Gender and Music

Women In Hip-Hop: Lauryn Hill

     Hip-Hop is famously known to be a male dominated genre of music. The genre became known to be one of the most objectifying to women, specifically women of color. The most recognition a woman in Hip-Hop would seem to gain was through her ability to attract the male gaze, making it increasingly harder for women to be taken seriously and appreciated as actual artists. However, Lauryn Hill, formerly a member or the Fugees, began to break barriers and set records reaching icon status just after her solo album debut. 

    Lauryn became the first to do many things.She is the first female artist to win five or more Grammys in one night, and also the first woman to be nominated in 10 categories in one year. On tope of that, she broke these records while being a dark-skinned, black women, in a male dominated industry. in 1999 she became the first female rapper with a #1 spot on Billboards 100.  Surprisingly enough, what attracted people to Lauryn wasn't her body, her provocative lyrics or ,music videos. People were drawn in by her realness and her willingness to speak to an experience she felt only Black Women could relate to. 

Doo Wop (That Thing) became the first female rap song to debut at #1 on the Billboard Music charts. I'd like to think that one of the reasons this song did so well is because it's on of Lauryns 'lighter' songs. The song talked about some of the issues society has with materialism. Compared to some of her other music this song was safe. Anyone can easily relate to it and it's catchy. A lot of the content in her music are things women didn't traditionally talk about. Male rappers were celebrated for speaking about their experiences and bringing awareness to gun violence and drugs but people preferred that women sing about the lighter topics like love, and heart break. Lauryn however, would go on to be known for her controversial words and weighty lyrics.

After her debut album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, Lauryns music began to take a turn. She began to see her music as a means of news. She was spreading awareness through the punch lines of her songs, becoming more interested in making mainstream rap uncomfortable than making people dance. In this song the lyrics read "Time to get free, oh give us yourselves up now, it's freedom time", while the rest of the song goes on to talk about war in different countries, materialism, political values, race, and religion. 

While Lauryn's reputation may have changed over the years, her contribution as a female hip-hop artist will forever be recognized. Not only was she able to dominate in the Hip-Hop world, but she successfully crossed over into the Neosoul genre while also becoming a pioneer in the Alternative Rap genre. She started many conversations and broke endless barriers for women of color in the music industry and continues to speak out for what she believes in and be a voice for the silenced.