The Get Down 7,8,9_LOZANO

Published on: Author: lozanoa2 Leave a comment

The last few episodes of the “Get Down” have been crazy. Right when it seems Zeke has a secured future through his internship, an altercation with Shao gets in the way and Zeke is left to choose between loyalty to his people or an opportunity for his future. In the end Zeke ends up choosing loyalty to Shao and his people over going to Yale because he feels it’s the best decision at the moment and also fears that going to Yale would change him or take him away from expressing who he really is through music. Throughout the show Boo turns to selling drugs and Mylene’s career also seems to be taking off until she finds herself stuck between pleasing her father and record label producer Roy. While reading Tricia Rose’s “Hip Hop Is not responsible for Sexism” It brought me to think about the concept “Sex sells” as it was brought up in the Get down. Women in the music industry can never fully make it or get praised solely on their talent and musical abilities, there’s always a body attached to the voice and in hip hop especially female artists are highly sexualized. I feel for Mylene throughout episodes 8 and 9 because this is the time in her career to figure out who she is as an artist and what she authentically wants to represent, but instead she’s being limited by her father and music producer Roy. On one hand her body, image and whereabouts are limited by her father and his need to impose his religious values on her and on the other hand Roy is threatening to pull the plug on giving her an album unless to conforms to the oversexualized image he wants her to portray as an artist. The reading made a good point by saying that Hip Hop is not the source of sexism but that our society is sexist. When connecting this reading to the episodes I realized that while Hip Hop artists should not be encouraging sexist language and behavior…the artists aren’t the only ones to blame. The music industry is sexist therefore producers like Roy will only see sex and hyper sexualized women as the “main way” to get sales. It’s a shame because Mylene truly does have an amazing voice, but now she may start to see herself as not good enough.

 

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