How the Double Standard Became the Hip-Hop Standard
Rodney Carmichael Sydney Madden
Meghan broke the rules.
It’s a rule built into the rap hierarchy, a rule that explains why men stay on top and women are treated like underlings in this industry. The story predates the genre itself, but this particular story takes place in 2020. The same year that a black woman single-handedly saved American democracy, Megan Thee Stallion became the embodiment of hip-hop. She beat out Drake and DaBaby, won Artist of the Year at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, dropped the bombshell with the **”Savage” remix with Beyoncé, and linked up with Cardi B for “WAP.” baptized the global pandemic.
Megan has soared to the top of the charts. Not once, but twice. She was then shot. on her legs.
She tried to protect the black man who shot her from becoming another victim of police contact. But being a ride-or-die chick also backfired. Worse than the bullets fired by Tory Lanez was the mistrust, neglect and disrespect Megan received at the hands of culture after she refuted his lies about what happened in the Hollywood Hills that night. It became a certain kind of violence reserved for Megan and others like her, and turned out to be more tragic than the actual shooting. “I wish he would have shot me and killed me if he knew I had to undergo this torture,” she said from the stand during the criminal trial of her assailant.
From black Twitter to the White Hall of Justice, Megan’s reputation has been dragged out for filth. The character assassinations she publicly endured over the next two years may have convicted one Tory Lanez, but Megan Thee Stallion challenges her with her boundless talent and truthfulness. Firmly upheld the unspoken rule of having audacity. Being exceptional doesn’t make you an exception.
Whether Megan actually broke the code is debatable. The backlash she received is not. And Megan’s rules aren’t just for Megan.
Every culture has norms, and hip-hop is no exception. Whether they are recited in a lyrical litany, printed and posted outside the studio, or discussed in the comments section, this game has rules for submission and success. But the rulebook is not the same for everyone.
Certain rules of hip-hop, often unspoken but reinforced in behavior, apply only to women and queer artists. Rules for how you look, sound, behave, act, and rap. Rules about who to make music for. Rules about who to play against. Rules about who to sleep with and who not to sleep with. Rules about what kind of harassment is acceptable. Rules for what kind of respect you can ask for (hint: not too many). The rule of doing more with less for fear of never getting the chance to do anything.
Louder Than A Riot: Listen to “Megan’s Rule”
As with all cultures, the rules are set by hip-hop’s most dominant groups. In this case, it’s straight black men, and these rules reinforce hip-hop’s power structure, always leaving black women and those who read as black women at the bottom.
Megan’s Rule is one of the building blocks of the genre, the capitalist music industry that envelops it and the larger society that consumes it.
The imbalances that cemented hip-hop’s most misogynistic norms mimic the inequalities of larger patriarchal societies. Experience high maternal mortality Black women are three times more likely to die in domestic violence incidents than other racial groups.Black transgender people make up the highest percentage of anyone in the queer community face discrimination, affecting employment, housing security and health care. Even when you’re fighting for all black lives, you could be sacrificing black women’s own mortality.
The irony of this imbalance, of course, is that this is a Bronx genre built from the ashes. , is music created to help you imagine a better, more beautiful reality. I kept doing it.
Hip-hop is 50 years old. And despite its all-out celebration of capitalist rhetoric and conspicuous consumption, rap still has the power to scare America. But that power no longer resides in the genre’s most successful men. Instead, it belongs to everyone who has historically been marginalized. Black women running this rap s***.
The mistrust and disrespect received at the hands of culture after Megan Thee Stallion was shot by Tory Lanez proved one of the rules of misogyny and racism in hip-hop.
NPR’s Amanda Howell Whitehurst
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NPR’s Amanda Howell Whitehurst
The mistrust and disrespect received at the hands of culture after Megan Thee Stallion was shot by Tory Lanez proved one of the rules of misogyny and racism in hip-hop.
NPR’s Amanda Howell Whitehurst
The current race isn’t even close — and Meg is clearly the frontrunner — the Houston rapper’s continued abuse seems paradoxical. Her lyrical skills are unmatched, with just the right amount of sly, snarky, lustful, and surgical. (Ah!) Her party-starting confidence, bionic stage presence, southern-rooted sex appeal, body-her-body-her-audi balances the credibility of a marketer’s dream with radiant personality. I’m here. Everything you need for a 21st century rap superstar. total package. “It Girl” by almost any definition. Except for the fact that she’s black. The dominant monarch of the genre. Except for the fact that she is female.
In reality, Megan’s experience of ridicule and harassment is one of many misogyny moments in the world. In its 50-year history, many have been harassed, repressed, opposed, and silenced to find freedom in rap. Even when the occasional revolution tilts the scales toward black women and women, the boomerang effect energized by the boys’ club pulls things back to the status quo, thinly veiling power trips as acts of defending “culture.” .
Culture claimed that Roxanne Chante was not given the title of best MC in the 1985 rap battle for world supremacy. could not defend.Culture paints some of its best with its broadest, most bland strokes – Lil’ Kim everytime Nasty, Lauryn Hill is everytime Late, Nicki Minaj everytime Bitch, Azealia Banks is everytime Crazy — while giving the benefit of the doubt to men known as abusers, tyrants, and manipulators. It packs her bar of girl sex her positivity under the derogatory umbrella of “pussy rap,” and attempts to push the queer her rapper into other genres altogether.
In a way, this is how it’s always been done.Still never liked it thisBy bringing Meg to justice, culture has revealed misogynoir like never before. With tweets, memes, livestreaming, and a total disbelief in her trauma until the punchline, the culture has never felt so safe with misogyny. .
This turning point triggered louder than riotnew season. This is why we unravel how the double standard became the hip-hop standard. Being kept quiet, this imbalance of power and protection holds us all back.
Throughout its history, hip-hop’s strength has always been wielded by those who yell loudest against the entrenched forces of society. It belongs to everyone who was shut out but refused to shut up. For hip-hop to thrive for another 50 years, it will need the same fighting spirit that once made unheard-of sounds louder than riots.
It’s time to celebrate rule-breakers who refuse to play good.It’s time for an essential audit of culture. It’s time to name an unwritten rule that speaks the truth about cruelty. Then you can start erasing them.
