Gangsta Misogyny: A Content Analysis

¶ … Gangsta Misogyny: A Content Analysis of the Portrayals of Violence Against Women in Rap Music, 1987-1993," Edward G. Armstrong explores the prevalence of misogynistic lyrics in gangsta rap, analyzing the genre through a sampling of music that is representative of the genre. Armstrong argues that a key element contained in "hate speech" is the "understanding that people do things with words, that speech acts assault their victims" (Armstrong, 2). The analysis of lyrical content of the sampling of music shows that 22% of the songs analyzed contain violent and/or misogynist lyrics. Eminem alone, in 2000, was responsible for 78% of the same content. Given the small percentage of violent and/or misogynist content, gangsta rap continues to teach, promote, and glamorize violence and misogyny (13).

"Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas: Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap Music" by Charis E. Kubrin explores the factors that influence the lyrical content of gangsta rap music. Kubrin argues that "street code" is a product of "neighborhood processes," but neglects the influence of popular culture that may reflect, reinforce, or advocate street-code norms (Kubrin, 361). Kubrin's analysis of lyrical content of gangsta rap music takes a sampling of 403 songs from 1992-2000. Kubrin argues that the lyrics of gangsta rap music offer "portrayals of violence that may serve many functions including establishing identity and reputation and exerting social control" (361). Kubrin finds that lyrics provide a formula as well as a justification for violent street identities.

Sources for Violent and Misogynistic Lyrics in Gangsta Rap

"Gangsta Misogyny: A Content Analysis of the Portrayals of Violence Against Women in Rap Music, 1987-1993" by Edward G. Armstrong and "Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas: Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap Music" by Charis E. Kubrin analyze the representation and meaning of lyrical content in gangsta rap music. Armstrong delves into the textual meanings conveyed in a small sampling of music that ranges from 1987 to 1993 while Kubrin further analyzes the influence of street life on rap music from 1992 to 2000. Through the analysis of gangsta rap lyrics, and the influences thereof, insight is provided into the depth of violent and misogynistic messages conveyed by rap artists.

Armstrong contends that the rap genre is reliant on lyrical content and rappers avoid word play and the use of metaphors, and instead convey their message directly, eschewing lyrical subtlety (Armstrong, 99). Thus, the lyrical, contextual, and transcriptive analysis of the genre is facilitated. Through interpretive analysis of rap's lyrics the narrator provides the listener with a first-person view of modern urban terror (99). In order to better analyze the messages conveyed in gangsta rap music, specifically the misogynistic undertones of the genre, Armstrong sampled lyrics from 490 songs performed or produced by thirteen artists from 1987 to 1993. Analysis of the lyrical content of these songs revealed that only 22% of the songs had violent or misogynistic lyrics (101). The most popular misogynistic themes represented in these songs were pimp-prostitute associations and intimate relationships (103). Armstrong criticizes scholars' reluctance to analyze and critique gangsta rap's musical content citing that music has been identified with its violent and misogynistic lyrics while being plagued by the myth of aural violence (106). Gangsta rappers have exploited the image they have developed and conveyed through their music, commercializing their messages of violence and misogyny. With the commercialization of the gangsta rap genre, specifically with the success of Eminem, the message of violence and misogyny garnered widespread attention. Given the sample of songs analyzed, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog were responsible for three of cases of violence and misogyny of the 107 songs analyzed during the period of 1987 to 1993. Eminem, on the other hand, changed the balance drastically. While the period analyzed revealed that violence and misogyny references comprised 22% of the songs sampled, Eminem in 2000 had violent and misogynist references in 78% of his music. Furthermore, violence towards women, specifically the murder of women comprised 31% of the larger sample, while Eminem referenced the murder of women in 82% of his lyrics (109).

To understand what factors drive and influence the messages conveyed in gangsta rap lyrics, one must look to the environmental influences of the artist themselves. Kubrin examines the motivating factors represented in gangsta rap lyrics through the analysis of a sampling of music from 1993 to 2000. Kubrin's analysis excludes music produced after 2000 as she notes that 2000 marks a turning point in rap music industry "whereby production values more clearly addressed commercial competition, pushing cultural production and reproduction aside" (Kubrin, 367). Kubrin notes that gangsta rap differentiates itself from other types of rap as it is a musical expression of ghettocentricity," which engages "black youth cultural imagination that cultivated varying ways of interpreting, representing, and understanding the shifting contours of ghetto dislocation" (361). Kubrin identifies "the extreme, concentrated disadvantage and isolation of black inner-city communities coupled with the quantity and potency of drugs and availability of guns" as social-structural community characteristics that form the "code of the street" that influences the behaviors of individuals and emerges in the lyrics of gangsta rappers (363). Kubrin contends that street code can be viewed as a source or inspiration for rap lyrics and therefore can be understood to be a reflection of black urban youth culture (365). Rap lyrics offer insight into a culture in which violence is both appropriate and acceptable. These lyrics provide explicitly detailed "instructions for how to interpret violence, degrading conduct and…create possibilities for social identity in relation to violence (366). Violent behavior cannot be attributed to the violence described in the lyrics of gangsta rap music. Because music can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, rap and the genre's lyrics are "appropriated and embedded into specific individual, familial, and community fields of reference" (366). Both street codes and rap music lyrics do not incite action, rather provide "an accountability structure or interpretive source" which people can reference to better understand violent identity and conduct (366). To better understand the role of the street code in rap lyrics, Kubrin analyzed 130 albums (approximately 1,922 songs), sampling 632 songs. This sample was further analyzed to determine the role of various street code elements such as respect, willingness to fight or use violence, material wealth, violent retaliation, objectification of women, and nihilism. The percentage of references to the above themes is as follows: respect-68%, violence-65%, material wealth-58%, violent retaliation-35%, nihilism-25%, and objectification of women-22%. Contrary to the popular belief that rap music lyrics are rife with misogynistic references, this study, as well as Armstrong's study, reveal that misogynistic references do not pervade rap music lyrics (369).