Childish Gambino's Struggle To Fit In

In the song “Not Going Back,” Childish Gambino discusses his own racial identity and what it is like to be him.  Unlike most other rappers, Gambino is college-educated and in many of his songs, he mentions that he was academically gifted as a child.  In “Not Going Back,” he says “mama told me I was special when them test scores came in, callin’ the new Will Smith, that’s Jaden.”  In this excerpt, he is saying that just because he happens to be both smart and black, that does not mean that he should be compared to another smart black man, rather than a smart white man.  He invalidates his mom’s statement by noting that Jaden Smith is going to be the next version of his dad because he actually shares something in common with Will Smith.  On the other hand, the only thing that Gambino shares with Will Smith is the fact that they are both black and smart.  Although Gambino does not want to be compared to Will Smith, he still acknowledges the fact that “smart middle-class black kids need a role model.”  

In the song, Gambino talks about how he never really fit in with white people or black people.  The black kids at his school looked down upon him when he was a child because he was educated and smart, which is evident from the statement “these fake niggas who call me pussy are mad at me, ‘cause they ain’t have the smarts or the heart.”  On the other hand, Gambino did not fit in with the white community either, which is apparent when he says “white people confused like girl on Glee and Gabourey.”  It seems as though this line is referring to the way that white people view Gambino. 

Gambino mentions that black girls do not like him either, saying that he has got “nothin’ against the sistas, I just don’t think they’re into me, I am not a thug, AKA what they pretend to be.”  In this line, Gambino is talking about how he does not take on the identity of a thug, which differentiates him from the many other black rappers who try to act like gangsters.  He also ridicules other rappers who take on that persona, saying that they are only pretending to be thugs.  This song, like many of Gambino’s other songs, draws upon many of the issues that educated black children have to face when growing up in predominantly black neighborhoods.

Lil' Kim's Take On Gender Roles

Women are known to be much more reserved when it comes to talking about sex and expressing their sexual desires than men are.  In our society, if a man has sexual relations with numerous women, he is considered a “player” and is praised by society.  However, if a woman has sexual relations with many men, she is considered a “slut” and as such, she is looked down upon.  It should come as no surprise then, that while male rappers have been talking about all of their “bitches” and “hoes” in their songs for years, it is less common for female artists to discuss their sexual lives in their songs.  Lil’ Kim, however, goes completely against the norm in her song “Big Momma Thang.” 

As soon as Lil’ Kim opens her mouth, it is clear that she is no ordinary female rapper.  She opens with the line “I used to be scared of the dick, now I throw lips to the shit.”  She then makes a reference to her enjoying anal sex and tops it all off with perhaps her most explicitly sexual line “that’s how many times I wanna cum, twenty-one and another one, and another one, and another one.” 

Instead of being careful with her words to avoid sounding like a slut, Lil’ Kim embraces it.  She does this when she says “tell me what’s on your mind when your tongues in the pussy, is it marriage, baby carriage, shit no, on a dime shit is mine, got to keep ‘em comin’ all the time.”  For all of history, women have been the selectors when it comes to mating.  They can be selective when choosing a mate because they are the one’s bearing the child and they can only have so many children in a lifetime.  Men, on the other hand, can impregnate as many women as they want in a lifetime without facing any severe physical consequences to their bodies.  Therefore, women are generally assumed to be the people who, in relationships, are looking for marriage and security, whereas men are generally assumed to be just looking for sex. 

However, Lil’ Kim is saying that does not strive to get married or have children.  Instead, she states that she has “got to keep ‘em comin’ all the time,” which is essentially saying that she gets into relationships solely for sex, just like men are stereotypically known to do.  Lil’ Kim’s lyrics are empowering to women and their explicitness is perhaps what makes them so powerful.  I cannot think of a male rapper whose lyrics come close to the explicitness of Lil’ Kim’s lyrics in this song.  She gets her message across with conviction: that women love sex just as much as men and they should not be ashamed of it.

Don’t Assume a Rapper is a Bad Person Just Because He Raps about Rape and Murder

“Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A. is an example of a song in which the artists singing it create a rap persona that does not align with their values in real life.  The song, featuring verses by Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Eazy-E, talks about various illegal activities that the rappers engage in or plan to engage in, particularly murder.  For example, in the first verse of the song, Ice Cube says that he “squeeze[s] the trigger, and bodies are hauled off” in reference to what he does to people that mess with him.  In the third verse, Easy-E describes killing a woman when he says, “I unload…and hear the scream of the one who got the last penetration.”  He then brags about the fact that he feels no remorse for his actions, saying “What about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her!”  While these brutal lyrics sound convincingly real due to their explicitness and the conviction in which the rappers sing them, they do not describe actions that the rappers would actually commit in real life.  The reason that these artists create these dangerous, merciless personas is mainly because it sells.  There is a reason that N.W.A.’s music is called “Gangsta Rap” and it has nothing to do with N.W.A.’s members being gangsters.  In fact, one of the group’s members, Dr. Dre, was completely opposed to gangs and street violence in his youth and avoided it at all costs.  It is called “Gangsta Rap” because it appeals to young people who are actually in gangs and actually rape and murder people.  By making their lyrics as brutal as they are, N.W.A. was able to grab the attention of young gangsters around the country and thus sell more rap albums.  So next time you’re listening to “Fuck Tha Police” and you hear Ice Cube saying that he “will swarm on any muthafucka in a blue uniform…when [he’s] finished, it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” take it with a grain of salt.  That is only his persona speaking.

The War Against Black Intellectualism and Hip Hop

I recently read a paper titled "The cultural war against Black Intellectualism: Fighting for and dying over knowledge, dope, and hip hop in pursuit of Black liberation". It is a dissertation by Todd Boyd, University of Southern California, which discusses many aspects of the black liberation struggle for human rights, including black intellectual thought and activism. Boyd argues that "American institutionalized racism and the system's aggressive resistance to Black liberation have historically targeted Black intellectual thought on several fronts including: legislation forbidding the literacy of Blacks, faulty scientific research regarding Black intelligence, federal programs to squelch Black resistance, and grossly stereotypical media depictions of Black people."He goes on to address how the Black Power Movement during the 1960's promoted the growth of black intellectualism and subsequently Hip Hop.


This is a fascinating situation for many reasons but I am particularly interested in the role Hip Hop plays as a form of black intellectualism in impoverished neighborhoods. It is interesting to imagine that Hip Hop has become a type of alternative education for adolescents and teenagers that cannot go to school. Undoubtedly, being a successful rapper requires a high degree of entrepreneurship, intelligence, and creativity, therefore, it is presumable that the driven inner city residents without access to education might turn to Hip Hop.


This also seems to correlate with the skewed proportion of black rappers to other ethnic groups. This is due to the origins of Hip Hop in primarily black neighborhoods, associated with DJ Red Alert, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, etc., but there is also the economic opportunity aspect that needs to be taken into account. For example, if the theory that post-Black Power Movement intellectualism has endorsed Hip Hop in poor urban environments, then it is also just as likely that impoverished, uneducated blacks would rely on Hip Hop not only as a form of entertainment, but as a livelihood as well.


What are your thoughts on the role of Hip Hop and education in the urban poor?

The Concept of "The Journey" and "Making It" in Hip Hop

Recently, I have been listening to Logic's new mixtape, "Young Sinatra: Undeniable", more than I would like to admit. Besides his smooth tone and excellent wordplay, his goal of becoming famous is the most prevalent theme and intrigues me as a listener. I have listened to a good amount of Hip Hop artists in my life but I have never heard one rapper discuss a single topic or goal so frequently. His passion for making a name for himself in the Hip Hop realm is contagious and other people have expressed the same sentiments after listening to the mixtape. What about the journey from the street to stardom do we, as the listeners, find so interesting?

One might argue that the journey towards success is a relatable goal that people aspire towards (in whichever way they define success) and, therefore, like to see success in other people. This essentially means that people want to see Logic achieve his goals simply for the reason that he made the sacrifices and did it. But there are other aspects to the concept of the journey that influences listenership.

I would argue that people equally enjoy failure and success (maybe failure more in some cases). Logic does not only get listeners because they enjoy hearing about how famous he wants to be, they also listen because they know that there is that significant chance of failure. Logic, the character, strives towards a goal that only a handful of rappers actually achieve and fans like the risk and confidence that the songs in "Young Sinatra: Undeniable" exhibit. It is too simple to believe that listeners are solely rooting for Logic's success in the mainstream music industry, and my thoughts are that fans like to see the risks he takes and the potential for failure. In essence, it's like watching a stunt man trying to set a world record by jumping over forty buses on a motorcycle. If he makes it, everyone cheers and goes crazy because they just experienced history; if he does not make it, people see a gory crash that, at some level, they are just as excited to witness.

What are your thoughts on the concept of 'the  journey" and "making it" in Hip Hop.

The Feminine Mystique and Reality

Throughout the class, we have has learned about female superheroes and how they deal with violence to get a better picture how gender fits into how world. From learning about how Wonder Women's bracelets are actually symbols of male oppression to how Buffy the Vampire Slayer subverts gender expectations again and again and again, there is always more to know about gender that one doesn't instantly pick up. On this blog, a multitude of women's issues have been brought up and addressed really well by everyone who has blogged here. I can say that, as a guy, I have left this class and blog more enlightened about how gender plays a role in society.

This last blog is about the usefulness of what we have learned in this class. If we can't use it to make a difference in society, we have at least used it be more intelligent about the world around us. The world isn't "perfect"and may never be perfect. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't always tried to perfect it. The female superheroes that we have learned about always tried to make the Earth a better place, even at great cost to themselves. In doing so, they proved to be equals of their male counterparts and became symbols of bridging the gender gap. Usually. As this article shows, superheroines can also be used to show how men see women as objects of pleasure. It at first shocks me how men subject women to overtly sexual positions, especially superheroines. However, I feel that it should be notes that these are works of fiction, which should say something very strongly. If women could get oppressed in a work of fiction, they can definitely get oppressed in reality. The superheroines stories should should serve as mirrors of real women's struggles.

One of the most important works of the feminist movement, while also being one of the most important works of the 20th century, The Feminine Mystique called the unhappiness of housewives in the 1950's and 1960's  "the problem that has no name." She then writes about how women want more than just to fill gender roles men have set up for them. One of those roles being objectified sexually. Betty Friedan, the author of the book, argues that women need more that just sex to find fulfillment in life, which was a very radical stance coming out of the very conservative 1950's. She is what I would call a real life super heroine because she was a mouthpiece to women's frustrations  when it could have come at a great professional cost to herself. It was the book that sparked the second wave of feminism into the very tumultuous 1960's.

We still have a long way to go in gender equality, but we shouldn't forget how far we have come. Before, women weren't allow to have jobs without their husbands permission. Now, they can run for the most position on Earth and almost get it, too. Is that impressive? I would think so. I would like to close with a video:

Women in the Sciences

I went to a high school where the main focus of the education in the sciences was the main focus of the teaching there. Sure, they taught more than just math and science, but the main aspect was on sciences. When my class graduated last year, about half want to major in some sort of science in college, me being one of them. Of course, my class doesn't really reflect the general population of the country at all. In 2006, the OECD (Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development) found that 15% of students in the US major in some type of science in college. While I don't believe that everyone has to major in any sort of science in science, I believe that more people do need to major in it if we want to move forward as a society. Especially women.

An article published by the Times in 2010 looks at why women are still underrepresented in the field of science. The part that really surprised me was when the article mentioned that girls would under perform on a math test when it mentioned to them that they would do poorly. "Contrast sensitivity ability" as it was called, doesn't truly exist in the real world but does have real world consequences. Namely, it would get girls to do worse in the math and sciences compared to men when there was no real reason to other than a clear bias against them. As Alex mentioned in a earlier blog, Larry Summers was under fire for suggested that men do better  with jobs that require higher intelligence compared to women. It wasn't so much that he didn't have data to support him. It was more that his comment (and comments like his), could have a really negative effect in society.

 Have females only been kept down when it comes in math and science because men don't think that females are as smart as them? Not really. There are certainly other factors in play, like gender roles. Some women don't want to be scientists because they want to spend more time with their families, and that is totally fine. Others don't feel like being a scientist is totally right for them. And that is perfectly fine, too. However, what isn't fine is Harvard having its first tenured female in 375 years, even with the strides that women have in made in math and science. What isn't fine is girls feeling that having a career in the sciences is not for them when the only thing that is keeping them out is unintentional, yet harmful, discrimination against them.

Maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture here, but there is a problem that is very apparent. When women feel undervalued unnecessarily, it becomes society's problem. My sister said she wants to be a dentist when she grows up (12 right now). It wouldn't be fair for her to prove herself more in the scientific community just because she's a girl. No girl should, for that matter.