T. Denean Sharpley “ Pimps Up, Ho's Down” is an feminist writer and researcher and a professor of African American ,Diaspora Studies and French. She was raised in Mississippi by a single black father with the help of her mother and grandmother. She attended Brown University where she was 1 of 3 graduate teaching assistants in an Intro. African American Studies class. She remembers giving speeches and lecturing on black women in and how they are portrayed in music videos and what is considered beautiful; and leaving to get into her car to blast “The Chronic” (very explicit, and degrading album) while heading to model in a runway show. She soon realized that models, dancers and video vixens all fitted into the same category in that business. Everyone was in the business of selling illusions in a sexual way. She thought that like exotic dancers the money would be fast and easy, not caring about what her fellow grad colleges thought about her other job; she felt grounded with 1 foot in both worlds. In this book she aims to show how hip hop music sets the tone for how women should act and think and what hip hop has to say about it and what women have to say back about it.
Sharpley begins the book with a prologue where she gives background information and experiences about her life and things that she has gone through. She states how she started off just like everyone else, listening to these sexual explicit songs while never really thinking about what they really meant and how they affect how women are viewed. These few pages immediately sets the book off by giving the reader the sense that the book is not just going to state facts and bore you but that it's personal and real. Readers can relate to something that gives personal experiences rather then just reading facts or experiences from someone other then the author. Giving this brief bit of background information about herself gives her creditability about the topic she is going to further elaborate on. She gives examples of current and older music artist and songs that depict this sexual, degrading image of women to relate to all age groups and gives you the idea that this text isn't just directed to just one group of people but to several.
Within a few pages of the prologue she states exactly what her mission is with the book and exactly what questions she is going to answer, which leads into the introduction which is titled “ Pimpin' Ain't Easy, But Somebody's Got to Do It” there she gives quotes from various music artist and creditable people within the business. In the Introduction she gives you background on hip hop music and some of it's co-founders and artist, such as Russell Simmons who is the brother of Run the “Run” in the legendary group Run DMC, who founded Def Jam record label and promoted and developed rap acts like Kurtis Blow and LL Cool J. She elaborates on how hip hops relationship with women is way more then just provocative and overly sexual music videos and explicit lyrics. But that hip hop just like any other phenomenon has it's liars and it's money hungry artist who are out to only make money not caring about how they are portraying hip hop to people and the media. She goes on to further explain that even though this type of hip hop is bringing down the hip hop culture; that hip hop has come along way over the years from it's first appearance back in the late 1970s where artist such as Melle Mel and Lady B, could only be heard locally at youth centers, battles or house parties or in local neighborhoods. But by the 1980s hip hop had consumed the nation and captured all types of people. And by the 1990s hip hop music had completely changed, rap artist such as Dr. Dre were releasing a new type of gangster rap such as his solo album “ The Chronic” which altered the commercial view of hip hop music. Eventually hip hop became this huge phenomenon, now branching off into clothing lines, movies, and magazines. This information is very helpful with helping someone who doesn't know too much about hip hop understand it more and give some background information on it . But even though has grown the sexual content is still there, she goes on to give examples of artist who have taken this sexual image way too far. Such as recording artist R. Kelly who had four lawsuits, 1 twelve- count child pornography case which was dropped in 2003, a 2005 civil suit by a women who alleges that he taped there sexual interlude and disturbed it on the internet without her consent, showing that these artist take these sexually explicit lyrics and actually put them to work. Towards the end of the introduction she gives a very interesting fact, she says that “men aren't going to suddenly wake up one day with a new understanding of no, but the larger and bigger question is, if men can stop sexual abuse , and why wouldn't they want to”. These few words clearly provides support to the big topic which is being analyzed.
After capturing the reader's attention with just the introduction she begins giving examples and explanations throughout the book on how women are portrayed in the music industry and what ways they are abused. In chapter 3 titled “ Groupie love and the hip hop star” she begins with a few quotes from a few hip hop artist such as G-Unit “ tonight you wanna fuck with me its alright with me, come and give me that groupie love” here she gives insight on hip hop groupies who in the hip culture are considered “bitches”, “hoochies”, “chickenheads”, “gold-diggers” and “tricks”. But the real title of a groupie isn't just a fan who wants autographs or pictures. They are power and fame hungry women who are trying to obtain this fame by being with these hip hop artist privately. These artist feed off of this and enjoy the attention that they are receiving from these women, and these women are so hungry for the fame that they go to extreme measures to do so. And these artist know that so they feel that they can say and do whatever they want to them because if one women won't do it another will, which is why they come out with these degrading songs such as Jay-Z's “bitches and sistas” where he is talking about groupies and what they are good for. Towards the end of this chapter she concludes that this sexual abuse is being accepted, these artist know that none of these women (groupies) are going to come forth with anything against them, therefore they find it accepted to treat them as if they are less then human. Which leads into the next section of the book titled “Booty Clappin, P-Poppin, Shake Dancing” which focuses on strippers, exotic dancers and video vixens. Women who are the inspiration for such songs as P-Poppin by rapper Ludacris where he describes how these women dance with such words as “now pop that p*** you know the procedure....if you want this cash gotta make that a** shake like a seizure”. She gives examples of various strip clubs that enables these sexual fantasies and provocative sexual acts to take place such as “Magic City” a place which is a 1-stop spot for all these rapper artist and video vixens. A place where aspiring artist can promote there music for these women to dance to , or for the next women looking to make it big in the music video business is hoping to be discovered. She further elaborates on what the experiences are for hip hop women in strip clubs, how has hip hop provided a space for this to be acceptable, and what do these experiences do for the gender politics of the hip hop generation. She later concludes that women in the strip club trade, eventually end up seeing that the illusions that they are selling are no different then the practices of the sex trade industry. That just because they are within those four walls of the strip club, the sexual acts that they are preforming is no different then those of a prostitute. Which all lends into the last section of the book titled “or a few Last Words on Hip Hop feminism” which is where she begins to discuss hip hop and feminism, there she states how feminism in hip hop isn't about bringing a men down or to just end sexism and racism ; that its actually trying to challenge hip hop artist to look at what there work and there sexually explicit lyrics actually do to the hip hop culture and women has a whole.
Overall the techniques and the order she gives information such as giving background on herself which gives her creditability on the topic and background on hip hop culture gives the reader a base to build upon. She also breaks the book into 3 sections the first section where she gives you information on various sexual assault cases within the hip hop industry and then she moves onto groupies in hip hop and how the image they are displaying affects women as a whole and finally she finishes with hip hop and feminism. Organizing the information in this way breaks it down into parts smaller simpler parts, making it easier for the reader to comprehend. It's obviously why she gave the information in the order she did which was very beneficial in helping her presenting the information to the reader.
Work Sited
T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting “Pimps Up, Ho's Down” Hip Hops hold on young Black Women. NYU Press (March 1, 2007).