The “fly girl,” a stylistic female with great hairstyles and accessories, not only influenced the fashion trends of 1980’s hip hop culture, but portrayed women as self proclaiming erotic subjects rather than sexual objects. Though mainstream society has rigid standard of beauty, the “fly girl” teaches African American women that their bodies are beautiful by creating a positive “body esteem” (Keyes, 269). The “fly girls” confident expression of their sexuality can be mapped back to pre-adolescent years, where expressive dance among girlfriends taught individualized expression of self and femaleness. The hidden sexualized meaning in girl games (dance and song) acted as idioms for them to comfortably talk about their sexuality. This independent play within girl circles is presented by “fly girls” via the media as a positive image of self for black woman, because “being fly and sexually independent […] comes hand in hand with sexual responsibility. For example, TLC’s song “WaterFall” and Salt-N-Pepa’s: “Let’s Talk about Sex,” are blatant safe sex messages to urban culture. By emphasizing condom use, these women are preventing and eliminating the myth behind teen pregnancy (Gaunt, 257).
Hip hop culture is seen as a heterosexual, male dominated industry with little room from female sexual expression; however, with the emergence of the lesbian identity, rapper Queen Pen showed ones role in hip hop was separate from ones sexual orientation. Queen Pen, in the 1980’s, was the first rapper to rhyme about queer culture; her ultra femme appearance and “beat-boy like” gestures acted as visual identifiers that lesbian woman are fighting the homophobic stereotype that lesbians are butch. The black lesbian identity in rap is helping women find a balance between their femininity, gender role and sexual orientation in relation to urban society. Black women are expected to tempt men with there sensuality, but Queen Pen shows that’s not the case and adds another layer on complexity to the black female identity.
In response to male emcees portrayal of woman as sexual object, female rappers are lyricising economic and political issues that plague black women. Their “lyrical skillz” question the injustices in urban society and represent women’s central voice in hip hop. Female rappers who evoke the self-righteous message of traditional African American culture are seen as the “Queen Mother,” an image, which presents them as African American icons who demand respect for black woman and culture (Keyes, 266). Emcees like Queen Latifah and Sister Souljah rap about economic, political and social issues in the black community; and bring the lack of respect woman receive in male-female personal and industrial rap relationships to the medias attention. Queen Latifah’s platinum single “Ladies First” became the first political rap song produced by a woman. Her lyrics addressed the stereotype that female emcees can’t “flow,” while her music video, containing footage from the S. African riots and photographs of black heroines, served as a remembrance of black liberation. Although some feminist argue that the respectable motherly aspect of “Queen Mothers” distracts from their empowering feminist message, “Queen Mothers” are creating a space for Afrocentric and feminist MCs in hip hop.
Female “blackness” is created by childhood discourse in girls’ musical games. Through dance, song and double-dutch female youth are reflecting their racial identity in response to their gendered experience in society. By participating in a “raplike oral delivery as a form of melody” in girls’ games and rhythmically skilled dance/footwork, black girls play is communicating a form of cultural expression- known as black street style (Gaunt 255). Girls’ games act as musical études to form a black female identity within a group setting. Like break dancing and graffiti, girls’ musical play allows females to be innovative and compete among peers to see who has the most style. Female youth play a central role in hip hop culture, because they produce a black female musical aesthetic that is represented in the musical timbres of hip hop (Gaunt, 253).
Women‘s musical contributions in rap have been underrepresented due to the “hegemonic discourse” that surround black women’s dysfunctional social role in urban culture. The emergence of positive female rap identities like –“Fly Girl,” “Queen Mother,” ”Lesbian”—have created a powerful voice that respectfully represent women in black popular culture. Author Keyes, defines these images “as platforms to refute, deconstruct, and reconstruct alternative visions of their identity;” however, her definition of the “Sista with Attitude” persona contradicts her assertion (274). Although Keyes argues that these women demand the respect from their peers and industry, she describes them as marginal within hip hop because the sistas are seen “running their mouth” and presenting themselves as “highly materialist, violent, lewd” (272). Gaunt argues that black girls’ childhood play has musically influenced hip hop culture, but she overly emphasizes that such “positive” games reinforce dysfunctional gender role stereotypes; which parallel the images that the “Sista with Attitude,” in some form, represent. Though some aspects of the female rap persona negatively influence the perception of black women in hip hop, female emcees are proving their gendered experiences are authentic and central in black musical culture.