Topic: Gender


“The debt to Caribbean forms is more openly acknowledged in the ludic Afrocentrisms of The Jungle Brothers, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, which may represent a third alternative--in its respectful and egalitarian representation of women and in its ambivalent relationship to America.”

Paul Gilroy, “It Ain’t Where You’re from, It’s Where You’re at,” Small Acts: Thoughts on the Politics of Black Cultures, London: Serpent’s Tail, 1993: p.126.


VERSUS


"…[T]he gender-switching, macho approach is just another way female rappers prove to their male counterparts that women can exert full authority and control over those men who simply take them for granted.”

Cheryl L. Keyes, “We’re More than a Novelty, Boys”: Strategies of Female Rappers in the Rap Music Tradition, Feminist Messages: Coding in Women’s Folk Culture, Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1993: p. 215.