Women in Latino Rap


Hip-hop and Rap have always been focal points for the argument of the sexualization of women and have served as bastions for the macho ideology to live on. Songs like "Rosana" by Wax (to the right) exemplify the macho ideology and the fact that many rappers use women as objects for their music and lower them to a crude shell of what femininity is. Some women refuse to conform to this mold that has been set for them by this music and culture and instead become rappers themselves. Women and a certain aspect of femininity have always been central topics of rap, but now, there's a different angle coming onto the rap scene.

"Rosana" [sound recording] by Wax in Rosana. Nobody Famous. 2013. Duration 4:22. English.

This is a good example of the misogyny that is experienced by women in many circles of rap and hip-hop culture. The song speaks about the unbridled sexuality of the woman Rosana and uses sexual innuendo to illustrate different sexual acts. In this song, the woman is the objectified focal point for his sexual desires and is nothing more than that. 

"You never know" [sound recording] by Immortal Technique in Revolutionary, Part 2. 2003. Duration 7:50. English.

Like all other kinds of music, Rap has its own renditions of the love song. The song that's played and created not for skill or fame, but the song that's written to tell a story of happiness and love. In this song, Immortal Technique speaks of a failed love with a beautiful woman that tragically dies; a tragedy. Although the authenticity of the story is disputed by some circles, the fact remains that the song tells a story that moves the listener and goes for something different than the shock of Gangsta Rap or Radio Rap. 

Not all Rappers

It would be easy to say that all male rappers are the same and that they all have the desire to subdue women and make them their "bitches". However, we need to keep in mind that while this kind of thought might be unsavory to some, rappers are often part of the culture that breeds them and should be kept in that context. Straying freely from that stereotype, we see Immortal Technique in his song You never Know, speak extremely highly of a woman and how she helps him in his life and about the literal power that she had over him that helped get him where he is today. 

I never tried to sneak a touch, or even cop a feel
I was too interested, in keeping it real
Perfectly honest and complete, she would always call me "carino",
And never Technique, bought me a new book to read every 2 or 3 weeks
Forever changing the expression of my thoughts when I speak
-Immortal Technique - You Never Know

"Filth" In an academic context

In Frances Negron-Muntaner's Essay Poetry of Filth: The (Post) Reggaetonic Lyrics of Calle 13 the Hop-Hop subculture of Reggaeton is examined through the eyeglass of an academic context. Although the sexual explicitness of much of Residente’s rap has led some listeners to collapse Calle 13’s surreal poetry with the misogynist lyrics of early underground songs— “Malditas Putas,” by Guanábanas Podrias, for example—the duo’s erotic imagination greatly differs from the classic reggaeton corpus. Residente certainly indulges in some sexist garbage of his own by locating masculinity in “los cojones” (the balls), and condoning an ambivalent homophobia in which he wants the whole world to “suck” his creative juices while the “cocksucker” is portrayed as a particularly despicable character. Yet, it is no less true that Calle 13’s lyrics make fun of the pretense that sexuality is a heterosexual male arena and that men can be completely successful in fulfilling women’s desires.