Rap and R&B are male dominated genres, and by a wide margin. Between the demographic, the leaderboards, and the lyrics, I’ve never listened to a rap song and been struck with the thought that, “this was made with girl fans in mind.” Even though my Spotify wrapped most-listened-to has been Hip Hop/Rap since high school, it’s been more of a love/hate situationship with the genre, rather than a steady relationship.
Men & gatekeeping
On Billboard’s list of top 50 rappers of all time, only two are women; Nicki Minaj and Lauryn Hill, and the other 96% are men. After seeing Kendrick, A$AP Rocky, and Childish Gambino, my best friend and I can confirm we felt laughably outnumbered in those crowds. To be clear, I don’t particularly like admitting that I so strongly enjoy a male-dominated genre. In fact, in my perfect world, I’d be far away from male-dominated anything.
Boys, especially in college, tend to be confused when a woman knows anything about rap or R&B. I start talking about an artist I like, and all of a sudden they make it a competition of who knows the more about this artist. It’s like they feel threatened that a space — especially one that’s overwhelmed with testosterone — is being infiltrated by a girl.
I have an ex-boyfriend who shared a lot of favorite artists with me. At first, it was fun having someone to converse with about niche songs, their best albums, why other people are wrong… but, I eventually realized that I wasn’t even in a conversation at all. He wasn’t listening to and responding to anything I’d contribute to the conversation, and rather was lecturing me on the topic. I do not play about my My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy knowledge. Needless to say, we broke up.
the Lyrics
In pop culture, male-dominated spaces come hand-in-hand with misogyny. So much of rap and R&B is about cheating on women, shaming women, and sexualizing them. So why do we still listen to it?
I have asked myself this a couple times when a lyric really rubs me the wrong way — why am I giving this song more streams and putting money in the pocket of someone who hates my gender? Obviously, it can be awkward listening to songs that degrade the gender I belong to. It, unfortunately, comes with the genre, but you can absolutely find misogyny in any corner of the music world.
I never realized it until recently, but if I don’t relate to lyrics, I don’t really process them, even if I know them by heart. I’ve always believed that the music we listen to holds power. I barely ever listen to objectively sad music (sorry Fiona Apple and Radiohead) because, well, it makes me sad. I think people are sorted into one of two groups: melody or lyrics. If you’re able to listen to and enjoy a subjectively offensive song, you might just prioritize melody.
Art Vs Artist
Tyler, The Creator is one of my top artists of all time, a fact not very well demonstrated by my (limited) credentials: Chromakopia tour, Camp Flog Gnaw ‘23, Camp Flog Gnaw ‘25. Love him, but some of his lyrics never fail to catch me off guard, especially his earlier tracks like “Tron Cat” which Taylor Swift fans (deservedly) called him out for a couple years ago.
This brings up the age-old argument of separating the art from the artist, which I still don’t have an answer to. There are artists I will never separate from their art and refuse to listen to, like Chris Brown or R. Kelly, which I never dwell on, considering their music is trash anyways. So what are women supposed to do when we read about Kanye or Nicki Minaj being MAGA, when so many of their songs have been in our playlists for years beforehand?
The Good Parts
Despite its long history of patriarchy, the rap and hip-hop genres have been undeniably instrumental in incorporating political influence into music. In the early 2000’s, Outkast used their lyricism to communicate their progressive views on police brutality and war. Now, Kendrick Lamar has stepped to the front of politically progressive artists and has never been shy about it.
Seeing women excel in a genre that puts all odds against them is a beautiful thing. I’ve been seeing the Tik Tok trend of interviewing people on the street and asking them what is the best R&B album of all time. So many of the interviewees say Lauryn Hill, which is the perfect answer considering The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
I think everyone should be listening to every genre. There is so much good music everywhere! I love Don Toliver and A$AP Rocky but I also love the occasional Sabrina Carpenter or Pitch Perfect song. Rap gets a bad wrap, much encouragement from older generations, but it has just as much versatility and maybe even more to say than other genres.