“Black feminism taught us to love ourselves, fight for our revolution, and to prioritize our own freedom.”

“Hip hop gave us something to bob our heads and shake our hips to.”

These quotes from The Crunk Feminist Collection open up the introduction. Crunk feminism emerged in the South as an interpretation and expansion on Joan Morgan’s “hip hop feminism”. Their argument was that 1970’s –style Black feminism, nor hip hop seemed like they wanted to allow the modern day Black woman to exist in the world around her on her own terms. Both hip hop and feminism of the past were part of the Black woman’s every day-

-And they refused to give up either-

Joan Morgan coined the term “hip hop feminism” in her book When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down. This term stemmed from the fact that feminism ignored the Black woman’s experience and was incredibly elitist. Morgan said, “for my generation [the Feminist movement is] abstractions from someone else’s history”. The feminist part of hip hop feminism is allowing Black woman to explore who they are as woman, not who they are in relation to men, male dominance, the patriarchy, or as victims. We, as woman of all ethnicities, take feminism of the past for granted. Birth control, right to save abortions, the right to vote, the educational and job opportunities we have today are just some examples of what these woman of the past fought for. But, hip hop feminism fucks with grays of enjoying the male gaze, performing femininity and enjoying the “in your face testosterone” that Morgan refers to. Hip hop, like hop hop feminism samples and layers together many voices. No one voice tells the truth.