Friday, April 25, 2008

Hip-Hop’s Change: A Tribute to the Independent Woman


For many years, the Hip-Hop industry has continuously peddled and promoted songs and videos that cause many women, especially single women, to feel hated and discomforted due to the over sexualization and the gold digging images used to portray them. There have been some women who have infiltrated the industry to combat these depictions like Queen Latifah, Salt and Pepa, TLC, and Destiny’s Child. Not until recently have men in the industry begun to help represent women in the positive manner that should be given to them. The most popular and prominent example of this is the song Independent, written by Webbie.

Independent, in my opinion, is a song that tries to help combat two different double binds facing women. The first double bind fought by this song is that of women in the work place. While wrestling this double bind, it also shows how hard many women work just to get by. The chorus line states “I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that mean. She got her own house, her own car, two jobs, work hard you a bad broad. If you ain’t on sit down.” So now I’ll help break down and analyze these words.

I believe the first phrase is posing a question to the men listening to the song. It seems simple enough, but I feel that this is the most important phrases in fighting the double bind that causes people to look down on women who get jobs that have historically been held by men. This is the phrase that causes you to think about the real meaning of the word independent. This question also serves to ask why this condescending attitude exists to keep women out of the workplace.
The next phrase serves to give the meaning of the word independent. This phrase says, “She got her own house, her own car, two jobs, work hard you a bad broad.” To me, this phrase says you obviously don’t know what it means, so let me tell you. It connects the gold digging stereotype to the disdain of women in the work force. In my opinion, it asks why do you call her a gold digger, but when she tries to make her own money, now she is not playing her role. It goes further to affirm to the hard working woman that she is doing the right thing. When it says “you a bad broad,” it is showing appreciation to her for having two jobs and doing what is necessary to make it on her own.

The final phrase of this chorus line begins to talk again to the men listening in the audience. It say, “if you ain’t on, sit down.” This phrase is telling men that they are behind the times if they think that women don’t belong in the work place, and it also is saying that working women sexy too.

All together, the chorus makes a more complete statement. It encourages women to be independent and not wait on the fairytale prince to come take care of them. Other lyrics in the song serve to promote feminist goals as well. The end of the first says “ I don’t think she’ll ever look in a man face waiting for him to take care of her, she’d rather go to work and pay her bills on schedule.” This phrase, to me, also serves to dispel the gold digger image. It shows that a woman would rather be financially secure on her own rather than wait for a man to pay for it. The statement “Leave the club kinda early cuz they gotta go to work” is also a positive statement toward women. In my opinion, it is a statement attesting to the fact that women in the work place like to have fun also. It opposes the thought that women in the club are only there looking for a man to buy them drinks and take care of them.
Another way this song moves towards feminist goals is through the video. The video for this song directly opposes the other mainstream Hip-Hop video portrayals of women. The first way the video opposes the mainstream image is it features fully clothed women. The director and costume designer for this video ingeniously managed keep the women clothed without losing their sex appeal. Many times, in order to make women sexy in music videos, clothes are continuously removed, until there is nothing left, but throughout this video, every woman is covered up, but still sexy. The video also resists the common Hip-Hop video by depicting women, instead of in the club naked and dancing, in classes, and at high paying, and highly coveted jobs. It shows images of women graduating, and being the best in the professions that they chose.

Independent is a very popular song in Hip-Hop, and music in general. In its peak positions, it has reached number five on Billboard’s top Hip-Hop songs, and number nine on Billboards top 100 songs. I also believe that it is a song that paves the way for many other people to get feminist songs played on the radio. Many feminist believe that the corporate industry is culpable for a majority of the blame in the objectification and belittlement of women in Hip-Hop. They place the majority of the blame on them because there are many songs in this genre that portray positive images and have uplifting messages, but those songs get no airplay because the corporate world claims to believe that these are not messages or images in entertainment that the consumers of this genre want to hear. One woman says. “‘I have to sit in front of these young men and women everyday who buy these CD's, who don't look at me as competent, as good as them… they look at me like a tip drill, so I have to stand up and over-exert myself to prove myself, and that's not fair.’” However, because of Independent’s popularity, the corporate industry of Hip-Hop can no longer say that positive, uplifting, and empowering songs for females are not what people want to listen to. It is chart-topping proof that songs and videos that promote feminist agendas are appreciated by the masses.

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