Hip hop feminism is about embodying feminism while not necessarily taking on the title. Or maybe a hip hop feminist will embrace crunk feminism, a “particular brand of hip hop feminism, a percusive feminism that finds its way, its mode, its articulation in the spaces of noises, cacophony, and controversy (Cooper).” Hip hop feminism speaks up when feminism ™ does not, when black women are being “verbally abused” in “rap misogyny” (this speaks to the constant sexualization and dropping the title “bitch” towards black women in rap music), it means “acknowledging the rampant sexism in our community” and “relinquishing the comforting illusion that black men and women are a unified front (Cooper)”. Hip hop feminism fights battles against the problems within hip hop itself. In the “Solare-izing article” Jenell Navarro speaks about how hip hop (rap in particular) can (and in my opinion SHOULD) be used to fight injustice.
Feminism ™ often has a white woman’s face attached to it (and a white woman’s body too). It often rejects hip hop culture as a whole, hip hop feminism and the many brands that it comes in (crunk feminism, indigenous feminism) stands for the brown and black bodied people who feminists ™ often leave out. While some women embrace a new form of feminism, others reject the title at all. This can be seen a lot in the graffiti community (or possibly graffitera). There are many graffiti grrlz who embody feminist action while rejecting the title (often by fighting for their sisters and claiming public space how men are expected to do). I believe it is not the title that matters, because actions speak louder than words.
Cooper, Brittney C., “The Crunk Feminist Collection.” The Crunk Feminist Collection, The Feminist Press, 2017, pp. 169–184.
“Doing Feminist Community Without ‘Feminist’ Identity.” Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in Hip Hop Diaspora, by Jessica Nydia Pabon-Colon, New York University Press, 2018, pp. 73–107.
Navarro, Jenell. “Solarize-Ing Native Hip-Hop: Native Feminist Land Ethics and Cultural Resistance.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, vol. 3, 2014, pp. 101–118.
