Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women

by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting

Untangles the intricately knotted issues around hip-hop culture and its treatment of young black women

Pimps Up, Ho’s Down pulls at the threads of the intricately knotted issues surrounding young black women and hip hop culture. What unravels for Tracy D. Sharpley-Whiting is a new, and problematic, politics of gender. In this fascinating and forceful book, Sharpley-Whiting, a feminist writer who is a member of the hip hop generation, interrogates the complexities of young black women's engagement with a culture that is masculinist, misogynistic, and frequently mystifying.

Beyond their portrayal in rap lyrics, the display of black women in music videos, television, film, fashion, and on the Internet is indispensable to the mass media engineered appeal of hip hop culture, the author argues. And the commercial trafficking in the images and behaviors associated with hip hop has made them appear normal, acceptable, and entertaining - both in the U.S. and around the world.

Sharpley-Whiting questions the impacts of hip hop's increasing alliance with the sex industry, the rise of groupie culture in the hip hop world, the impact of hip hop's compulsory heterosexual culture on young black women, and the permeation of the hip hop ethos into young black women's conceptions of love and romance.

The author knows her subject from the inside. Coming of age in the midst of hip hop's evolution in the late 1980s, she mixed her graduate studies with work as a runway and print model in the 1990s. Her book features interviews with exotic dancers, black hip hop groupies, and hip hop generation members Jacklyn “Diva” Bush, rapper Trina, and filmmaker Aishah Simmons, along with the voices of many “everyday” young women.

Pimps Up, Ho’s Down turns down the volume and amplifies the substance of discussions about hip hop culture and to provide a space for young black women to be heard.

2007 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Emily Toth Award

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Feminism, Sociology, Gender, Womens, African American

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book about the social impact of Hip Hop on black women- and how they shape their self perceptions on the pervasiveness of the projected image of what a black woman is by Hip Hop. I have always thought I had ignored the messages of the male chauvinist rappers, but in reading this book, I realized how much of this language had been adopted by many of my male programmer friends and was used in day to day conversation. More than anything else, this book made me angry.
Poverty warps people, and this music’s negative message is stronger than most people give credit.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

g's in bling, and the way they (mis)treat their women(bitches, ho's, sluts, groupies......).

[Leah]

This book is written by a Vanderbilt professor. She explores the paradox of young black womens' roles in hip-hop, being portrayed as sexually insatiable vixens yet playing an enthusiastic role in hip-hip today. "I do urge young black women to be more politically conscious about the choices they make and the opportunities they take." ~ Sharpley-Whiting

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

FANTASTIC. that is all.

[Mak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gi

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book provides a lot of insight into the role of women in hip hop culture. Sharpley-Whiting points out that hip hop is built on a paradoxical relationship to women, in which it simultaneously needs women to survive as an industry, but at the same time it exploits women in many ways. The author is sympathetic to hip hop culture and does a great job of examining the nuances of where women's agency fits into this picture. Nonetheless, Sharpley-Whiting is still engaged in a feminist project. She wants to know how, or if at all, hip hop can continue to "keep it real" without being so harmful to women. Particularly, she wants to know what women women who are fans of hip hop can do to make the culture more female-friendly. Although Sharpley-Whiting makes some suggestions, the book ultimately functions more as a rumination on these issues than a piece that provides clear answers to these questions.

From an academic perspective, I read this book for a history class I am CAing for on Black Women in America. Ultimately, while this book was certainly interesting and held my students' interest because of the author's use of slang and topics from modern culture, I do not know that the book was necessarily appropriate for the course, since the piece is much more of a sociology piece or feminist treatise than a historical text. Moreover, some of the slang and the recording artists that are mentioned were a bit before my students' time, and those students not from the time period in question or unfamiliar with hip hop had to use a lot of Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary to understand the text. I would not use this as a primer on feminism and hip hop culture for those unfamiliar with the scene.

[planetkiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I feel like this was a well-written book. It has a central thesis that is strongly illustrated. The examples a well chosen and enhance Sharpely-Whiting's viewpoints.

I feel like I would've enjoyed this book more if it had been better edited. Sharpely-Whiting jumped around when it came to topics. A chapter about how the idealization of "white beauty standards" by African-American men effects darker skinned women involved discussions of Video Vixens, sex trade, Brazilians, modeling, advertising, what African-American women spend their money on in comparison to women of other demographics; etc. Sharpely-Whiting did bring everything back to her thesis, but there didn't seem to be a natural flow from topic-to-topic. Also, I felt like the section about Brazilians (discussing how rappers use lighter skinned Brazilian women in videos and how that negatively affects African-American women) seemed to stray a bit; rather than pointing out that the idea of all Brazilian women being sexy because they are thought of as sexually available and exotic is very similar to ideas some white men have about African-American women, the author focused instead on the negative impacts this attitude had on African-American women, giving the section a "us vs. them'" feel.

Also, I would've liked to see some of the positive aspects of hip hop culture on African-American women. Very little time is spent with opposing viewpoints.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Pimps" made me very glad I don't pay any attention to lyrics. It probably doesn't surprise anyone that rap can be misogynistic and violent. What Sharpley-Whiting is concerned about is how it affects the expectations and self-image of the young black women who listen to it. Her conclusion: not positively.

Unfortunately, I can't say much more than that about the book. She covers so many topics, from sex tourism in Brazil to cultural assumptions about beauty, that you kind of lose track of where she's going. Overall, I felt she focused much more on how hip hop portrays women and not much time at all on how women have reacted to it, which was, after all, the point of this book. Finally, her style is very dense and scholarly, and I found myself skimming to hit the highlights. It's a very interesting topics that deserves a defter touch.

[Ariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty intense. It's a look at the negative impact Hip Hop and Hip Hop culture has on women, particularly black women. It's written primarily to an audience of Hip Hoppers, rather then those outside the culture. In other words, it's not meant as fodder for a case against Hip Hop, but rather an appeal and critique to those inside it on why elements need to change.

[kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved every minute of this book. I found Whiting's commentary so on-point that I pulled out a pen and began marking up my book and making notes in the margins of the information that I wanted to save for later. Being that this book was written in 2007 I would love to hear a "part 2" of this book, since so much has changed in hip hop since then.

[Msladydeborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am still digesting a lot of this book's content. I am a birth parent of three males who grew up during different phases of hip-hop and I had an awareness of how the music shifted but I really felt that my understanding on how women are treated and viewed within the culture was opened up and expanded by reading this work.

[Ebony · Rating 2 out of 5]

if you're already into hip hop and gender the book is pretty much a review of the basics; i thought she would be more of a hater, but she really is about an open dialog about gender (feminism) and hip hop;i totally dig the arguments about sex as a transaction/commodity in hip hop culture

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Sharpley-Whiting did a wonderful job exploring the gender politics in the music I love so much--yet often find myself despising for too many reasons (the overwhelming amount of misogyny being one of them).

[Margaret Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

My birthday gift for Arthur. I want him to read it for his niece, Millicent. It repeats much of what I already know, but I don't like Hip Hop and Rap so I really skimmed through the last couple chapters.

[James Specht · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative. The author really has a fascinating look on sexuality in modern hip hop, in particular from a woman's view.

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is so much one could say about being a woman and liking hip hop; this author is just really failing to say anything. We'll see.

Nope, it didn't get better. Back to the library.

[Chocho · Rating 5 out of 5]

really great, a lot better than the hip hop wars which i found pretty didactic and trying too hard to be a manifesto. this has a much more explicit feminist agenda without being too preachy.

[Chi Chi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book dealing with female troubles in hip hop. My big complaint would be that she only focuses on the negative. Come on, give us some hope...

[Susan]

Every bit as good as I thought it would be, and a fairly comprehensive look at Hip Hop via the agenda of women of color, its impact on their perceptions and their imprint on the genre.

[Vee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this book successfully accomplished its goal.