The Fe-Male Within: Ventriloquists, Tricksters, and Cyborgs as Inappropriate/d Femininities of and in Black Female American Gangsta Rap
2010; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1556-5068
Autores Tópico(s)Asian Culture and Media Studies
ResumoThis essay analyses black female American gangsta rap as a radically historically specific phenomenon arising in the urban milieu of the early nineties in the US. It takes into account lyrics, performances and visuals (music videos) of female gangstas, not as singular component parts, but as patterns of interference that are cross-linked and thus shape up as provisional, never finished female gangsta body. The femininity of this amorphous body will be described as made by inappropriate/d others appearing within gangsta rap, namely ventriloquists, tricksters and cyborgs. Subjects of analysis are Bo$$ and her album Born Gangstaz (1992), Mia X and her album Unlady Like (1997), Lady of Rage and her album Necessary Roughness (1997), and Lil’ Kim and her album Notorious K.I.M. (2000). Since the notion of inappropriate/d femininities allows for acknowledging the mutual pervasion of (gendered/stereotyped) borderlines, it offers a reading of gangsta femininities’ critical potential that contests both current interpretations of female emancipation as oppositional stance towards men, and of gangsta rap as a male dominated domain.
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