"We love hip hop, but does hip hop love us?" : On hegemonic masculinity, intersectionality and black feminism

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the Spelman College incident that took place in Atlanta, Georgia in 2004. The rapper Nelly intended to have a bone marrow drive at the historically black female college, but cancelled it when the students urged him to take part in a forum discussing the misogyny and sexual objectification of black women in the rapper’s music video Tip Drill. The purpose of the study is to map the context of the incident, focusing on hypermasculinity in a backdrop of US hip hop, more specifically, gangsta rap, and black feminist approaches to this. Hypermasculinity appears to be a strategy of behavior that can be employed by boys and men in order to cope with socioeconomic struggles, as well as it seems to be a way of upholding a professional or commodified image. This hypermasculine act is a part of hegemonic masculinity, a theory used to understand the gender structures that subordinates men to other men, and women to men. Black feminists can use intersectionality as a tool to respond to this subordination, as well as deconstruct the image of the “gangsta”.