In my recent blog post Beyonce's 'If I were a boy' I reprinted a letter from Lisa, a reader, who criticized Beyonce's song for being anti-male. She was right, but LorMarie, a reader, was also correct in retorting that "male rap artists can rap about degrading women" without protest, calling it a "double standard."

I wonder how much of what we see is dictated not by what the artists want but by what music executives think will sell. An example is a fairly recent rap song, "Baby Mama Drama" by J-Shin.

Young African-American fathers are routinely stereotyped as irresponsible cads who have abandoned their offspring, but many unwed fathers fight a long, hard struggle to remain a part of their children's lives. J-Shin's song powerfully captures these young men's problems.  Some of the lyrics are:

"Let me tell you 'bout my life/it's baby mama drama/all we do is fight/believe me when I tell you she ain't right/every night I'm on the phone/would you leave me alone?/My baby's cryin', my baby's is sick, she's croakin'/I jump in my car and I race to the house--she's jokin'/Girl why can't you just let it go?"

And

"I got some papers in the mail just the other day/It was in reference to a court case I had back in May/when I tell you what it is you won't believe/My Baby Mama once again been deceivin'/She lied, talkin' about I put my hands on her/plus I'm months behind on my child support/ I see my baby plus I give her money every week/so tell me why you treat me like a deadbeat?"

To listen to the song, click here.

Unfortunately the music video for "Baby Mama Drama" is very disappointing. I had hoped that perhaps it would be a dramatization of a father's love for his child. Or (heaven forbid) of the way mothers push fathers out of their children's lives.

Instead it was the usual rap video full of scantily-clad women with no visible connection to the song's powerful lyrics. I'd like to think that J-Shin wrote the song sincerely and the record company forced that ridiculous video on him.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Sexism, Misogyny, African-American Issues, Racism. You can trackback from your own site.