Jeremy Gonzalo

Cypess

Research Proposal

Hip Hop culture has generally been a male-dominated culture. In most visual captures of

the art form, which consists of rapping, DJ-ing, bboying (breakdancing), and graffiti writing,

most of what is depicted in the media are men, while women watch off on the side. Specifically,

in the Rap pillar of hip hop (the four elements of hip hop are commonly called pillars), the

consensus is that this is a male-dominated genre; that is, until two female rappers took over the

game and changed the shape that it is in today: Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill.

This paper will talk about both Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill, and the impact they made

on making rap more inclusive than just a male-dominated genre, and even more than that with

how each of these women had, in a sense, broken barriers for African American female artists

out there by being the innovative musicians that they each were. Another point that will be made

is how each rapper had fought misogyny in the genre and made names for themselves in making

Hip Hop the inclusive culture that pioneer Afrikaa Bambataa had originally envisioned and

hoped the world would see: a culture that prides itself on peace, love, unity, and having fun,

and not the gangster rap that people commonly think the culture is.

This research will be supplemented by previously done interviews, lyrics, and songs that

Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill had written, as well as biographical anecdotes and other studies

done on hip hop as a culture.

 References

Boyer, H., & Graham, A. (2016). Hip Hop in the United States. Reference & User Services

Quarterly, 55(3), 215-218.

Bruce, L. J. (2012). "The People Inside My Head, Too": Madness, Black Womanhood, and the

Radical Performance of Lauryn Hill. African American Review, 45(3), 371-389.

Haugen, J. (. (2003). 'Unladylike divas': Language, gender, and female gangsta rappers. Popular

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Hobson, J. (2008). Patricia Hill Collins. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism,

and Feminism. African American Review, (1), 176.

Moody, M. (2011). A rhetorical analysis of the meaning of the "independent woman" in the

lyrics and videos of male and female rappers. American Communication Journal, 13(1),

43-58.

Oware, M. (2009). A 'Man's Woman'? Contradictory Messages in the Songs of Female Rappers,

1992-2000. Journal of Black Studies, (5). 786.

Reese, V. O. (2006). Ready or Not: Lauryn Hill As Hip-Hop's Mammy. Women & Performance,

16(1), 157-166. doi:10.1080/07407700500516025

Roberts, R. (. (1994). Ladies first: Queen Latifah's Afrocentric feminist music video. African

American Review, 28(2), 245-257.

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Philogyny in Rap Music. Women's Studies, 44(1), 54-83.

doi:10.1080/00497878.2014.971217

Valds, M. (. (n.d). Beyond Sucker MCs: Hip-Hop womenRoxanne Shante, Salt-N-Pepa,

Queen Latifah, Monie Love, MC Lyte, and others.

Music for use in research paper:

Lauryn Hill Doo Wop (That Thing); Everything is Everything

Queen Latifah Ladies First; U.N.I.T.Y.