A Young Gypsy: Missy Elliott
May 3, 2012
I am very worried. Extremely worried. Nikki Minaj causes all my fears. I recently just watched 3 or so minutes of her calling me a “stupid hoe” who can “suck her diznik” while wearing an outfit that can only be compared to Pepto-Bismol pink club-rat Barbie. She reiterates that she is the female Weezy as a means of proving her self worth by saying that since she is comparable to a man she is legitimate and worthy. Furthermore, she is turning on women as a means of building up her own image as a talented rapper. Not to sound like the FCC, but mainstream rap already hates women enough. I can’t tell you the odd and disturbing feelings one gets when listening to Eminem’s “Superman” and hearing lyrics like “Slap Anthrax on your tampon and slap you till you can’t stand.”
Obviously, we are now in a time in rap music where a man hating on women is not longer shocking but rather just accepted within most rap culture. Female rappers are now turning against their fellow women in order to appeal to the male-dominated mainstream rap scene. As seen with the tensions between Lil Kim and Nikki Minaj, there is a sense that there is only room for one successful female rapper.
In order to rid my mind of the image of Nikki Minaj’s music video where she stared at me like she hadn’t shit in weeks, I turned to Missy Elliot. My memories of Elliot are filled with listening to “Work It” in my closet so my mom wouldn’t her about Elliot needing “to shave her chochaÛ. In opposition to Minaj, Elliot was not a female novelty in the rap world. On the contrary, she celebrated female sexuality as a means to make a women feel proud all while exercising her talent as a rapper, regardless of her gender. In her songs there are no backlashes against women as a whole, instead Elliot’s “Get Your Freak On” is in direct contrast to the messages Minaj is propagating. Elliot acknowledges that it is difficult being a woman in today’s world but we all in a sense must ban together for support, as evident in the diversity displayed in the “Work It” music video.
Elliot raps of sexual equality in a sense that women can get as much sexual satisfaction as the male does. She does not villanize the woman for being demanding, sexual, and crude. Instead, Elliot is that woman. She defies the word “hoe” which Minaj so happily denounces others with. For Minaj to use the word “hoe” as a vehicle for criticism draws conclusions between a woman who is sexual and possibly might be assumed to have sex like a man to a “hoeÛ. Elliot urges women to reclaim their sexuality away from and work against the typical notions of femininity and beauty, while still painting this image of sexually in control women with a broad brush. She works counter to the notion that if you aren’t Nikki Minaj then you automatically must be a “hoeÛ.
By Michelle Merica
