A Woman's Hustle

Jelani Cobb's "To The Break of Dawn" P126

QUOTE : "The fingerprint details of Hip Hop- the gun as icon, the jaundiced eyed perspective on the world, the muscularity of language, the centrality of the city as a backdrop, the endless replay of the women-as-Eve theme, and the all consuming pursuit of the dollar-descend from fictional worlds of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, the cinematic environs of Don Corleone and the Goodfellas. Think about that in the context of Obie Trice's "Set Up" or Common's Testify, two songs in which male protagonists are cleverly undone by beautiful, but treacherous women, and it's hard to miss the similarity between those tales and the standard noir formula.

In this quote Jelani explains how hip hop is also influenced by cinematic noir, such as gangsta movies involving "set ups." What I want to get at is how any outside audience who would listen to Common's testify or any other song about women acting as "eve" as Cobbs says it can see women as being snakes or "treacherous" bc Hip Hop stereotypes us as that and by us I mean women. As you can see in Common's video the girl looks like a snitch or a bitch because of what she did, but what if we flipped the script? What if a dude did that to another dude, then it's a different story and all the men would be applauding the man walking away with the dough because he played the game right. Heaven forbid women can play that same role.

I had watched and listened to both songs that Cobb mentioned, another song called "The Set Up" by Obie Trice and it's the same scenario, a FEMALE played out two crews and she gets no standing ovation? Oh no she's a "gold digger," like that's worse then what men do (selling drugs to their own people), but yet we're downgraded for doing it, when the goal is the same "to get money." In my honest opinion sex sells for women and I'm not talking about being a prostitute, but we can use what we got to get what we need, thats OUR hustle and thats OUR game. If we can play out a dude and get extra on the side like some new red bottom lui's or a new whip, then why not? Hustlers who are mostly men play out their customers to get more money and buy the flashy things they want. I know there might be some ladies out there reading this and thinking in their heads "oh no I can't do that or that's not right," BUT what I have to say to that is then you dont have to go that route, it's like men who hustle some can and some can't, some will and some won't. This is the real world and some people want money more than others and will do what they got to do to do it, but yet of course it's taboo for women to play the same type game as men and get a high five for it.

Now you think of the lyrics to Obie's song and replace the "shady bitch" with a dude.... now is he fucked up for what he did? or does he get props because he played out two crews... I just dont understand why women can't stand strong just as men and we're labeled in a negative way.

The reason why I have a lot to say about this is because I work at a Gentlemen's club and no I don't dance, but I see the ignorance of men everyday underestimating women and I've seen and been through a lot to really have a strong opinion on this. Men downgrade dancers because they're seen as hoes for using their bodies to make money. Oh I'm sorry us WOMEN have found a LEGAL business to make just as much money in a day as an illegal big time drug dealer. Even though Im talking about dancers who take it off for money, when i say use what we got to get what we need doesn't mean get naked and get money, we as women have a lot of power and sometimes movements like "hip hop" can make us forget that bc it's male dominated, but a woman with good looks, charm, and intelligent words can be powerful and just with that we can play the same game as men and get our money too.


VIDEOS (really think about what i said when you're watching these videos and listening to the lyrics)
-Testify by Common



-The Set Up by Obie Trice