Single Out Just Snoop Dogg example essay topic

In reading bell hooks' opinion about sexism and misogyny I had to admit to myself that I had no idea what she meant by sexism and misogyny. So, to accurately know what she was referring to, I looked them up on the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. For the word sexism, I found there were two meanings that support hooks' ideas: 1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially: discrimination against women and 2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex. The word misogyny, according to Merriam-Webster, is: a hatred of women. With these definitions, I feel that both words with their meanings truly expose what bell hooks is telling us what Americans, and it seems she talks about the black male Americans, think of the black female culture. In 'Gangsta Culture... ' bell hooks tells us that the 'patriarchal ways of thinking... are glorified in gangsta rap' (116) and I think she's right.

Although I do not think she is right in all that she says in this narrative. She also says that 'young black males are forced to take the heat for encouraging via their music the hatred of and violence against women... ' (116), and this I do not believe it completely true. She believes that the black men of America have taken themselves to a new degree in order to make themselves 'higher' than black women - she believes that the black men should be equal to the black women and that the men should believe that as well. She talks about Calvin Broadus a. k. a.

Snoop Doggy Dog (which he later changed to the current title 'Snoop Dogg') and his album Doggystyle. She tells us that the cover is degrading toward black women, which it is, but not just to black women, to all women. bell hooks shows us that black male sexism is real and it is in America's music. She is correct, but it is not just against the white people of America. Snoop Dogg's album is degrading toward the girl whose butt's out of the doghouse, but it was her choice for one; and for two, it's not just black women he's degrading on the cover. hooks is just placing blame on Snoop's cover, but she doesn't say much about his music, this is where the music of the gangsta culture comes to play. In 1993, Snoop 'Doggy' Dogg put out an album entitled Doggystyle, and its front portrait is describing a form of male dominance toward the woman society and one of the dog's is saying 'Nuttin but Da Dogg in Me', it's not what Snoop sang about.

People, mainly hooks, put Snoop and others down for the pictures or actions toward women; except she has one problem, in my eyes, his music doesn't back up his cover. Since 1993, Snoop Dogg has made a number of albums including Top Dogg and Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Bo$$. These albums show how much Snoop has grown as an artist. (I am not condoning his behavior toward women, whether it be on his covers or at the music awards this last year, but I am excusing it because his music seems to say something different than his 'P.I.M.P. ' exterior.) In his album Doggystyle, Snoop has a song called Gz Up Hoes Down, and his lyrics are as followed: "Chorus: Well, all the real Gz please stand up and let all be accounted for, and if you don't give a f about a b then you " re rolling with the row Outro: Hell yeah, YaknowhatI " ms ayin? This is strictly for the Gz, yeah F that b Niggaz always be handcuff in that hoe when a nigga like me steps in the place I don't want that hoe, I don't love that hoe I'm caught up with my greens: collard greens, indo, and the cash flow YaknowhatI " ms ayin? Peace...

Gz up, Hoes Down" (web) This is not the solitary song on this album, of course, but it is merely the ONE song that is even remotely demeaning toward women. Calling any girl a 'hoe' is wrong, in my opinion, but saying 'hoes down' is erroneous because of what he is saying (that the girls go down). As Snoop matures as an artist and rapper, he makes better albums. His 1991 hit record Top Dogg has many songs that are controversial. Take G Bedtime Stories for example; Snoop writes about a bedtime story full of hot days, shootings and thugs.

Not a story I would tell my little, for sure, but it was a big hit for Snoop. Another slightly more shameful song from the Top Dogg record is B Please. In this song, Snoop calls women degrading names. Being a female, if someone were to call me these names, and they have, I would feel hurt and not want to be civil about what was said or done next. Also, Snoop seems to express his feelings toward drugs.

In the years that this song was written, Snoop was into drugs, mainly marijuana, and I feel he expresses how much he loved it. He tells the 'girl' to get down on their knees, which signifies some sexual wants and tells them to beg for weed. Because of this, these lyrics are a little more of what hooks thinks of Snoop Dogg's music is about:" Chorus two: (Yeah nigga you know what's happen in man) I get this pussy everywhere that I go (These b es know what time it is) Ask the b es in your hood cause they know (Hell yeah, hoes know about a nigga like me MAN) I get the pussy everywhere that I go (I pimp these hoes, nigga, ha ha) Ask the b es in your hood cause they know [Snoop Dogg] B please, get down on your g d knees For this money chronic clothes and weed (look) You f in with some real O. G's B please B please, get down on your mother in knees We came to get the mother in G's Yeah, you f in' with some real O. G's You dick-tease! (web) From the third song, B Please, to the fifteenth song, I Love My Momma, I read a difference in the music toward women, in particular, his mother. I feel that the misogyny against women, or his 'girls', are words of hatred. I do not know Snoop Dogg personally, but I do know that he has a wife and two children. I don't know of any woman who would marry a man who called her a b all the time, but he seems to call all other women these names when he raps in his songs.

Maybe he feels that the women he is singing about are less than he is, but then he knows that his 'mommy' is more than just some woman. She is his mother who has done everything she could for him. He knows that she is the best woman from his past, and as he should, he pays his respects in these words to his 'mommy', which are as follows: [singer]"The first one to hold me (yeah) The first one to scold me (yes-o) You never cease to teach me And always try to reach me (mommy... ) Took me to school the first day Taught me how to kneel, down and pray (amen) You learned me how to count from one to ten And never forget, where I've been Momma... You taught me how to care (uh) You taught me how to share (f'real) You taught me how to love and to give thanks to the one above -- I love you mommy...

Yeah, I love my mommy [singer] I love you mommy, I love my mommy -- I love you mommy I love you mommy [I love you mommy] I love my mommy [I love you mommy] I love my mommy (now you tell em Snoop) [Snoop Dogg] You taught me how to read and write, how to fight My do's and dont's, my wills and my wont's I'll never forget, the things that we went through Bangin oldies in the liv in room, sip pin brew Schlitz Malt Liquor was the thing back then My mommy was my homey my daddy, and my best friend Ask the Twin, them my lie locos to the end And Warren G and Nate Dogg, shit them my true friends Time and time again, I'ma spit this rhyme again She the queen in my life, and I'ma make sure she go's hine again She taught me everything, but she didn't charge a fee She taught me everything, except how to see a G For the nine months you carried, I hope you bury me instead of the other way around, and I put that on Dogg Pound I made you cry, you made me smile I just wanna say I love you for life and that's the reason why I'm here now Love, Snoop... ". (web) Snoop could have very easily been worse than what hooks is saying he is. He could have dissed his mother too, he would not have been the first, and I'm sure not the last. Even Eminem talks about his mother in his songs as being a b and a hoe. In Eminem's movie, 8 Mile, Kim Basinger portrays his mother as poor, hateful and a slut, and that is what Eminem seems to think of his mother. But Snoop has more respect than that. Even after all the struggles Snoop went through, with drugs and parties, he has overcome it.

He still may show the world with pictures that is still the "P.I.M. P", even with some songs (with Fifty Cent), but I believe Snoop has Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Bo$$. He gave up his drugs and he has given up so much more of his life than we know. Although he is not a perfect man, rapper or role model, I feel that he is trying to become more of what his 'mommy' would have wanted him to be. Snoop seems to have found more kindness and racial pride. He does not degrade women in this song, white nor black women are portrayed as b es, and I feel that he is finally realizing his true potential.

I see him more, now, as a prophet toward the Beautiful:" [Hook 2 X's: Pharrell & Uncle Charlie Wilson & Snoop Dogg] [Chorus 2 X's] Beautiful, I just want you to know (Oh-hook!) You " re my favorite girl... (Ehh... oh yeah, there's something about you... ) [Verse 2] When I see my baby boo, shit, I get foolish Smack a nigga that tries to pursue it (Oh-hook!) Homeboy, she taken, just move itI asked you nicely, don't make the Dogg lose it We just blow 'do and keep the flow moving " In a '64, me and baby boo cruising' (Oh-hook!) Body rag interior blue, and Have them hydraulics squeak in' when we screw in " Now she's yell in', holler in' out Snoop, andHootin', holler in'; holler in', hoot in' (Oh-hook!) Black and beautiful, you the one I'm choosing' " (web) I can agree, on some level, with bell hooks. Snoop does take it a little far when referring to women... what rapper doesn't? Dr. Dre, Eminem, Fifty Cent... all at some point have referred to women as objects instead of WOMEN, but why single out just Snoop Dogg?

Has he done something even worse than Eminem calling his own mother a whore? It's just the music, they are just notes on a page and words from mouths. I feel bell hooks needs to do more digging because Eminem speaks worse of women than Snoop Dogg does, even though Snoop has the pictures and Eminem just has words. bell hooks closes her essay by saying, "If black men are betraying us through acts of male violence, we save ourselves and the race by resisting". (123) I believe in what she is saying, but she is one sided. Maybe she is just saying that we, as women, would rather be called just 'girls', 'women' or even 'chick a', but that is every woman, not just the black women. But, did she even think about the girls (black and white) that like to be paraded around like giraffes at a circus?

Did she realize that she is just one person, as am I, and she can't change the world she lived in? The world is cruel and evil and some of the men in it are just as nasty and immoral, but it's our choice whether to live in the world... or in the circus.