Finding Feminism: The Ideologies of Hip-Hop from Black Women in Spaces of Higher Education

Hip-hop is the most affluent subset of Black Culture today. The globalization and mass appeal of hip-hop has made this genre bigger than music; it's style, it's dance, it's art, and even literature. Hip-Hop music is a genre that is boastful of sexual prowess, money, status, and power. As a topic of discourse in the majority of Hip-Hop music, how do Black women exercise agency over their identities, portrayals, and representation in a male dominated industry? By examining different Hip-Hop feminist frameworks, conducting a case study on Beyoncé, and comparing letters from three young Black women, I analyze the complexities Black women face in Hip-Hop culture. Can it be argued that Black women are just as much of producers as a consumers in Hip-Hop culture given the subcategories beyond Rap? I propose that Hip-Hop allows feminism to be more accessible to Black communities. Women who are creators, critics, and consumers of Hip-Hop redefine and expand notions of feminism in the third wave. Black women need to be acknowledged as producers of Hip-Hop culture by actively creating discourse, whether it is Hip-Hop blogs, fan groups, scholarly writing, or everyday conversation. It is through these different avenues that I argue Black women are engaging with feminism.