Today we have a guest post from the amazing Yesenia Guadalupe. Nicaraguan-American activist, artist, writer, and DJ, Yesenia is based in Miami and shares some of her wealth of knowledge on Feminist Hop-hop with us today. Yesenia writes weekly articles for https://collective.fatwomenofcolor.com/ and you can support her fantastic work directly at patreon.com/myxxfly.
By contributing author, Yesenia Guadalupe Berrios
For generations of women and femmes who grow up with hip-hop music and culture, there exists a complicated duality; hip-hop may be simultaneously problematic and misogynist but also empowering. As a genre, feminist hip-hop is hip-hop (characterized by syncopated beats and rapping), which forgoes lyricism from a male-centric lens (that is often exploitative to women), and instead centers lyricism with an intersectional feminist and sex-positive worldview.
Feminist hip-hop is an outlet for disenfranchised women and femmes of marginalized backgrounds to voice their social, economic and political realities on the mic because after all, the personal is political. While feminist hip-hop existed since the beginning of hip-hop’s roots in the mid-1970’s Bronx with female MC’s like Sha-Rock, it wasn’t given cultural context until 1999. This is when the term Hip-Hop feminism was coined in Joan Morgan’s seminal text When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost. This work presented folks with theory that highlighted the complexities of post-civil rights era feminism which for many is inextricably linked to the genre and culture of hip-hop.
The first time I was exposed to feminist hip-hop was when my best friend Zalykha brought The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to our middle-school. We listened to the entirety of the album during our library-multimedia class, but the bliss of being seen as a young girl in all of her complexities extended far beyond that first listen. Feminist hip-hop had yet to be explicitly named, but it gained notoriety that year, 1998, because of Lauryn Hill’s canonical solo-album. Retroactively, examples of feminist hip-hop already existed in the musical zeitgeist with artists like MC Lyte, Lisa M, and songs like 1993’s “U.N.I.T.Y” by Queen Latifah, and 1995’s “None of Your Business” by Salt-N-Peppa which paved the way for women like Lauryn Hill to excel in hip-hop’s male-dominated ecosystem.
Since its inception, feminist hip-hop has taken on a life of its own due to the undeniable power of storytelling and the Black and Brown women and girls who make up the majority of the genres rappers and MC’s. The 2018 Somos Guerreras Latin-American tour for example featured feminist hip-hop artists Rebeca Lane, Audry Funk, La Voz Nativa and Nakury packing venues and workshops while entertaining and educating the masses on issues like machismo, femicide, and abortion rights. Feminist hip-hop continues to spread worldwide as a response to hyper-masculinity and the violence perpetuated by gender norms. By reclaiming their space in a patriarchal society feminist hip-hop artists infiltrate pop culture and challenge listeners to examine oppressive narratives, while simultaneously honoring the spirit of political resistance that is the very essence of hip-hop.
Musical Passport 