Misogyny

Beyond Beats and Rhymes: Masculinity in Hip Hop by Suemedha Sood

"When I met you last night babyBefore you opened up your gapI had respect for ya ladyBut now I take it all back"Snoop Doggy Dogg"
From the window to the wallTo the sweat drop down my ballsAll you bitches crawl"Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz"
Man this hoe you can have her,when I'm done I ain't gon keep herMan, bitches come and go, every nigga pimpin know"50 Cent
Ah, the sweet sound of misogyny -- every time I turn on the radio. Andturning on the TV is even worse. Video after video on channels like BET andMTV accosts us with images of rappers throwing money at half naked women.And mainstream hip hop is more popular than ever. But if sex and violencesell -- particularly when combined -- there's nothing anybody can do aboutit. Or, that's what the record companies want us to believe. Fortunately,they don't have everyone convinced.Young filmmaker Byron Hurt is not just unconvinced, he wants to challengethe system. In his new documentary, Beyond Beats and Rhymes: Masculinity inHip Hop Culture, Byron presents images, samples and interviews that he hopeswill expose and take apart the structures of violence, hyper-aggression, andmisogyny present in much of today's hip hop.Produced by Stanley Nelson, known for such documentaries as Marcus Garvey:Look for Me in the Whirlwind, the 60-minute film will run on PBS later thisyear. Not content with merely this audience, however, Byron is takingmatters into his own hands by showing the film on college campuses acrossthe nation. In speaking to him, it's easy to see why."So much of the ills in our society come from the way we men definemanhood," says Byron, adding, "I want this film to really get men toquestion and to challenge the way we're socialized and conditioned."He became familiarized with the realities of black masculinity when makingthe film I Am a Man: Black Masculinity in America. An anti-sexism activist,Byron has also worked for a program called Mentors in Violence Preventionfor the Marine Corps where he held training, workshops, and lectures forU.S. Marines, fraternity brothers, coaches, activists, and teachers. Byronstresses the need to educate boys and men in the African-American community,in particular, about what it means to be male in our society. Encouragingsuch discussion, he believes, has the possibility to spark important socialchange.In the process of making the film, Byron interviewed a number of malerappers -- from LL Cool J, Wyclef Jean, and Fat Joe to Chuck D, Talib Kweli,and Mos Def. (Although only the last four appear in the final version of thefilm.) He also spoke with a variety of hip-hop scholars and historians, andtried to take on some of the major decision makers in the hip-hop industry.Perhaps most poignant, however, are his interactions with kids. In onescene, Byron captures the voices of several young aspiring rappers spewingout words of hate, violence, and sexism for the camera. When Byronchallenges them, they are un-phased. "That's how you get paid," theyrespond, implying, no one wants to hear anything positive, so why even try?Don't be mistaken. Beyond Beats and Rhymes is not a crusade to change theface of the mainstream music industry. "I'm not naive," says Byron. "I don'tthink my film is going to change the industry. It's an amoral businessculture. They're not concerned with changing society, they're concerned withmaking money. So I focused on how this affects the people who see thisfilm." Byron hopes this practical approach will inspire viewers to opentheir minds and be self-reflective. "It's up to us as consumers to challengesome of the representations of masculinity that we see in American culture,"he says. "We have to start saying, 'I don't buy into this idea that a man issupposed to be violent or sexist or homophobic.'"Film editor Sabrina Gordon worked with Byron on Beyond Beats. She alsoexpresses concern about the limited scope of images and representation incommercial, mainstream hip-hop. "There's a certain disconnect between what'scommercial and the culture as a whole," she says.Beyond Beats and Rhymes also presents its audience with some of the moresocially-conscious and politically-substantive voices that tend toconstitute underground hip hop and rap. As Sabrina sees it, "There's somecontent that's just not about violence or sexism," she says. "It's notpreaching, but it touches on a range of human experiences."In the film, Byron asks why it's nearly impossible to find provocative,meaningful, lyrics in the mainstream. As much as he promotes more consciousartists such as Dead Prez or Coup, Byron finds it problematic that it is sodifficult to gain access to their music. "I think the biggest thing is thatit doesn't have the credibility that the mainstream hip hop has because itdoesn't get the marketing, the promotion, the coverage, and the exposure."Besides being an overall inspiring film, Beyond Beats and Rhymes has a verystrong activist component. Byron wants it to become an important educationaltool; He plans on creating a curriculum to be taught in conjunction with thedocumentary and he is currently hosting screenings at colleges across thenation. Colleges, he says, are important places to show the film --important because "that's one place where young people are engaging incritical thinking. They're there to push their own consciousness and I thinkthat's a really great place for change to begin." Byron also hopes to usethis film in prisons and juvenile detention centers where he thinks manyyoung men have bought into societal views of masculinity.More than anything, Byron and Sabrina want to reach as many people with thisfilm as possible. "PBS has a certain demographic, but I also want to reachthe people I'm making the film for, and that's young people inside thehip-hop generation, particularly young males," says Byron. This is why he isencouraging as many young people as possible to tune in to PBS later thisyear when Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiers, in an effort to "attract a largehip-hop audience to PBS."Beyond Beats and Rhymes can have a huge impact on a wide variety ofAmericans if we let it. The only way to do that is to draw as much attentionto the film as possible, Byron points out. He adds, "I want people to knowthat there is someone doing this kind of work -- an anti-sexist activisttrying to transform people's minds.

"To help spread the word, check out www.bhurt.com or visit The IndependentTelevision Service and The National Black Programming Consortium to sendfeedback about the project or to learn about similar endeavors in televisionand film.==========Suemeda Sood, 20, is a student at the University of Virginia. This pieceoriginally appeared on WireTap.