1990s-2000s: Turn of the Century and Hip-Hop Feminism

Transcript:

Coined by Black feminist theorist Joan Morgan, Hip-hop feminism is a subset of Black feminism that acknowledges the contradictions of being a Black feminist. Being a hip-hop feminist means that you push back against the white patriarchal society that oppresses Black women but still find enjoyment in certain aspects of this society such as the hip-hop music that reaffirms misogynoir.

Further, Hip-hop feminism does more than explain these contradictions. It also acknowledges the problematic, misogynist nature of culture and its formative effects on young black women and empowers them by enabling participation, response, and owning self-identification.

A great example of this participation and self-identification is Missy Elliot’s 2001 song “Work It.”

One of Elliot’s first big hits, “Work It” subverts the gender roles and expectations of mainstream hip-hop by centering Elliot’s desires and delivering the types of lines about her own body that would typically be delivered by male rappers in a way that is empowering rather than degrading.

In the first verse alone, Elliot calls attention to her “pussy,” “ass” “hips” and “tips.” Typically, male rappers would call attention to these feminine body parts in a way that is objectifying. Elliot knows this and takes advantage of the male gaze and is like “yea you see all these parts that I have and I know you want them, I know they entice you.” She sexualizes herself in a way that is empowering. Elliot knows that she is sexually desirable and knows that men want her and she uses this to engage in the type of sex that she wants to engage in and takes control of the narrative.

She tells the man to work it, work her, but she never lets him take control.

The chorus of “Work It” is incredibly notable, not just for the special effects of Elliot’s backwards lines or the elephant sound, but for the hip-hop feminst work that Elliot does in just a few lines.

The main line “I put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it” is a double entendre. The lines can reference switching sexual positions with the man for whom she is “working it”. They can also reference the way in which Elliot is flipping the rap tradition of men talking about what they want to do with women as Elliot is talking about what she wants to do to men.

In the section “Get Your Freak On,” from the book Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, Patricia Hill Collins examines the ways in which Black women are represented in the media and how Black women rappers subvert these representations, particularly those of working class Black women.

I want to highlight one paragraph of Collins’s work in particular:

“Controlling images of working-class Black women pervade television and film, but rap and hip-hop culture constitute one site where misogyny is freely expressed and resisted. Given this context, African American women’s participation in rap and hip-hop as writers, producers, and as performers illustrates how African American women negotiate these representations. In a sense, Black female rappers who reject these representations of working-class Black women follow in the footsteps of earlier generations of Black blues women who chose to sing the “devil’s music.”

Collins truly says it best here: independent, strong, self-reliant agent of her own desire. Missy Elliot truly embodies what hip-hop feminism is in “Work it.”

Furthermore, Elliot goes on to subvert misogynistic representations of women in lines such as these following lines from the verse “girls girls… ahead of the game”. Elliot is pro sex work, pro women using their bodies to accrue capital and stay “ahead of the game” rather than shaming sex workers in the way that male centered hip-hop would, Elliot encourages sex workers to continue what they’re doing, as long as they are staying on top.

In that same text, Hill Collins also talks about community building among Black women in hip hop. She says and I quote “Black women may assert independence, but they look to one another for support, partnership, and sisterhood.” In those pro-sex work lines, Elliot builds on this tradition of asserting independence but also building sisterhood with other, presumably Black, women when she encourages Black women to continue working their 9 to 5s or shaking their asses.

The last rapped part of Work It is also particularly notable. Let’s listen.

First, Elliot says to the “fellas” that she likes the way they work that. She makes them the object of her desire. The ladies however, they know how to work that. They are the subject of this line, not the object, they have agency.

Mainstream male centered hip-hop would view this the other way around, objectifying women and giving agency to men. Further, the beat switch is very interesting. While it makes sense to have a beat switch at the end of the song before Elliot’s spoken outro, the switch happens in between Elliot’s lines about men and women. This switch happening here is intentional. Like Elliot does throughout the song, she flips and reverses the representations of Black women in hip-hop. This beat switch captures the attention of the listener and focuses on the ladies who know how to work it. In a way as subtle as a random beat switch, Elliot continues her centering of women in this pro-sex song, shifting attention from the men she is objectifying to the women whom she encourages to work it.

The song ends with a discussion of dance in hip-hop. Elliot ends the five minute long song with “let’s have fun, it’s hip-hop man, it’s hip-hop.” but work it is more than hip-hop, it’s also hip-hop feminism.

Works Cited:

Hill Collins, Patricia (2005). Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism. Routledge

Missy Elliott - Work It [Official Music Video]. 2009. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjIvu7e6Wq8.

Missy Elliott – Work It. genius.com, https://genius.com/Missy-elliott-work-it-lyrics.

Morgan, Joan (1999). When chickenheads come home to roost: a hip hop feminist breaks it down. New York: Simon & Schuster.