Tricia Rose Interviews

I was very interested in what Tricia Rose, a Professor at Brown University had to say about the "hip hop wars" She stated in the interview i listened to that Roxanne Shonte broke female rap. I agree with when she said women have to do extra work to fit into the rap genre. It is hard for women to be respected when they are seen as such sex symbols in that genre of music. Either way they have to have a relationship to sexuality with female rappers, one either has to be hyper sexual (lil' kim) or hyper tough (missy elliot) to become successfull as a recording mc. The article read was a different focus it was more towards why certian rappers are more famous thatn others and why it is dying out, and why people like jay-z have admited to dumbing down their music for mainstream hip hop. I personally dont understand why that is nessesary for rappers to dumb down their music. I work at a bar that on saturday nights does an underground hip hop thing on saturday nights, The Dj's (roe and al bumz) are amazing and have such a big following and there music is so interesting and intricate. I listen to the crap that is on the radio and wonder why these guys are in a back room at a bar in providence, and people like lil' wayne and 50 cent are rich and famous. The female rappers need to be sexual to be heard and at that i dont even feel like they are respected at all. This reminds me of those ads we were watching for the super bowl. The females were sexual and they got noticed, these female mc's are just as good as the men that are on the radio now, so why must they look like lil' kim? I am not a huge fan of the rap genre, but i do have some respect for the people who dont sell themselves out to the media. gross.