As a thoroughly politicized woman who is keenly sensitive of gender inequities both in music and in, you know, life, I am deeply invested in the recent rise in discussion about women emcees. It's always been an issue, and expressing the concerns about the lack of prominent women behind the mic will remain important until it becomes a non-issue. I worry when the question where women are in Hip Hop fails to reflect the multidisciplinarity of Hip Hop today and how it has affected the sexism therein.
Hip Hop is bigger business than it has ever been and has been effectively integrated into all aspects of our lives -- a true global, cross-generational phenomenon. It's safe to say that women are, to some degree, represented in most aspects of this industry of Hip Hop, they too suffer against the predominance of men in jobs that may never require them to step behind the mic: producing, sound engineering, criticism, brand consulting, clothing design...the list could go on. Our critique of sexism in Hip Hop needs to account for the complexities the culture -- the industry -- as a whole, even if the emcee is arguably the most visible and easy to investigate.
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