Both a product (albums! cassettes! posters!) and a destination (rallies! concerts! festivals!), women’s music fused feminist politics, woman-staffed sound production and grassroots folk traditions to create a bold new recording and performance network. When we had no rights at all, women’s music was also the sound and site of the lesbian revolution. This year we celebrate the musicians and producers who, across five decades, gave us the soundtracks and spaces affirming our lives.
Tag: Women in Music
Black Women Having All the Fun: ‘Bongos’ and ‘You Wish’ Celebrate the Joy of Black Sisterhood
In Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion’s “Bongos” and Flyana Boss’ “You Wish,” Black women hip-hop artists create spaces for pleasure, joy and sisterhood. If this is what hip-hop’s feminist future looks like, we’re here for it.
In the Summer of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Renaissance,’ Will All Women Finally Get the Recognition They Deserve?
Currently, three women—Barbie, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift—seem to be running the world, or at least the economy judging by record-shattering tour and box office revenues. But, as in the case of Beyoncé and other female artists of color, this success does not translate to deserved recognition from prestigious institutions.
“The message young women absorb is that unless you are a one-in-a-generation talent like Lauryn Hill or Whitney Houston, female artists of color can kiss goodbye any hope of wide-scale recognition by the Recording Academy.”
Surviving Hip-Hop: The Ms. Q&A with Drew Dixon
Our hip-hop series “Turning 50” concludes this week just as the official anniversary of hip-hop’s 50th birthday kicks off the weekend.
Ms.’ final conversation is with Drew Dixon—a producer, writer, activist, entrepreneur and former A&R executive. She’s been featured in multiple documentaries, including Max’s On the Record in 2020 and Ladies First this year on Netflix. The conversation featured here honors her role in U.S. culture: as a survivor of sexual harassment and assault, an activist, a truth-teller and a musical pioneer.
Southern Hip-Hop Feminists Got Something to Say: The Ms. Q&A on Hip-Hop’s Reverse Migration
Aisha Durham and Regina Bradley are both hip-hop feminist scholars who focus on the South. Both spoke with Ms. contributing editor Janell Hobson to discuss the upcoming 50th anniversary of hip-hop, the origins of Southern hip-hop, how women continue to shape the genre—and, of course, their favorite feminist hip-hop anthems. (This article is part of “Turning 50,” which recognizes the women who shaped hip-hop.)
“Hip-hop started in New York but it didn’t end there,” said Bradley. “You probably wouldn’t have a robust hip-hop scene today without the Southern sound.”
Girl Bond Summer: Taylor, Barbie and Power of Collective Joy
Girls are showing up, shaping popular culture for the better. Their choices tell us about friendship, connection, and how to forge joy in this world.
Of course, the power of girls as consumers and taste-makers isn’t new. And life remains pretty damn hard for young people. But when I see the Swifties in their ecstatic thrall, or the pink-clad Barbie hordes stampeding toward the theater, I think: We could all use a little more of that sincerity and exuberance in our lives.
Women Are Hip-Hop’s Culture Bearers: The Ms. Q&A With Elaine Richardson and Kyra Gaunt
Elaine Richardson—or Dr. E—a professor of literacy studies at the Ohio State University, founded the Hip-Hop Literacies Conference. Kyra Gaunt, an assistant professor of music and women’s, gender and sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is the author of the groundbreaking The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop (2006). She is currently writing a book on the impact of YouTube and music technologies on the sexualization of young Black girls. Richardson and Gaunt spoke with Ms. contributing editor Janell Hobson to discuss the upcoming 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
(This series is part of “Turning 50,” which recognizes the women who shaped hip-hop.)
Resisting Erasure: The Ms. Q&A With Dee Barnes, Hip-Hop Legend
“No one’s going to protect or lift up our legacy,” said Dee Barnes, the first Black woman hip-hop journalist and a member of the duo Body and Soul. “We can’t wait on the men.”
(This series is part of “Turning 50,” which recognizes the women who shaped hip-hop.)
The Hip-Hop Feminist Syllabus
The Hip-Hop Feminist Syllabus is a comprehensive resource list of sources relating to hip-hop’s impact on gender, race and feminism on the occasion of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary in 2023.
(This series is part of “Turning 50,” which recognizes the women who shaped hip-hop.)
Five Decades of Women in Hip-Hop: A Feminist Anthem Playlist
Part of “Turning 50“—an exploration of women in hip-hop and their role in the feminist movement—here are 10 notable songs and five momentous albums from the last five decades, with in-text explainers from editor Janell Hobson.