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I personally never grew up with religion. I’ve only been to church on a handful of occasions, and all I’ve learned about religion was through school, from those who practice and discuss their beliefs, and through music. Despite my lack of a religious background or past, though I’ve never really connected with such beliefs expressed… Continue reading
The Get Down just keeps getting more and more raw. In Kuttner and Hammond’s (Re)building the Cypher, the two take a look at the historical significance of the ‘cypher,’ “consisting of a circle of people who take turns performing, rapping, dancing, singing, etc,” in hip hop and the attempts of rebuilding hip hop communities that… Continue reading
What do we all know?..Sex Sells! Which is why we love Cardi B honesty. As a society we are obsessed with getting answers on an artist sexuality. Do I solely blame hip hop for this? NO. The same way I would not blame jazz or rock and roll. On p.158 of the Hip Hop Wars, “Surely hip hop didn’t create sexism, but far too much of it glorifies and encourages its growth and maintenance.” Yes, they play a part on pushing sex but like the reading states Hip Hop is not responsible for sexism. Early in the reading there’s a quote from Russell Simmons, “The truth is, misogyny is not a hip hop created problem. Misogyny is a deep-seated problem that is embedded in the historical evolution of the United States as a nation.” As the saying goes nowadays “Where is the lie?”. As the reading states We chase artist for years like Queen Latifah, Will Smith, Micheal Jackson, Ne-yo, Oprah Winfrey.. to do what? Either make them more relate able or be judgemental to their every move based off of their sexual preference. This is nothing new from slavery to the AIDS epidemic sex is used to control us one way or another. We see Mylene struggle with what she has been taught and what she is being told. Everything that is being thrown at her is if she does not promote sex she will not be a star. As the Hip Hop War notes “Sexism has been described as the practice of domination of women.” We see Dizzee trying to figure himself out, imagine his character being played today? He would be considered “suspect” for hanging out with blondie, probably end up on one of the blogs mentioned in Rumor Has It. Suspect of what? Minding his own damn business lol. I think the best phrase to sum up these episodes and readings is what Mylene said trying to “BREAK FREE”. We see Ezekiel deal with racial context like “puerto ricans wear pointy shoes to kill the roached in the corner”, Shaolin making ends meet the best way he knows how, Dizzee with his sexuality, RaRa as the level headed mastermind behind it all and BooBoo fighting poverty. One way or the other I feel like we are all trying to break free from those check boxes society has placed on us.
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… Continue reading
One thing I would like to focus on is sexism within Hip Hop. I noticed that within The Get Down, the b-boys, DJs, MCs, and graff artists were majority men. Books, Shaolin, and the rest of the Get Down Crew would wear clothes that covered their whole bodies and sometimes they rapped about sexual acts… Continue reading
These last few episodes of The Get Down has been kind of wild. From Mylene singing on live TV to Boo-Boo selling drugs, there has been a lot of influence that music and money has had over individual characters. Yet, I want to focus more on how Mylene’s career at Marrakesh Star Records is a little… Continue reading
Episodes 7, 8 and 9 of The Get Down focus largely on Zeke and Mylene following their dreams. Mylene’s worth is tied to her sexuality, her father sees her as worthless whenever she expresses any. Women expressing or repressing their sexuality has been an issue since the beginning of hip hop. Although sexism did not… Continue reading
In The Get Down season 2 Mylene disco career is taking off for her. She’s becoming a disco star. When these episodes progress you can see that she is getting less and less control over her career in the music industry. “Sexist ideas often rely on labeling and controlling the value and expression of women’s… Continue reading
In episodes 8 and 9 we see how Mylene’s disco career is growing immensely, but with this growth she is being controlled more and more by men from the studio and her father. Mylene has no control over her career, and this is shown explicitly in episode 8 before and after her performance in the… Continue reading
There was a whole lot going on in these three episodes. A whole lot of sexist and misogynistic behaviors from a lot of the cis men, especially Mylene’s dad and Roy. Sexism, according to the reading, is the “practice of domination of women” (Rose, 151) which is exactly what both men are doing in two… Continue reading
