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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume 4
Fall 2005
By Melissa Connerly
A current example of the trend described by Cole and Sheftall can be found in the song "Tip Drill" by rap artist Nelly. In the chorus of the song, Nelly repeats, "I said it must be your ass cause it aint ya face, I need a tipdrill, I need a tipdrill," implying that he wants a female who is promiscuous and willing to do almost anything sexual. He emphasizes that the attraction of this female has nothing to do with her face; in fact, what she looks like does not matter at all. His interest depends solely on how open she is sexually, behavior that defines what a "Tip Drill" is. He has reduced the African American woman to nothing more than a sexual accommodation. One might argue that Nelly's "Tip Drill" is equivalent to the "Jezebel." Both the video and the musical content of the song degrade women. Additionally, the music video displays images of women in very explicit and almost pornographic positions, including one in which a woman presents her bare bottom to be used as a credit-card-scanner. This image is linked to the line, "We throwin money in the air like we don't give a fuck. Lookin for a tipdrill, I mean a tipdrill." The money he has, Nelly implies, is what attracts these kinds of women. Cole and Sheftall quote Kevin Powell when he states:
Many of us men of color have held tightly to white patriarchal notions of manhood - that is, the way to be a man is to have power. Within hip-hop culture . . . that power translates into material possessions, provocative and often foul language, flashes of violence, and blatant objectification of and disrespect for women. Patriarchy, as manifested in hip-hop, is where we can have our version of power within this very oppressive society. (184)
Our society validates the idea that the man is the one that has the power, the one who has to be in control; he is the head of the household and women are inferior, or cannot perform the same duties as a man. These chauvinistic ideologies are a part of "white patriarchal notions of manhood." Powell argues that African American men within the hip hop community conform to these ideologies and try to establish through music and music videos the power they cannot have in society. The content of much rap music and videos deals with violence both in the exploitation of female anatomy and in slaughter and carnage. Nelly expresses his power through his money, because he feels it is the key to getting everything he wants, including sexual favors from women, an idea depicted in the image from his "Tip Drill" video.
The song "Tip Drill" and its video can primarily be seen on BET's "Uncut." How is it that a network that is supposed to be supportive of the Black community as a whole would play a song and video that depict African American women in such a derogatory way? BET attempts to stay in good standing with many of the artists, so deciding not to play a video because of its content would jeopardize the relationship the artists have with the television station. On the other hand, BET was recently willing to take a video by Eminem out of rotation because of its attack on Michael Jackson's character, but they have not stopped playing videos that slander the integrity of many African American women. When problems like this arise, where, then, do African American women look for support in a society that also wishes to oppress them? These situations often leave the African American female audience confused as to what to do to live down these images. BET has served as hip-hop's outlet when other stations such as VH1 and MTV were primarily playing pop and rock music. Over the years, BET has become commercialized and would rather play videos that will attract a large audience than those that are respectful to African American women. As BET tries to keep up with the other popular music video television stations, they put African American females in a position where they have nowhere to turn for affirmation. Neither VH1 nor MTV has a late night music video show that plays videos that are as explicit as the ones played on BET's "Uncut."