Yo this is something I've puzzled on periodically for many years, I got many female friends but i can count on one hand the ones who REALLY are deep in this thing called hip hop. And thru my closeness to a particularly skilled emcee called Staple Feud, who is female, I've had this framework to see this arts effect on the female psyche... i see someone wit mad skill on the mic whose killed cats in a battle format in front of a large portion of the Pen Tech student body, who loves hip hop but has gotten to a point where she don't wanna rhyme so much anymore cos, she growin up and the image of being a strong woman and having everyday concerns is seen as something she's "allowed" to have at the same time as being IN hip hop, just look at Jean Grae's rants and troubles. Hey her choice, but what can I say, I grew up on hip hop which was largely mysoginistic and I still love the shit I grew up on, even though I now also appreciate more"soulful" stuff.....
I think alot of the problem is that us men define ourselves in terms of women,,, be it how many we've slept with, how many have hurt us, how many we've hurt, how many we want, how many want us..whatever. And for a large proportion of the guys who've made hip hop thru the years have defined themselves by placing themselves above women (their right fine) but they put themselves above by putting women down, bein bitches and hoes...yes there are bitches and hoes, but yo mom and yo duaghter aint right? Also the first women who got notoriety in this thing got it by also buying into the bitch/hoe syndrome...Lil Kim, Jacki-O, Rah Digga, Hell even Lady of Rage doen some "break this off" shit wit her scary self. That don't help shit.
Thing is only way I can see this shit changin is, EVERYBODY decidin it aint right and fixin it...lets face it, thats NOT going to happen.
By rights Hip Hop shouldn't be about gender, it started off bein about race, now we cant even use that, we ran out of serious issues to be angry about...so now its about money and everything else is too difficult...besides we need money to survive...so decide you either makin The Man money by bein a hip hop nigga or you makin The Man money by bein his industry nigga..in whatever industry you in.Somehow we gotta find the way to take ownership..and that doesn't mean havin your own label, that means defining the market and culture on your own terms, but how do you do that when you cant reach enough peeps?
I honestly don't know....its not about where are the women..its about where is hip hop..and who is hip hop....
Hip hop shouldn't actually be about the cat who spits or produces or breaks or writes... its supposed to be about our families and the communities that produced us.. but we've been taught our whole lives that where we come from is shit...I don't know whow to combat that......