles in life and can learn from each other
and support each other if there was a positive open dialogue.
One interviewee told me
“Especially for inner-city kids, the wrong shit is perpetuated as being cool.
Getting shot is not cool. Going to jail is not cool. Having a lot of sex and
getting a girl pregnant is not cool. People are short sighted. Rappers don’t
see the consequences of what they do” (Albert 2006).
I then asked the same interviewee if he thought artists need to be more
conscious of the material they put out. His response was,
“Hell yea they do. They need to get their money on one hand. But thank
God for Hip Hop. Thank God for Russell Simmons. Corporate world
caught on to this shit though, started exploiting rappers. The labels want
that shit. They want to put that shit out, that ignorant shit. They want a
certain image out there. It is hard for a conscious rapper like Talib or
Common to get play. People pay for play on the radio. And they aren’t
going to pay for no conscious shit. No one is going to pay for some
conscious records. I listened to all types of music growing up in Jersey. A
lot of the garbage though. I didn’t really listen to conscious music until I
got out of the ghetto and went to college. I was exposed to the black
middle class for the first time. And my consciousness was raised. I learned
about shit I never knew about. A black professional crowd. Black people
doing well. I learned I was living in a box. People in the inner city live in a
box and usually don’t think outside of it. They need to” (Albert 2006).
12
Chapter One
There are many people in the black community who are trapped in a
box. Ideologies that are binding individuals are often steadfast in a
particular ideology. Undoubtedly, there are individuals who would like to
leave “the hood”. I believe that many in the black community would like
to get a great career that makes a lot of money, but really as a whole we
are afraid to try for that dream. Are we afraid of failure? Afraid of what
can happen out there? Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho often writes about
actualizing our dreams and the fear of the unknown. He writes that the
idea of success or failure consumes our minds and actually stops us from
pursuing our dreams. However, we must learn that it is not about winning
or losing, success or failure. No matter the outcome, if we have tried our
best to actualize our dreams, then we have succeeded. It is this ideology
that the African American community must embrace instead of being
wrapped up in our fears of the unfamiliar, success and failure.
Rapper Common has a song on his latest album, “Finding Forever”,
entitled “Black Maybe” in which he addresses the fear of leaving the
familiar. He states:
“Hope is killed fiends are born. We leanin on a wall that aint that aint
stable. It’s hard to turn on the hood that made you. To leave we afraid to.
The same streets that raised you can aid you” (Common lyricstime.com)
Life for many people in urban communities in the United States can be
bleak and appear hopeless. Once hope is lost it is difficult to find a way to
cope with the struggles of everyday life. Common states that fiends are
born, and he is referring to the addiction of crack which has devastated
urban communities. We are leaning on walls in these communities for
support, but there is none and there is no help coming. Although life may
be bleak, people are afraid to leave their current situation and community.
However, Common notes that these streets that raised you and that you are
accustomed to can help you. It is necessary to know how to turn a positive
into a negative. One could use their experiences and hardships to fuel their
desire to uplift themselves. This important message is what lies in the
words of the Chicago based rapper Common.
To embrace realness, to come to terms with true identity and work on
self, as bell hooks says, involves going through many emotions and is
certainly not the easy way out. I, for one, am still discovering who I am,
working things out within myself and in all honesty that has brought many
nights of uncertainty and anxiety. However, I understand this is a good
and necessary process, and each time I feel stuck, that I am ready to give
up, but I do not, I become stronger. Young black men behave as if they are
not ready to step up to the plate and discover self. I believe they are ready,
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
13
but they are hindered by their fears. It is my hope that young black men
will drop their fears and the whole cool guy mentality and then start
working on self.
The male in America, whatever his color may be, is expected to fit
certain stereotypical roles. Clyde W. Franklin writes that
“Males in America still are expected to assume aggressive, competitive,
dominant, and powerful roles in society” (Franklin 1994).
However, since the black male is a subordinated male in society, he has
to seek alternative outlets to take on these roles. The same definition of
man and masculinity is not going to work for the black man as it has for
the white man, simply because they have had different historical
backgrounds. Notably, the composition of the black family has had a
tremendous impact on not only the black community as a whole, but on
black men individually as well.
Scholar Nai’im Akbar writes that
“many of the problems that we face in our communities can be understood
as a manifestation of this epidemic of boys who should be men” (Akbar
1991).
A very strong statement, yet it holds much truth. All of these men who
are running around thinking that their “bling bling” makes them men,
driving around in Cadillac’s with $20,000 rims while renting an apartment
in the hood…these “men” have little boy syndrome. These so called men
want to look like the “boss”, they want to be the hottest guy on the
playground. But that is all they are doing. Playing. On a playground. With
other boys. They do not want nor are they ready for real men
responsibilities. Where are all the men?? Akbar goes on to powerfully
assert that,
“To stand up as African men is a declaration of war” (Akbar 1991).
This is one of my favorite statements from Akbar and I believe one of
the most important points that we can take from him. America, and even
the world is unprepared for African American men to claim their roles as
men. They would be a powerful group, able to conquer and do much,
inclusive of tremendously improving the African American community.
In her acclaimed book, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost, hip
hop feminist Joan Morgan writes that
14
Chapter One
“Since hip hop is the mirror in which so many brothers see themselves, it’s
significant that one of the music’s most prevalent mythologies is that black
boys rarely grow into men. Instead, they remain perpetually postadolescent or die” (Morgan 1999).
This is true when one watches rap videos and listens to many rap songs.
Rarely in those said spaces do we see a black man behaving as a man.
Instead, we see him partying irresponsibly into the wee hours of the
morning and living life as if he was a permanent 22 year old. We do not
see black men raising a family, settling down with one woman and going
to work. We see big kids.
An interviewee even stated that
“Honestly…a lot of black men just don’t want to grow up. They aint gonna
tell you that. But the shit is true. It’s easier to just stay a kid. We know we
can’t, but deep down we don’t want to let go” (Derek 2007).
One can only imagine how powerful African Americans could be as a
community if black men would come together and become responsible
and respectable members and leaders of society. If we could get rid of the
fascination with spending a lot of money on materialistic items, let go of
the drugs and hustling lifestyle, and the fascination with a lot of
irresponsible sex and music…we would be a powerful people.
Interviewee: “Black boys learn how to be a man from a variety of sources:
television, movies, magazines, music, their friends, other adult male
figures in the community. I think the influence of the media, though,
propagates an interesting phenomenon of creating ‘man children’. They see
images of ‘men’ engaging in extraordinary activities meant to appeal
directly to these boys. Thus, these boys don’t have a sense of correct
growth patterns. They grow into the ‘man child’ images they see on
television, where they then influence the next generation so that we have
this self degrading cycle of subverting the meaning of manhood into this
new concept of ‘man child’. A man child is ruled by instinct, instant
gratification, emotions over reason. They fit into the capitalist society and
push it forward” (Anthony 2007).
There is fantastic phenomenon going on in the black community. Too
many of our boys are not learning the fundamental lessons on becoming a
man and thus they enter adult society at a disadvantage. They are men by
appearance and chronological age. But very few are real men. They are not
equipped with the knowledge to face the challenges of the world. They
have grown up with whimsical ideas of manhood and life and are
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
15
unprepared to carry out the traditional roles of being a man. It is crucial for
our growth that we interrupt this destructive cycle of boys who should be
men. We must challenge and change our definitions of black manhood.
The Black Family
Rapper Lupe Fiasco has a great song entitled “Ghetto Story” from his
album “Food and Liquor”. He notes a prominent problem in the black
community when he raps,
“Left with only his mother the family structure suffers” (Fiasco
lyricsandsongs.com)
A short and simple sentence yes, but its simple words speak volumes.
Lupe Fiasco notes that often the black child, here the black male child,
does not grow up with his father. With only his mother to raise him
problems arise. The black family structure thus suffers from the lack of a
two parent household. Joan Morgan also recognizes the issue with the
absence of black fathers and the problems within the black family. In her
book, “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost” she states,
“For too many black men there is no trust, no community, no family. Just
self” (Morgan 1999).
She notes that a problem in the black community is a rising selfishness.
This selfishness does not just hurt and affect individuals. It trickles down
to aspects of family and community. The effect is a broken household, a
family that is lacking in structure and stability.
The black family structure differs in one major way from the typical
American family structure. In American society, the family is patriarchal;
however the black American family is mostly matriarchal. Jewelle Taylor
Gibbs writes,
“Since nearly half of black children under 18 are reared in female headed
families, many males have never known a strong male parent figure who
can model appropriate masculine behaviors and provide positive models of
identification” (Gibbs 1994).
The black family system is indeed a matriarchic society where in the
majority of cases the mother must act as both mother and father. Where in
white families and society, boys learn from their fathers, David Cohen
16
Chapter One
states, “In theory, boys are supposed to take their fathers and grandfathers
as role models” (Cohen 1990), many black boys do not have the
father/grandfather to look up to. So where does a young black boy turn to
for a father figure and learn how to be a man? The absence of a father
figure in his life leads him to turn to the only black men he sees with
power. The powerful black man in his eyes is the black male rapper. He
sees the rapper on television and it looks as if he has everything that he
dreams of having. The money, the women, the lavish homes- these are all
things that the young black boy sees the rapper enjoying. Because in most
cases, this black boy does not live in the four bedroom, white picket fence,
two car garage home, he aspires to be like that rapper he sees. The lyrics
of rap music are extremely damaging but the images can be considered far
worse. Scholar Tricia Rose states that “the impact of the visualization of
music, videos, how an artist looks not sounds, have a deep effect on music
culture” (Rose 1994). The images that the rapper portrays, the scenes in
the music videos have an ever lasting effect on the young mind.
The young black male internalizes the images he watches on television
and formulates his ideas on manhood and black identity. He learns about
money, alcohol, and women just by watching the male rappers on the
television. He sees in the videos that male rappers always have a surplus
of women around them, learning that, as Robert Staples notes, “there are
thousands of women very anxious to have sex with a famous black man”
(Staples 2006). For the young black, fatherless boy, the rapper has become
his hero as Scholar Garth Kasimu Baker- Fletcher says, “Like it or not rap
has become the preeminent street form of countercultural art and discourse
for contemporary African American youth” (Baker-Fletcher 1996).
The black family structure has become a major problem in the black
community. It is my belief that the root of all problems in the African
American community is the African American family problem. Having a
stable and strong family structure is important to any ethnic group. As
scholars Obie Clayton and Joan Moore state,
“In most cultures, the family represents the foundation that nourishes
achievement, provides support, enhances self esteem, shapes our ideals and
goals and tempers our behavior” (Clayton and Moore 2003).
Having a strong family can help shape us into positive members of
society. Because the black family structure is weak, primarily because of
the absent father, we are producing “men” and “women” that are not ready
to enter society as mature adults.
The percentage of black children being born into a single parent (most
of the time, single mother) household is alarming. I find it quite disturbing
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
17
that it is the accepted norm for black parents to be separated. In fact,
society makes it unbelievable that two black people can have a loving
relationship. Bell hooks writes that “Images of loving black people are
often deemed unrealistic no matter the class of the characters portrayed”
(hooks 2001). Nowhere in media and society today are we shown images
of healthy black relationships. And amongst our peers, we simply do not
believe that one can come from a positive two parent household or that
one could even achieve true love themselves. Our black male/female
relationships are extremely disturbed and non genuine.
A good male friend of mine is a product of divorced parents. He once
told me that he did not even know what love was and if it existed. It was
really disheartening to hear him talk about it. At the age of six his first
relationship encounter was with his cheating father and abused mother.
From this early age he began to believe that two black people could not be
happy together. When we discussed relationships and love he would often
state that forever does not exist. He was extremely cynical about ever
finding a woman he could marry. He even stated if he ever did find that
woman, he was afraid that the ways of his father would resurface within
him and he would not be faithful. He made it clear that he wanted to settle
down one day and be faithful, but I found it interesting for him to
acknowledge the fact that the lack of a positive father figure has had a
negative effect on his view of black relationships.
Throughout my life, when I tell people that my parents are still married,
over 25 years strong, I am met with surprised expressions and remarks. I
am also disturbed in the fact that my parents being happily married had
been deemed as luck. In the black community I am lucky because I grew
up with both parents. And while I am not ungrateful for that fact, I just do
not like that in black families it is luck that holds love together. In other
families it is normal. One is not lucky. One is just like everyone else. So
no, I do not think that I am lucky because I grew up with both mother and
father. I believe my parents both understood and valued the importance of
family and a strong love ethic. They made a mature decision to be married,
and in doing so they knew that they were going to work hard to stay
together forever. I believe many men and women in the black community
rush into relationships and parenthood at a young age and therefore are not
ready for adult situations and relationships.
It appears that in the black community it is accepted and okay for a man
and woman to have a child and not be together. It is not even questioned.
Nor is having a child out of wedlock looked down on. It has gotten to a
point where it is common nature. In a Washington Post article entitled
18
Chapter One
“Dad, Redefined”, journalist Neely Tucker interviewed fatherhood activist
Tony Dugat on his ideas of black fatherhood. Dugat stated,
“Guys are doing what they learned at home. They care about their kids
emotionally but they don’t see it as odd that they don’t live with them. You
can’t tell them they’re doing something wrong because their life
experience tells them its completely normal” (Tucker 2006).
I could not agree more. These young fathers grew up without their
fathers, and around them there is a lack of black married couples, so why
should they think they are in the wrong? Mind sets in the black community
have made it completely normal for fathers to see their child maybe every
other weekend, to send a check, and to get the child for a holiday or two.
The alarming and yet no so alarming amount of black single mothers
struggle, and often have children who end up struggling as well. As a
single mother it is often harder for them to be there for their child in all
aspects, all of the time. They are often busy working two or even more
jobs. This is life for them; they make the best with what they can. They
must make something out of nothing but this something could be far
greater with husband assistance. Nelly Tucker in her Washington Post
article entitled Being A Black Man: Dad, Redefined wrote that
“Many single women make it work. But according to the census, children
in mother-only families, regardless of race, are more likely to live in
poverty, be arrested as juveniles, or have children in their teenage
years…all things that lead to a life time of difficulty” (Tucker 2006 A01).
This cycle keeps going and going. History often repeats itself. Many
teenage mothers come from teenage mothers themselves who too have
struggled to make ends meet. These children of children act out what they
know, what they grew up around. Not to say that children of single parent
households do not rise up or do not break the cycle ever, there are
PLENTY of success stories. But, most people learn by example. And the
majority of black children do not have an example of a loving and healthy
male-female relationship in their lives. A great line from rapper Lupe
Fiasco in his song Ghetto Story is as followed,
“…the babies that were born in the late eighties that now have babies that
lack pampers…and they lack santas. No kwanza. And the father who
thinks that shopping is the answer. Skipped out on parenthood classes so
he don’t know how to handle it…” (Fiasco lyricsandsongs.com)
Beyond Money, Cars, and Women: Examining Black Masculinity
in Hip Hop Culture
19
Lupe Fiasco, often given the title of a conscious rapper, raps a story of
what is taking place in many urban communities. First he starts this frame
by discussing the problem of children having children. “Babies born in the
late eighties that now have babies”. In 2007, children born in the late
eighties are not yet 21 years old. At this age it could be assumed that the
child is probably uneducated (even if in college, most students graduate at
the age of at least 22). He notes that these children who have children are
often poor as he states “they lack pampers and they lack Santa’s”.
Christmas is a holiday in which children are eager to receive gifts, but in a
poor economic situation, Santa Claus often does not exist for them. Most
notably, Lupe Fiasco touches on a very common phenomenon in the black
community. Young fathers, who generally do not raise their children, think
that showering their babies with gifts makes up for their absence in the
child’s life. I have seen many black fatherless babies who are adorned in
the latest name brand clothing and sneakers. For the father who knows no
better, this is his way of parenting.
I agree with Obie Clayton and Joan Moore when they write that
“Marriage represents the foundation of the family. Without marriage, the
concept of family changes. The once cherished two parent African
American family is vanishing”.
A few lines later they write,
“The failure of black men and women to marry is understood to be a
leading factor in the crisis affecting today’s African American family”
(Clayton and Moore 2003).
The problem is black men and women are getting into relationships and
having children while they are still children mentally. Usually they do not
enter a relationship and the father becomes a mere “baby daddy”. There
also lies a problem in the way in which black men and women view
relationships. Black men, as they learn from many aspects of hip hop
culture, are respecting black women less and less. They see women for
sexual advantages only, and view women as gold diggers, bitches, hoes,
and people who cannot be trusted in general. Mark Anthony Neal writes
that
“In many ways the images and lyrics used to objectify women of color in
hip hop videos serve as metaphors for the ways that American society
actually treats those women” (Neal 2005).
20
Chapter One
The bigger picture is that in American society black women are still
seen as sexual objects. Black women are still expected to fit into a few
designated roles such as the jezebel and the mammie. Once black women
come out of these roles they are seen as a threat. Black male rappers have
played into these stereotypes by exploiting black women as sexual objects
in their music videos. More tragic than white society objectifying us is our
own black brothers, and even our own sisters who chose to reduce our
status to pieces of meat.
Black women on the other hand view black men as no good and they
feel they do not need them. Black men do not respect black women and
black women do not respect black men. Mutual disrespect in the black
community is a major component to the problems that are perpetuated. We
must change the ways we view each other so we can begin to correct and
improve our relationships, thus rebuilding the black community.
Since the black mother must assume the role of both mother and father,
the young black male still needs male influence in his life. For this, he
may turn to the streets and his peer groups. Scholar Enola G. Aird writes
that
“Without a critical mass of fathers and husbands in the neighborhood,
young boys hang out on the street corners trying to figure out for
themselves what it means to be a man” (Aird 2003).
The young black male also finds a role model in popular culture,
specifically the young and black male rapper he sees on television. The
young black male rapper, close in age, is someone to which the black boy
easily relates. Many hip hop artists come from meager beginnings (or at
least pretend that they do) and vocalize rap stories of going from rags to
riches. The black boy feels like the rapper understands his struggle
because he went through a similar struggle. This artist becomes the young
boy’s role model and teaches him everything he thinks he needs to know
about being a man.
One aspect of the miseducation of the black boy that is learned through
the music videos is the idea of the angry, strong black man. Scholar Todd
Boyd writes that “Rap represents the emotional rage of urban, mostly
male, existence” (Boyd 2002). Rap music is the one place where black
men are allowed to express their true feelings, their angst, anxieties, and
anger about being a black man in white America. Scholar Merlin R.
Langley states that
“Thus, for many black males, violence is perceived as the only tool for
achieving a sense of masculinity, respect, and status” (Langley 1994).