Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

ismnotwasm

(41,980 posts)
Thu Feb 7, 2013, 12:12 AM Feb 2013

Teenage Girls, Rap Music and Why Kitty Pryde is the Savior

Thought this was interesting

At the end of January, a 19-year-old white girl from Florida dropped her latest project.

Kitty (formerly Kitty Pryde) raps about wetting the bed, relates the pain of unrequited love and getting unfollowed on Twitter, and even offers her own rendition of Wu Tang's "C.R.E.A.M." (which reveals her struggles with anxiety rashes). Needless to say, this mixtape irked hip-hop's inner circle of "heads," among others, to no end.

These unlikely topics coupled with her laissez-faire recording style have raised hackles among those who still stratify human experiences in strictly black and white terms like "important" and "unimportant." In hip-hop, a genre founded expressly to give to the voiceless, it seems odd that the old vanguard has reacted with such resistance to mutant strains like Kitty and other artists of her ilk.

Teenage girls are among the most embattled groups in society and where is their voice? Plenty of voices speak to them -- marketers, media outlets, magazines, advertising. The women in the music industry who speak to teenage girls include a 28-year-old pop star like Katy Perry, who essentially equates the concept of a teenage dream to a wet dream. Meanwhile, she insists she's not a feminist. No shit.

But who speaks for teenage girls? Who tells the terrors of deciphering text messages from crushes, navigating sexual behavior and finding self-esteem in a world increasingly riddled with negative, harmful messages? Kitty once described her songs as diary entries, and they sound very much like confessionals. Her vocal curlicues feel like the doodles of a teenage girl's handwriting, while her level of honesty is at times almost an affront to the unexpecting ear. But her rhymes are clever and original, and her songwriting is clear and concise even when centered on troubling topics. The production on D.A.I.S.Y. rage feels like a mix of floral frippery and some sort of concentrated hate. It's the best of two diametrically oppositional themes.



http://www.theboombox.com/2013/02/06/kitty-pryde-daisy-rage-mixtape/
8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

ismnotwasm

(41,980 posts)
6. Hey now
Thu Feb 7, 2013, 10:23 AM
Feb 2013

What the general population knows about rap is probably less than optimum, you know 'Gin and Juice' stuff. (Which cracks me up when done in bluegrass style)
I'm glad you posted these, and i thank you for it, but lighten up a bit maybe? When rap started, to me it carried a powerful message. It clearly still does, but what's mainstream and on music videos is mainstream and thats what we know.

Are these popular? I've always been more of a rock/alternative/metal head, which contains just as much misogyny as rap ever did.

 

Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)
7. Yes, what Viacom and ClearChannel provide is mostly garbage
Thu Feb 7, 2013, 10:32 AM
Feb 2013

I try to not judge musical genres by the extremely narrow band of content provided by these two providers. It'd be like casting judgement on sandwiches as a food group after eating nothing but burger king and mcdonalds.

ismnotwasm

(41,980 posts)
8. Are you a long time fan
Thu Feb 7, 2013, 11:03 AM
Feb 2013

Or is there a better place to find decent rap? When my kids were around they'd clue me in to some pretty awesome stuff, but now I don't know. I've always liked rap; I was a teenager when it broke mainstream with the 'SugarHill Gang' At the time I was hanging around what we used to call 'city Indians' ( vs 'Rez' Indians)and that stupid song caught the attention of these disenfranchised and damaged kids, they played it over and over along with groups like Grand MasterFlash- their lines lines still impress me to this day. (along with Funkadelic a few other break out genres)

I was an angry white girl who wanted to be something else, but in the midst of all that angst, I recognized history was being made and music had made a huge change and wasn't turning back.

That's why even in its darkest days, I've never discounted Rap.

Let me see, how's the line go 'it was cold and dark and raining hell when you put your baby n the garbage pail you kissed the kid put down the lid and tried to forget what you just did'

I might not have got that quite right but that line has stuck with me for over 30 years. That's the power of Rap.

redqueen

(115,103 posts)
2. Great article, thanks.
Thu Feb 7, 2013, 12:45 AM
Feb 2013
The women in the music industry who speak to teenage girls include a 28-year-old pop star like Katy Perry, who essentially equates the concept of a teenage dream to a wet dream. Meanwhile, she insists she's not a feminist. No shit.



 

seabeyond

(110,159 posts)
4. It's easy to see why older (and let's keep it real, mostly male) critics are at odds with Kitty's mu
Thu Feb 7, 2013, 09:30 AM
Feb 2013
There aren't many narratives in our culture that tell the real tale of life as a teenage girl. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't very pretty. It's confusing, full of messy physicality and disorienting emotions -- and no one speaks to it. The cultural stories told about adolescent girls rarely acknowledge the struggles this experience holds. The offered anecdotes are saccharine or sexualized, covered in ideas about adolescent women as naive, stupid, boy-obsessive, silly or ultimately meaningless outside of their sexuality. Almost every description and instruction in mainstream culture about life as a teenage girl is related to sex, or more pointedly, how to be conceived of as a sexual object.



 

seabeyond

(110,159 posts)
5. at least people are opening admitting what we are doing to our young girls and not pretending
Thu Feb 7, 2013, 09:37 AM
Feb 2013

otherwise, ignoring the obvious.

Latest Discussions»Alliance Forums»History of Feminism»Teenage Girls, Rap Music ...