Reflection Paper

. . . . . . . . . . . . Bring Wreck to Those .

Who Disrespect Me Like a Dame: Women, Rap, and the Rhetoric of Wreck

men of the Hip-Hop generation, like the Black women who t before them, find themselves in a similar position of trying to

navigate a space for themselves in a Black-male-dominated public discourse. While we cannot say women of the Hip-Hop generation

the same spaces in the public sphere as their foremothers, we ay with some degree of certainty that the way Black women

of the past navigated the public sphere has had a direct effect on the way Black women of the Hip-Hop generation feel they can move

. withn this sphere. Quite fi-ankly, by the time we reach the Hip- 1 Hop era, Black women have generations of conditioning to stay in I the background while Black men claim the limelight. We also have

a history of seldom speaking out against Black manhood even when it poses a direct threat to Black womanhood. We also have, how- ever, glimmers of Black female outspokenness that grabs public at-

n and disrupts the Black male dominance of the Black public sphere. Examples of these instances surfaced when Michele Wal- lace wrote Black Macho and the Myth o f the Superwoman and had the nerve to go on T V and defend her ideas; when Ntozake Shange wrote lZor Colored Girls W h o Have Considered Suicide and the play

it all the way to Broadway; when Alice Walker wrote the The Color Purple and it was adapted as a feature film; whe11

1 I B r l n g Wreck t o T h o s e W h o O l s r e s p e c t M e W o m e n . Rap. a n d R h e t o r l c of W r e c k

Terry McMillan wrote the novel Waiting to Exhale and it too was adapted as a feature film. Each of these instances of Black female

1 1 t i

ture. Rather, I am more concerned with documenting the ways Black women of the Hip-Hop generation intervene in the public

outspokenness was met with tremendous outcry from the Black sphere and the wavs they bring wreck to it.

public sphere. They were lambasted by Black men and even some Black women for portraying negative images of Black manhood or showing Black men in a negative light. Some people even accused them of the classic "airing dirty laundry." ''& Rhetoric of Wreck

I

It is these legacies-both those of the Black women who were outspoken and those of the women who allowed Black men to shine in the Black public sphere--that I believe the women of the Hip-Hop generation build on. While women of the Hip-Hop gen- eration do not dominate the movement by doing the majority of the work to ensure the movement's success, as the Black women in the civil rights and Black Power movements did, if we look care- fully, they are the ones doing the meaningful work. They are the activists, the ones trying to use Hip-Hop to create meaningful change. I expand on the theorization and definition of wreck in Hip-Hop by thinlung about its uses as a rhetorical tool that builds on Black womanist traditions and a Hip-Hop present. I am con- cerned with the ways the rhetorical practices of Black women parti- cipants in Hip-Hop culture bring wreck-that is, moments when Black women's discourses disrupt dominant masculine discourses, break into the public sphere, and in some way impact or influence the U.S. imaginary, even if that influence is fleeting. While bringing wreck may not change the world in drastic or even long-lasting ways, it is my hope that by shedding light o n those crucial moments in Hip-Hop culture where Black women have brought wreck, we wdl be able to make more meaningful use of future moments of wreck.

So far, I have examined the historical lineage of bringng wreck as it pertained to Black people throughout U.S. history and their in- tervention in the larger U.S. public sphere. I have explored wreck as disruptions that somehow shifted the way Black people were viewed in the society at large. Bringng wreck does not always change the world, but it is capable of malung small and meaningful differences. As a way of thinlung specifically about the potential in- herent in Black feminist change, bringng wreck offers new possi- bilities for the potential of Black women's speech and action.

The phrase "bringng wreck" is used in Hip-Hop typically to signify skill and greatness: the rapper is so good, has so much skill, that he or she wrecks the microphone. Or, the break dancer can bring wreck by outdancing all other competitors and making others afraid to approach the dance floor because they cannot compete. Often, bringmg wreck is used in a boastful manner, such as Queen Latifah's refrain "Check it while I wreck it, sing it while I bring it." She is telling the crowd to pay attention to her because her rapping slulls are so good that she can do damage with her very words. It is also used as a form of praise. After rapping, deejaying, or break- dancing very well, one could be told something like: "You brought wreck! Your style is nice! You wrecked it!" In short, when a mem-

Exploring various theoretical texts and histories of women in Hip-Hop provides a sense of the space that has been allowed to them and serves as an opening to think about how they use that space to create a rhetoric of wreck that allows them to combat the factors that hindered their foremothers. I am not so much con-

ber of the Hip-Hop generation is really good at what he or she does, that person is praised for bringng wreck.

Bringing wreck is also used to connote damage already done. A member of the Hip-Hop generation may marvel, for example, over the aftermath of a twister, hurricane, flood, or tropical storm by say-

cerned with writing women into Hip-Hop history; I assume their presence. Neither am I concerned with documenting the work of p * v n - r ~ = m ~ l pr2nnPr or everv woman involved with Hip-Hop cul-

ing, "Ilamn, Mother Nature brought wreck!" It can also connote anger and a desire or intent to d o real damage. For example, the woman who caught her partner cheating might say, "Oh, no hc

IBring Wreck to Those Who Olsrcspect Me Women. Rap. and Rhetorlc of Wreck

didn't. He don't know who he's messing with. I will bring wreck" before she breaks a car windshield or trashes an apartment. AU of these shades of bringrng wreck contribute to the kinds of wreck Black women participants in Hip-Hop culture exhibit. However, the wreck that I want to focus on can best be described as a rhetori- cal act that can be written, spoken, or acted out in a way that shows resistance. Bringng wreck, as the term is used here, is a rhetorical act that has close ties to various other speech acts that are often linked to Black womanhood: talking back, going off, turning it out, having a niggerbitchfit, or being a diva. Each of these actions has simultaneously been embraced by some Black women as a marker of unique Black womanhood and renounced as the stereotypical Black woman stance by others. For example, while most Black women would relish the fact that they can tell people o& put them in their place, and leave them speechless, they do not embrace the stereotype of the neck-moving, eye-rolling, loud, hand-on-hip, Sapphire-like Black woman throughout the popular and dominant cultures. Serious attention is begrnning to be paid to this gift of gab that seems to represent Black women, and critics are coming up with descriptive names for tallung that talk.

Black women's speech acts-what they say, and how and where they say it-are garnering some critical attention. The ways Black women come into and develop language have been taken up by linguists, cultural critics, and well-known writers who offer their own accounts of coming into language and voice. In these accounts and inquiries into Black women's language use, we get the begin- nings of an understanding of the potential inherent in Black women's speech and action. Linguists such as Denise Troutman- Robinson and Geneva Smitherman are already laying out the im- portance of Black women's speech for sustained resistance against oppression. Troutman-Robinson notes that due to the systemic na- ture of oppression in the United States, Black women have had to develop and pass on to future generations of Black women a form of verbal and nonverbal expression that combines politeness with assertiveness.' It is necessary, in a society that harshly stereotypes vmlr UJomanhood and seeks to render you invisible, to assert your-

: self and make yourself visible. However, it is also necessary to main-

; tain a degree of civility and politeness while being assertive. Smitherman maintains that we must develop a womanist lan-

I guage for the twenty-first century that "speaks the truth to the peo- ~ l e . " ~According to her, we must build on the legacy of our foremothers and draw on their linguistic leader~hip.~ "Is the African

t*., - American Verbal Tradition the purview of Black men only? What are the discourse options available to Black women? W h o is the Black woman, and how do a Black woman ~ o u n d ? " ~ Srnitherman

: finds that Black women do indeed lay claim to the African Ameri- can verbal tradition: they signify, play the dozens, and "talk hit."^ For her, and for myself, the challenge lies in channeling Black

i: women's use of language toward meaningful change. Part of har- i nessing the power and potential of Black women's speech and ex-

: pressive culture is recognizing how Black women come into 1 language and examining the spaces in which that speech and ex- : pressive culture occurs. The spaces that have been found thus far I' are the ktchen and the garden.

Black women's speech and expressive culture have been limited in the public sphere due in part to circumstances discussed earlier in

' this work, such as maintaining community, promoting Black man- hood at the expense of Black womanhood, and constantly vindicat- ing Black womanhood against misrepresentation. They have also been limited because the places in which they have been allowed

: to thrive have been devalued. It is only recently that we have begun to reclaim the legacy of Black women's language and expressive culture as it is found in the everyday spaces of their lives. Writer f i c e Walker finds these legacies in the gardens of women like her mother, who found a way to express their creativity through mag- nificent gardens and splendid quilts in spite of the oppressive and repressive states of their lives.6 Writer Paule Marshall reclaims these legacies from the poets in the kitchen, women like her own mother, an immigrant from Barbados, and her friends, who sat in the kitchen and talked with one another about everything from child rearing to politics to the economy to war. Their responsc to being made to feel invisible was to take their mouths and make them into guns. Amongst each other, in the kitchen they were

I Brlng Wreck to Those Who Olsrespect Me Women. Rap. and Rhetorlc of Wreck

heard; they were validated.' Black feminist cultural critic bell hooks lalSo remembers her mother and other Black women talking in the lurchen, and it is from them that she learned how to talk back, even as she, Eke the young Paule Marshall, was not allowed to join in on g-own-folk conversation.

The concept of "talking back" as a Black women's rhetorical stance is crucial as we move from a discussion of the what and where of Black women's speech and expressive culture to a discus- sion of the potential and possibility inherent in bnngrng wreck. Bell hooks notes that talking back is more than expressing one's creative power. Taking back is a challengng political gesture of resistance to forces that render Black women nameless, voiceless, and invisible. Talking back is "a gesture of defiance that heals . . . that is no mere gesture of empty words, that is the expression of our movement fiom object to subject-the liberated voice.""ringng wreck draws on Black women's speech patterns such as talking back in that it too is concerned with resistance and liberation. However, it also builds on a legacy of Hip-Hop in which a more stylized rhetor- ical presence is used, drawing o n grander elements of show and spectacle than talking back.

Bringng wreck also builds on and moves past other Black wom- en's speech acts such as going off, which writers Faye Childs and Noreen Palmer describe as the Black woman's unique way of deal- ing with anger and fmstration. For them, going off is an unhealthy way of dealing with anger-and it feeds the stereotypes of Black womanhood. They identifj two levels of going off, the "sista sass

I level" and the "Sapphire level." The sista sass level is "the type of angry response that include[s] slanted eyes, angled body posture, ti- tled heads, and sashaying on about our business when finished speabng our minds ."The Sapphire level is "an escalated angry re- sponse that takes an argument to the extreme.""' The Sapphire sis- ter loses perspective, can become abusive, and uses violent tactics. Some aspects of going off are clearly present in bringing wreck; if we think of bringing wreck as the Hip-Hop continuation of Black women's rhetorical traditions, then the connections become all the more expected.

r h ; l A r ndp31- eoing off is a direct effect of the "invinci-

ble Black woman syndrome."" They argue that Black women struggle to maintain an appearance of strength while denying their limitations and sometimes their weaknesses. They believe that Black women are so used to denying their own needs, anger, and hurt that it often builds up, and the end result is going off." This uncontrolled/uncontrollable state is where going off and bringng

V r e c k part ways. Bringing wreck is a decided act, not an unavoid- able breaking point. While there is a level of being fed up involved, the women of the Hip-Hop generation who enact a rhetoric of wreck do so after making a conscious decision to speak out. They are bringng wreck in order to create change.

Similar to going off, turning it out is another speech act that is linked to Black women. Linguist Karla Holloway sees turning it out as the Black woman's response to being made to feel less than a grown woman, like a mindless person with no character, integrity, or common sense. Black women are usually treated this way when others buy into the stereotypes surrounding Black womanhood. For Holloway, turning it out could mean "handing over to our ad- versary our version of the stereotype that motivates their disrespect to us-just to prove to them that they could no better handle the stereotype than they can determine or control our character."I3 Turning it out coincides with bringng wreck more than going off does, because it is a conscious act. O n e decides to turn it out; one does not just snap after constant abuse or neglect. At the moment when the Black woman realizes that she has been disrespected, she proceeds to turn it out in a willful act, in the spiritual tradition of "I shall not be moved."

Similarly, the niggerbitchfit is a stance that some would place in the realm of stereotyped representations of Black womanhood. For writer Jill Nelson, the niggerbitchfit is a powerful rhetorical tool for change, "what happens when a nice colored gr l , having exhausted all possibility of compromise, communication, and peaceful conflict resolution, turns into everyone's worst nightmare, a visible grown- up Black woman mad as hell and with nothing to lose, and opens her n ~ o u t h . " ' ~ It is thc embodiment of righteous anger and rage, a response to being fed up. Or, in the oft-quoted words of Fannie Lou Hamer, the niggerbitchfit surfaces when one is "sick and tirrd

I

IBrlng Wreck to Those Who Disrespect Me

ofbeing sick and tired." Nelson sees it as a revolutionary act that is !

an expression ofrage against attacks on Black womanhood from just about all aspects of society. To as a niggerbitchfit, the act has

to be a public display. Nelson believes that the best niggerbitchfits are those that are strategc and collective, when Black women speak out loudly together in righteous anger and outrage against disre- spect that impacts all our lives: "At its best it is a tool for uniting, organizing, channeling rage into collective power, and that collec- tive power into the ability to effect change."15 It is the potential for collective niggerbitchfits that becomes appealing when thinlung about the possibilities for Hip-Hop feminism bringng wreck in Hip-Hop culture. If we could envision ways to harness the collec- tive power for bringng wreck within the Hip-Hop generation in order to combat the sexism and misogyny within it and outside of it, then we would no doubt be able to use this power to effect meaningful change.

Diva is another term that has been used to describe Black wom- en's public speech acts. Lisa Jones's "bulletproof diva" is the Black woman who recognizes her own beauty and strength because she realizes that the larger society will never validate her or even be able to comprehend her true worth. For Jones, the bulletproof diva is not "the emasculating black bitch too hard for love or piety. It's safe to assume that a Bulletproof diva is whoever you make her- corporate grl, teen mom, or the combination-as long as she has the lip and nerve to raise up herself and the ~ o r l d . " ' ~ The bullet- proof diva as a construct of the third wave of Black feminism, which Lisa Jones represents, is crucial to understanding the concept and ultimately the potential of bringing wreck. The definition of the bulletproof diva has within it implied activism. In order to qual- ift, one must be linked to the tradition of community uplift. How- ever, this Hip-Hop version of uplift expands further than the Negro communities of old. The bulletproof diva potentially raises both herself and the world.

The possibilities for the bulletproof diva having an impact on the world becomes evident when we read her in conversation with Lauren Berlant's notion of "diva citizenship," which provides the framework for an understanding of how the diva and subsequently

Women. Rap. and Rhetoric of Wreck

bringng wreck can be used in the counter-public sphere of Hip- Hop and the larger public sphere to evoke change. Berlant writes, "Diva citizenship does not change the world. It is a moment of emergence that marks unrealized potentials for subaltern political activity. Diva citizenship occurs when a person stages a dramatic coup in a public sphere in which she does not have privilege.""

*Although diva citizenship does not have world-altering strength, Berlant recognizes it as a moment when the normally unprivileged diva is able to grab the public, captivate the public, and subvert at-

! tention away from the dominant story line. She ceases to be invisi- I ble, reinscnbes herself into the public space, and provides a retelling

/ of the dominant history. While holding the larger public captive i and telling her story, the diva bids others to not only acknowledge j her suffering but identify with it. The diva's retelling and reinscrib-

ing become pedagogical moments for the larger public and compel

i them to want to change and be better human beings. Ultimately it t is these pedagogcal implications that bringng wreck is most con- : cerned with. When a woman of the Hip-Hop generation is able to I build on the legacy of Black women's activism, expressive culture, i and speech acts and grabs hold of the public sphere by bringng

wreck, there must be the potential for change. Ultimately, the mo- ment of bringing wreck should bring those who witness it to a dif-

: ferent understanding of Black womanhood, even if only momentarily.

Women. Rap. Wreck

Most examinations of rap music and Hip-Hop culture critique rap as a masculine discursive space and seldom look a t Black women's experiences within this space. With the exception of critiques of misogyny and sexism in rap music and Hip-Hop culture, how rap music and Hip-Hop culture influence Black womanhood goes un- explored. Several Hip-Hop scholars have begun to take on the task of writing women into the history of Hip-Hop and validating the creative contributions of women to the field. They have written

I Brlng Wreck t o Those Who Olsrespect Me Women. Rap. a n d Rhetorlc of Wreck

women and rap music provides a rich starting ground for explora- tions into the ways Black women use the whole of Hip-Hop cul- ture to not only assert agency, claim voice, grapple with and create images, negotiate sexual and body politics, evoke Black feminism, continue lineages, and empower themselves, but also lay claim to the public sphere and subvert stereotypes and domination by bring- ing wreck.

Cheryl Keyes argues strongly for the centrality of women's voices in rap music, noting that they are not incidental and have added significantly to the genre of music. Her essays " 'We're More Than a Novelty, Boys': Strateges of Female Rappers in the Rap Music Tradition" and "Empowering Self, Malung Choices, Creat- ing Spaces: Black Female Identity Via Rap Music Performance" place the artistry of female rappers on the map and lend credence to their skills. She notes that early women rappers, while shedding light on the female perspective of life in urban America, often em- ployed strategies such as appropriating male performance behavior and directly contradicting male standards as a way to gain recogni- t i ~ n . ~ ~And she shows that their co-opting of b-boy stances did not stop them from borrowing from foremothers such as comedienne Jache "Moms" Mabley and song stylist Millie J a c k s ~ n . ~ ~ Like the revisionist historians discussed earlier, Keyes firmly locates women in the rap continuum. She also places female rappers in four catego- ries: the queen mother, the fly gr l , the sista with attitude, and the le~bian.~'For my own purposes, categorization of women rappers is not beneficial, since lines blur and identities constantly intersect. I am more interested in the ways women rappers resist easy catego- rization in defining their own identity and negotiating representa- tions of Black womanhood. Therefore, the way they grapple with images and deal with sexual politics becomes crucial.

Venise T. Berry, Tricia Rose, Eric King Watts, and Kyra Gaunt have begun to think about the ways women rappers deal with con- flicting female images and sexual politics In Hip-Hop. Berry ex- plores the development of a Black feminist voice in rap music via a struggle for positive images and Black female identity construc- t i~n.~"he also exanlines the way women rappers resist stereotypes. Rose sees women rappers as a part of the dialogic process in rap and

notes that there are three dominant themes in women's rap songs: "heterosexual courtship, the importance of female voice and mas- tery in women's rap and black female public displays of physical and sexual freedom."29 Watts notes the potential for an empowering eroticism of the female voice in Hip-Hop. He examines the power of the erotic to lend women control over their own representation and by extension the entire rap game itself.30 And Gaunt finds that there is a direct lineage between the games that Black women grow up playing and their contributions to Black expressive cu1tures.j' All of the research that has been completed on Ulack women in rap is crucial and sets the foundation for further study. Frankly, com- pared to what has been written about men, there has not been enough of a focus on women and rap. Therefore, what currently exists becomes crucial for further studies. I find that these early works formulate not only a history of women in rap but also the beginnings of a theoretical body of work aimed at understanding women's participation and the societal elements that influence and/ or inhibit that participation.

Rap music and Hip-Hop culture, as an example of a youth movement that crosses gender, sexuality, race, and class, becomes an excellent example of public displays of intersections and contact zones, providing an ideal space to examine the way difference is simultaneously constructed and navigated. The ways Black women find a voice and establish a presence in this arena further nuances the ways difference is negotiated in this particular youth movement. What happens when Black womanhood enters Hip-Hop culture? How does that presence bring wreck to commonly held ideas about gender and difference? And what impact does this wreck have on the larger societal public sphere?

I believe that Black women participants in Hip-Hop culture have developed key survival skills and formulated various ways to bring wreck to the stereotypes and margnalization that inhibit their in- teraction in the larger public sphere. Through Hip-Hop culture, a generation of Black women is coming to voice and bringing wreck. These women are attacking the stereotypes and misconceptions that influenced their lives and the lives of their foremothers. And they are maintaining a public presence while they counter the negative

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F" I Brlng Wreck to Those Who Olsrespect M e I Women. Rap. and Rhetorlc o f Wreck i:

representations of Black womanhood that exist within Hip-Hop culture. Usually when they are able to grab public attention by bringng wreck, these moments become instances when everyone pays attention. Queen Latifah's "U.N. I.T.Y." presents one such in- stance.

"U.N.I.T.Y.," which won a Grammy in 1993, presents the per- fect starting example of a Black woman bringng wreck in Hip-Hop in a way that has implications for change both within the counter- public sphere of Hip-Hop and the society at large. In this song, Queen Latifah builds on the legacy of promoting and fostering community and vindicating Black womanhood left by her Black womanist foremothers by calling for unity. Love of the Black com- munity is evident in the song's refrains: she chants that Black men and women should be loved "from infinity to infinity." The song is also an instance of outspokenness in that she calls attention to sexual harassment, domestic violence, and the influence negative images of Black womanhood have on young Black women.

The first verse of the song is a critique of society that calls into question beliefs about "proper" dress and being able to walk on the streets free from harassment. Queen Latifah's story of wallung down the street in cutoff shorts on a hot day and being groped by an un- known man carries with it the experiences of millions of women who walk down the street and receive catcalls from strangers and the millions of women who suffer more than verbal abuse, the women who are attacked or raped. Queen Latifah's story is the in-

\ between, in that she is not raped but she is touched in addition to the verbal harassment of being called a bitch. Because it is in- between, it serves as a pedagogcal moment in the diva sense of bringng wreck. It has the power to call into question not only what happened to Queen Latifah but also all of the variations, such as what could have happened to her and what has happened to many women. As we listen to Queen Latifah, we realize that no matter how short the pun-pun shorts a woman is wearing, it is not okay for a man to make lewd comments. And it is definitely not okay for a man to touch, fondle, rape, or otherwise invade the sanctity of her body and her personal space. Queen Latifah's lyrics make us call Into question a variety of acts that occur daily in the objectification

of women, from catcalls to physical harassment and rape. And by

b. doing so she brings wreck not only to "those who disrespect [her] like a dame," but also to notions ofwhat is acceptable in our society in regard to women and their bodies. While this form of wreck does not s o past the initial moment when the song was released and constantly played on the airwaves, it does represent a moment when the masses of people were thinking about these issues collec-

w v e l y . Queen Latifah's strong message has feminist undertones, even if

Queen Latifah herself does not identify as a feminist. When asked if she was a feminist, Queen Latifah balked: "I don't even adhere to that shit. All that shit is bullshit! I know that at the end of the day,

: I'm a Black woman in this world and I gotta get mine. I want to i see the rise of the Black male in personal strength and power. I i: wanna see the creation of a new Black community for ourselves and

respect from others."32 Queen Latifah, then, appears to be a Hip- : Hop embodiment-minus the cursing of course-of the Black

clubwomen who went before her. She has definite goals that do not include the label "feminist," but her agenda, because she is a Black woman, certainly overlaps with feminist causes such as harassment and domestic violence. However, the vindication of Black woman- hood is a trait she shares most strongly with the Black women who went before her.

Queen Latifah also tackles the impact that negative representa- tions of Black womanhood found in rap lyrics have on the young Black women who listen to it. In addition to letting the listener know that she is neither a bitch nor a ho, she also challenges the image of the gangsta bitch popularized in the rap lyrics of some men rappers and questions the usefulness of this image to young Black women. This critique is important because often young women lis- ten to these lyrics minus any real critique, and they emulate the kind of woman that the men rap about. The gangsta bitch, in an era of gangsta rap, becomes the epitome of Black womanhood; she is what young women strive to be in order to gain acceptance from the men. Queen Latifah brings the reality of this kind of lifestyle into focus when she cautions young would-be gangster girls about the possibilities of being shot or having their face sliced with :I knifc

I Brlng Wreck to Those Who Disrespect M e

I by another gangster g1r1.~~ Her words of advice are an example of bringng wreck because she actively seeks to uplift and create change. Queen Latifah is reaching out to a younger generation of Black women in order to teach them the reality of trying to emulate the kind of woman some rappers-ln this instance her own friend rapper Apach-rap about as the ideal woman. The reality for the gangsta bitch is she could be shot and killed, or she can be scarred for life with one slice of the knife. This image is a very different image than the "ride or die chicks" that most men rappers paint in their lyrics, the down-for-whatever, hard-core shortys who will do anything for their men. Queen Latifah offers the reality, and by doing so she brings wreck.

In the second stanza, Queen Latifah calls attention to domestic violence and represents a woman who has had enough and finally leaves the abuser. She paints the picture of a woman who has come to the realization that love does not come with physical pain. Queen Latifah's 'lyrics are forceful and empowering. She lays out the facts and suggests actions that the woman can take. Even though she tells the story in the first person, the message, the pedagogical moment, comes as a stated fact that is directed at the listener: "A man don't really love you if he hits ya." This well-placed statement broadens the implication of bringing wreck further. It makes the story bigger than the teller and includes the millions of abused

I women suffering around the world. Queen Latifah brings wreck by bringing the issue of women's abuse into focus for the society at large and causing us to question both the abuse against women and our own action or inaction against it.

Similarly, Eve's "Love Is Blind" brings the issue of domestic vio- lence into both the counter-public sphere of Hip-Hop and the larger public sphere. Eve, however, does not take on the persona of the battered woman, as Queen Latifah does in "U.N.I.T.Y." She instead takes on the persona of the vengeful best friend. She threat- ens the abuser with murder throughout the song, which ends with her killing the abuser. Similar to Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y.," Eve uses the song as a pedagogical moment. However, it is a lesson aimed not only at the women who suffer abuse but also at the men

Women. Rap. and Rhetorlc of Wreck

who abuse. For the men, the message is clear: keep beating up on women and you might catch a bullet and die. For the women, the message is similar to the one found in Queen Latifah's lyrics: men who really love you do not hit you. Eve makes use of rhetorical questions throughout the song to highlight her point by essentially asking if a man who really loves a woman would g v e her a black eye, make her cry every night, and ultimately cause her to wish for

* his death.s4 Eve is bringing wreck not only by rapping the lyrics and L

i posing these questions. She also expands on the activist elements of bringng wreck by building institutions aimed at combating the

!- problem. She started the Love Is Blind foundation to address do- r,

j t mestic violence issues in more significant ways than a song ~ o u l d . ~ '

She too has a mission of uplift similar to that ofher Black foremoth- ers, and she would like to see a collective effort of women in the

r Hip-Hop generation uplifting each other. She notes, "A lot of 1

women tell me I uplift them. . . . We gotta do it collectively. . . . I 1

see how a lot of women disrespect themselves. When we change our actions, men will change their minds. I think a lot of women get tired of hearing that shit. I'm glad that women feel like I can uplift them."36 While Eve's words may seem a bit naive in terms of the exact amount of influence women's actions have on the men rappers who use the words bitch and ho, she is on to something in her desire for the collective action of Black women. This collective action could take the form of the collective niggerbitchfit that Jill Nelson encourages. O r it could be as simple as Black women col- lectively deciding not to deal with men who do not respect Black womanhood, as Rebecca Walker recommends in "Becoming the Third W a ~ e . " ~ ' The important point is that songs such as "Love Is Blind" and "U.N.I.T.Y." inspire the desire for collective action. Eve's "Love Is Blind" and the second stanza of Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y." build on the diva qualities of bringng wreck in that they offer testimonies aimed at changng the world, or at least the way we think about women's place in it.

Within each rapper's delivery and style of rap there are other ele- ments ofbringing wreck. These are most evident in the music vid- eos of these songs. In the "U.N.I.T.Y." video, for example, Queen Latifah raps the lyrics from a telephone booth, and she is yelling

1 I Brlng Wreck to Those Who Disrespect Me

into the phone in a manner that can best be classified as turning it out or going off. In the video for "Love Is Blind" Eve represents the calculated and thought-out stance of a woman ready to turn it out or, better yet, navigate a niggerbitchfit. She studies the situa- tion; throughout the video, she is on the side examinirig the scene. The video, unlike the lyrics, does not end with her killing the abuser. She does use the gun to threaten him, but the event culmi- nates in a bright beam of lights and doves flying into the air and hlm on the ground alive. The video version, more than the song alone, serves as a pedagogtcal moment. Both songs' lyrics and vid- eos offer examples of the ways Black women have used rap music to bring wreck.

"SheUsed to Be M y Girl": Hip-Hop As Woman and the Issueof Representation

As S. Craig Watluns notes in Representing: Hip-Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema, Black youth view representation prac- tices as important and vital for both the political aspects and the pleasurable aspects of their lives. They use both aspects in combina- tion with representation to respond to a world that is becoming in- creasingly saturated with communications media. Representing, as Black ~ o u t h in the Hip-Hop generation see it, expands far beyond the common definitions of the word. They have created a culture of representing that includes "a complex set of practices, styles, and i n n o v a t i ~ n . " ~ ~The spectacle of representation then becomes a styl- ized manner of conveying to the world-via the various media available through Hip-Hop-the plight of the Hip-Hop generation as they see it. For this historically margnalized and invisible group, the spectacle is what allows them a point of entry in the public space that has proved to be violent and exclusionary. As Watkins notes, "For many Black youth, the sphere of popular culture has become a crucial location for expressing their ideas and viewpoints about the contradictory world in which they l i ~ e . " ~ ' The counter- public sphere of Hip-Hop allows them the space and tools to voice

Women. Rap. and Rhetorlc of Wreck

their views on the world and their own lives, to represent in ways that only they can.

A common form of representing that occurs in Hip-Hop is men rappers representing Black women and Black womanhood. This representing plays out in a variety ofways, but the most often noted is the representation of Black women as bitches, hos, stunts, skeez- ers, hoochies, and chickenheads. All of these derogatory representa-

-tions have been the subject of much feminist criticism of rap. Likewise, there has been a lot of focus on representations of Black women as strong Black mothers or dear mamas (not to be confused

( with baby mamas and their drama) and Black queens. These are the ! more positive representations that serve as the flip side to the

1 bitches, has, and so on. These lunds of representations help remix P

i the classic madonna/whore split, These are also the representations [ that Black women rappers seek to bring wreck to by countering the I lyrics and adding their own stories and voices. Such representations j

1 o f Black womanhood garner the most attention, both from the I women rappers who speak out and from the feminist thinkers who

offer critiques. Other representations that are just as problematic but perhaps a bit more complicated do not receive as much critique

i I or outcry. One such representation is that of Hip-Hop gendered [

feminine. fj

k A representation that can be read as at the same time positive and 1 negative is that of Hip-Hop itself being represented as a woman.

The use of woman as a symbol for Hip-Hop can be compared to b. 5 historical uses of woman as symbols of both nation and virtue

throughout time. These kinds of representations of Black women in rap can be compared to early American representations of wom- en's place in the public. Theorist Mary P. Ryan writes of early American women who were not allowed to speak publicly but in- spired public speaking. These women were the center of toasts and honored at civic celebrations, but they were not allowed to com- mand the public space and speak. These women were also used as

! public symbols: they stood for and represented liberty and civic vir- tue and served either as outcasts or ornaments but never as wantrd and validated public speaker^.^" So, basically, we can have a woman

i Statue of Liberty and a statue of the goddess ofjusticr each repre-

1

I Brlng Wreck to Those Who Dl5respect Me Women. Rap. and Rhetorlc of Wreck

senting the key virtues of our public sphere, but women were not free to formally get up and argue a case for liberty and justice in the public realm. These national symbols and virtues can be compared to the practice of gendering Hip-Hop feminine.

Perhaps the most widely recognized version of this particular form of representation of woman as symbol in Hip-Hop is found in Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R." The song breaks down the history of rap music and Hip-Hop culture, representing Hip-Hop as a woman that Common loves. He first met her when he was ten. He takes us on through Hip-Hop's Afrocentric and pro-Black stages and is quite upset when she goes to Los Angeles and becomes too commodified. He mourns the mainstream's co-optation of Hip- Hop, blaming commercialization and a wave of gangsta rap for ru- ining the pure Hip-Hop he used to know, but he vows to save her.4'

The video for Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R." offers the visual image o f the story he tells in the lyrics. We see him as a youngster in his room listening to Hip-Hop music. We also see a young, beautiful Black woman dressed in old-school Hip-Hop gear. Although we rarely see her face, we see lots of her body. The video follows this young woman, the female embodiment of Hip- Hop, through various stages. The clothing she wears and the situa- tions she is placed in represent the key stages of Hip-Hop culture. However, Hip-Hop gendered feminine has no agency. She is some- thing men rappers love, something they do. She does not act; she is acted upon. She does not do; she is done. T h s is evident in the video when we see how helpless the female embodiment of Hip- Hop is in the face of the forces that would seek to destroy her, such as capitahst exploitation, commodification, and gangsta culture. No matter how positive the image of Hip-Hop as a woman seems, as a symbol, i t does nothing to encourage women's agency and partici- pation in Hip-Hop. As a symbol, the woman is never as strong as the men who possess her and use her for their own ends.

' Common's rendering of Hip-Hop as a woman inspired others to

offer their own gendered representations of Hip-Hop. One exam-

' representations that seek to gender Hip-Hop masculine have also surfaced. In addition to the letter to Hip-Hop written by feminist journalist Joan Morgan in her book When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost, in which Hip-Hop is not only gendered masculine but

k represented as a once loving partner who has lost his way and be- ? r' came abusive, a recent film and a song from its sound track also seek i!. k, ..... to represent Hip-Hop in the masculine. Brown Sugar and a song C* iG-from its sound track by Erykah Badu titled "Love of My Life (Ode i i to Hip-Hop)'' both rely heavily on the Common song and fall short

!' of fully bringng wreck to the gendered representations of Hip-Hop i. as feminine. Although Badu sings of her love for Hip-Hop and gen- g ders Hip-Hop masculine in her lyrics, she (re)presents a different I version in the video, in which she herself embodies Hip-Hop. She

becomes like the beautiful Black woman in the Common video and goes through all the various stages of Hip-Hop. She even wears a variety of colorful T-shirts that are clearly marked "Hip-Hop." Even though Erykah Badu's video fips back to representing Hip- Hop as a woman, she at least has agency and is represented as fully active in the video. We see her face as well as her body. She is break-dancing, deejaying, and rapping. She acts. She has agency and in this way brings wreck to the representation that Common offers of the female Hip-Hop.

The film Brown Sugar at first glance appears to gender Hip-Hop as masculine. Written by Rick Famuyiwa (who also-along with Todd Boyd-wrote the Hip-Hop-inspired coming-of-age story The Wood)and Michael Elhot, the film remixes the romantic com- edy genre for the Hip-Hop generation. Famuyiwa also directs the film, and Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs play the lead characters, Sid- ney Shaw and Andre "Dre" Ellis. Hip-Hop symbolizes a multitude of things in this film. It represents the friendship and growing ro- mantic feelings between Sidney and Dre, and it also represents each to the other. For example, throughout the film, Sidney is working on a book that she titles I Used to Love Him. The book is a letter to Hip-Hop that documents and traces its growth. It is also a letter to Dre that conveys how Sidney really feels about him. Similarly, Sid-

ple is the Roots song "Act Too (The Love o f . . .)";" another is in ney represents all that is true and pure about Hip-Hop for Dre. the Tribe Called Quest song "Bonita Appleb~m."~Wther , While these embodiments of Hip-Hop appear to move us away recent

I

1 IB r l n g Wreck t o Those Who Disrespect Me

from the typical representations of Hip-Hop gendered feminine, the film cannot sidetrack this common trap. The references and im- ages in the film clearly show that here, just as in the Common song and the Erykah Badu video, Hip-Hop is gendered feminine. The character of Sidney overwhelmingly and consistently represents Hip-Hop throughout the film. From the signature delicate gold nameplate she wears in every scene except those in which she is formally dressed to the way she acts as the barometer for what is real Hip-Hop, Sidney, more than any other character in the film- even the MC Cabby, played by Mos Def-represents Hip-Hop in ths film.

A constant refrain in the film is the question that Sidney asks each of the rappen she interviews: "So, when did you fall in love with Hip-Hop?" The film starts out with a series of men rappers, DJs, and well-known rap record label owners contemplating that ques- tion. Rappers such as Method Man and Black Thought, DJs such as Pete Rock, and record label owners such as Russell Simmons and Jermaine Dupre all recollect the songs and artists that made them fall in love with Hip-Hop. Not surprisingly, all of these men name other men and songs by other men. While this initial fiarning of men naming and listing other men as the sparks that ignited their love for Hip-Hop may seem to effectively gender Hip-Hop mascu- line, we need to look at the scene more carehlly to get the true meaning. It is Sidney who poses the question each time. It is she they seek to impress with their answers. She might just as well be saying, "So, when did you first fall in love with me?"

Likewise, even though Dre represents Hip-Hop to Sidney in that her letter to Hip-Hop doubles as a love letter to him, Sidney also represents Hip-Hop to Dre. I t is her validation that he seeks and craves throughout, both through the music reviews she writes and through the look in her eyes, to let him know if he is remaining true to real Hip-Hop. In proving himself worthy of Hip-Hop, Dre is ultimately trying to prove himself worthy of Sidney. Sidney is also, for Dre, the woman who is like Hip-Hop. In a New Year's Eve toast, it is Sidney, not his wife, who receives the ultimate praise and compliment. ]>re toasts Sidney by likening her to "the perfect verse over a tight beat." And he closes the toast by adding, "To

W o m e n . Rap. a n d Rhetor l c o f Wreck

I t Hip-Hop." By likening Sidney to what is quintessentially Hip- ! Hop-the perfect verse over a tight beat-and collapsing Sidney b i and Hip-Hop, Dre effectively one-ups Tribe Called Quest's praise L

in "Bonita Applebum." Sidney is more than a Hip-Hop song; she is Hip-Hop.

i

I There are several other subtle instances in the film that work to ! place Sidney in the role of Hip-Hop and that gender Hip-Hop fem-

*inine. The last instance that I will discuss here stems from the film's title, which also represents Dre's dream grl in the movie. "Brown sugar," according to llre, stands for the woman who is "definitely wifey material, fine, smart, classy, but not a snob, hella hella sexy,

; but not a ho." The fact that the screenwriters chose to title the en-

c tire movie based on this one statement by Dre effectively exhibits

1 the film's ultimate gendering of Hip-Hop as feminine in the movie. i. Not only is Hip-Hop at its purest considered brown sugar, so is

Sidney. I

I These kinds of complicated representations in which women are meant to stand for all that is good and pure g v e way to the kinds of conflicted representations to which women of the Hip-Hop generation have a hard time brinpng wreck. Like the early Ameri- can women, women of the Hip-Hop generation are used to repre- sent symbolically and are discouraged from claiming a public voice and representing for themselves. The struggle to claim a space in the masculine sphere of Hip-Hop leaves women fighting not only the historical stereotypes that plague Black women but also the negative images and misconceptions attributed to Black women in Hip-Hop culture. In an effort to claim a space for themselves, Black women involved with Hip-Hop culture must continuously bring wreck.

Bringing Wreck: Confronting and Changing Images and Representations

13lack women of the Hip-Hop generation are not content just to be n synlbol of Hip-Hop; in acts of resistirlg and renegotiating thc inl-

I Bring WrecK to 7 hose wno ulsrespect Me

ages that men rappen have used to represent women within Hip- Hop, they have sought to bring wreck to the images. The most widely quoted and recognized example of this h n d of wreck comes from Queen Latifah with songs such as "U.N.I.T.Y." and "Ladies First." Women rappers from Queen Latifah to Salt-N-Pepa, YO- Yo to Missy Elliott, and Roxanne Shante to Eve bring wreck to misrepresentations of Black womanhood in Hip-Hop culture and rap music by their very presence in this counter-public sphere. Their physical presence as real women, not symbols, helps to shake

I up notions of "a woman's place." The fact that they use their lyrics to bring women's issues to the forefront of rap music and Hip-Hop culture further disrupts the commonly held misconceptions and misrepresentations of Black women in Hip-Hop. This wreck and disruption take place on a variety of levels, two of which I'll men- tion here.

The first disruption I explore takes place in what some have called the sister of Hip-Hop: spoken word. Two spoken-word art- ists who speak out and bring wreck to the negative images of Black womanhood that exist in Hip-Hop culture are Jessica Care Moore and Sarah Jones. Both women have a stage presence that can easily be labeled Hip-Hop. They also infuse their poetry with sentiments and images farmliar to the Hip-Hop generation. And both poems that I will discuss here were performed on the show that blends spoken word with rap, DefPoetryJam.

Jessica Care Moore says, "I'm a Hip-Hop cheerleader / carrying hand grenades / and blood red pom porns / screaming &om the sidelines of a stage I These words not only flip the script on the stereotypical image of woman as cheerleader, but also bring into focus the lineage of Black women standing on the sidelines cheering Black men on and working diligently to build and shape the Black public sphere. Moore's words effectively add herself and women of the Hip-Hop generation to that lineage. Throughout the poem, she complicates notions of women's place in Hip-Hop by

1 bringng to the surface women's significance to the growth of the Hip-Hop movement. She also criticizes the negative images and messages that come out in the music. Moore writes:

I'm a Hip-Hop cheerleader I buy all your records Despite the misogyny Not looking for the blond in me. . . I'll be your number one fan I'll scream the HAY'S I'll tolerate all your hoes I'm a Hip Hop cheerleadeF5

Moore uses spoken word both to claim a voice and to bring Hip- Hop to task. She incorporates and signifies on Hip-Hop phrases such as "hey, how and uses them to question and critique misogyny. She uses the poem ultimately to explore the larger relationship be- tween Black men and women.

Sarah Jones seeks to disrupt the images of Black women as sexu- ally promiscuous and the limiting of Black women's worth to their vagnas. Her poem "Your Revolution" has the mantra-like refrain "Your revolution will not happen between these thighs," signifying on Black Power movement ideas about "pussy power" through its remix of Gil Scott Heron's classic "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and also signifies on Hip-Hop's constant references to sex that end up objectifying Black women. Jones flips the script and uses the rappers' own words to disrupt their objectifying narratives. In front of each of the men rappers' lyrics Jones adds the refrain "Your revolution wdl

O f course, the rappers who make booty songs are not thinhng about revolution. Jones is, however, and by doing so she is more than building on the militant poet foremothers of the Black Arts movement. Beneath the repetitive refrains is the hidden question that brings wreck to the booty-focused factions of Hip-Hop: "Why are you not thinking about revolution instead of being obsessed with sex?" This critique brings the reader to question why indeed rap music does not have more uplifting and powerful messages to g v e us.

Sarah Jones's "Your Revolution" for a while was played on the same radio stations that played the rap music she critiqued. As a re- sult of her taking the rappers' own lyrics and using them in her

I

I Brlng Wreck t o Those Who Olsrespect M e Women. Rap. and Rhetorlc o f Wreck

poem, the Federal Communications Commission labeled "Your ~ ~ v o l u t i o n "indecent and fined Portland radio station KBOO seven thousand dollars. The fact that she had to fight to get the FCC to reverse its decision and clear her poem of the indecent label exemplifies the very real repression that can occur when Black women speak out and bring wreck. Jones notes, "Hip-Hop is the most important tool our generation has in terms of expressing the different layers of our reality. . . . It's fine if rappers want to be ball- en, but just because I'm a woman doesn't mean that I'm nothing but body parts in a song. . . . My words were meant to tell everyone from Jay-Z to Bigge, I love your slulls, but here's what I would love to hear contributed to the c~nversa t ion ."~~ The controversy of the FCC's 1999 decision and Jones's subsequent fighting of that decision has made an impact on the larger public, with numerous articles appearing in various media. She has the public attention, and this allows her to bring wreck in the diva sense because this moment is a pedagogcal one that we wlll look back on and think about in terms of not only free speech but also the objectification of women in rap music.

The second level of disruption I will focus on here moves from the genre of spoken word to that of rap and takes into consideration a rapper who most people would not credit with combating stereo- types. Foxy Brown, with her hypersexual persona, at first glance would appear to epitomize the hos and bitches that men rappers rap about and spoken-word artists such as Jessica Care Moore and Sarah Jones speak out against. Foxy Brown, in fact, often claims these la- bels for herself. The reclamation of terms once considered deroga- tory is widely debated, but I will not enter that debate at the present time. I wlll offer, however, that rappers such as Foxy Brown, Trina, Khia, and Lil' Kim can showcase the double standards that have plagued women throughout the ages. For example, in "My Life" Foxy Brown raps about the double standards that exist for men and women rappers. She raps about the fact that if she is unpleasant, people call her either a bitch or rude. However, they find the same behavior in men amusing. She also notes that men who have multi- ple partners are called macks, while women are called whores.4H Foxy Brown brings wreck to age-old double standards and claims a

2 space for herself as a woman in the sphere of rap. She is also claim- 1

j ing her right to be who she wants to be in that sphere, whether she I

\ is considered rude or sexually promiscuous. She also notably ad-

i dresses the misconception that men are involved with rap for the b love of it. Examples such as Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R."

/ and The Root's "Hip Hop You the Love of My Life" highlight widely held beliefs that only men can have "real" love for Hip-

I *Hop, just like only men can have "real" rapping skills. AU others

are in it for the money. Foxy Brown brings wreck to claims that she is in it for the money by asking, "What the fuck he in it for?" She also calls men rappers to task for the way they collapse women into categories of bitch and ho based solely on gender.

Foxy Brown's "My Life" offers but one example of the lund of wreck that Black women rappers bring to the counter-public

I sphere of Hip-Hop. Eve's "Love Is Blind" and Queen Latifah's I i I "U.N.I.T.Y.," both discussed earlier, are others. Missy "Misde- i i. meanor" Elliott's celebration of her right to an attitude in "I'ma

Bitch" is yet another. The list of Black women bringng wreck and thereby controlling their own representations in the counter-public sphere of Hip-Hop and the larger society is long and continues to grow each time a woman picks up a mike and wrecks it. It also grows when women involved in Hip-Hop begn to share their own experiences and stories, as Foxy Brown does in "My Life." The power of autobiographical accounts and life stories in the disruption of negative representations of Black womanhood and Black women coming to voice is also used by women of the Hip-Hop generation to bring wreck to the negative images and stereotypes that influence their lives.