Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

Byron Hurt, a documentary filmmaker, takes a deep look into the representations of manhood in hip-hop culture through his 2006 documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.  Hurt wanted to break down the hip-hop culture into bits and pieces and learn why rappers project such an immense image of toughness.  Hunt explains the two main components to masculinity in this hip-hop culture; Verbal ability and the ability to negotiate violence.  In order to be in this box of masculinity, you need to be a player, a pimp, have a lot of money and girls, strong, tough, etc.  Hunt further explains that if your not any of these things, your soft, your a chump, your no one.  Even if your not this tough guy, you need to make people believe that you are.

Through their physical image and lyrics, rappers exert themselves to be violent, tough, a ladies magnet, and homophobic.  Although many of the rappers do not agree with this portrayal, they are told that it is what you need in order to be successful in this hip-hop culture.  As Fat Joe said in the film, he said how everyone “wants to be hard” and he constantly wonders why rappers cant just “smile at each other”.   This portrayal in this culture is transferring into our society, telling fans that in order to be a man, you need to act like this. 

Another aspect to the hip-hop culture is the constant objectification of women in music videos.  Although objectified females are everywhere in American culture, as Sut Jhally says in Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, in music videos women are only presented as a sex object, with little room for imagination.

One aspect this film did not focus on so much are women artists in the hip-hop culture.  I am a huge fan of Nicki Minaj, and I have recently realized that she also portrays this tough image through her songs.  Furthermore, she tends to contribute to the objectification of women by calling herself extremely degrading names, such as in the song, “Romans Revenge”, saying “I’m a bad b****, I’m a c***, and I’ll kick that hoe, punt”.  What is even more shocking is Eminem’s part in this song.  After a long verse about a “dumb blonde white broad with fake tits and a bad dye job”, Eminem continues degradation by rapping, “So I tied her arms and legs to the bed set up the camera and pissed twice on her, Look, two pees and a tripod!” (Below is a youtube clip of the song with lyrics)

I really enjoyed this documentary because it focuses on problems in our society that are not really seen as an immediate issue we need to confront.  The objectification of Women is something I am extremely interested in and is something that I cannot ignore.  From songs titled as “Bitches aint shit (but hoes and tricks)” to Eminem’s “Smack That”, our culture needs to halt this objectification and educate those who feel this is appropriate behavior.