There’s some whores in this house

 Having spent most of my life as a rock pig, it’s been liberating and eye-opening to have discovered electronic music and hip hop in recent years. The sounds are fresh and point to the future.

Most of the hip hop I’ve been listening to is ‘90s gangsta rap. The beats, the bottom end and the rhymes are SO on point. But it also makes me feel deeply conflicted: the raps are often misogynistic, treating women as objects of male desire and nothing more than a receptacle for male lust. I can overlook it, with the old idea of separating the art from the artist coming to mind. But it’s not ideal. (as an aside, I’ll generally hold to the art vs artist thing, but there are a couple of areas where I draw the line: if the artist is anti-LGBTQI, and particularly anti-trans, then that’s it. I won’t listen.)

 

One of the things I find so fascinating about modern pop, and hip hop in particular, is just how avant-garde the music is. Listen to it closely, and it shouldn’t work, but it does. This is where the bleeding edge is. Rock is dead. With one or two exceptions, like IDLES and Viagra Boys, you won’t find anyone doing anything new or interesting with a guitar. But hip hop? Wow. 

 

I’ve recently started listening to Megan Thee Stallion, and her tunes embody everything I’ve said about weird, avant-garde tunes and great rhymes. But where she takes it a step further is that she completely owns her sexuality and volition. She’s not an object of male desire or a body to be exploited. Megan turns the misogynistic tropes of gangsta rap on their head. She is in control and won’t take bullshit from anyone.

 

Even as a middle-aged white CIS male, I find this liberating. To have an artist dictate how they’re perceived, their image and their sound is amazing. I hope the kids listen to this and find a pathway to the future – a future that’s inclusive and empowers marginalised groups.

 

And, aside from all that, Megan’s tunes are just bangers.