Sex And Sexuality In The Hiplife Business

Hiplife to this day is a male-dominated industry, and it's very difficult for female rappers to rise, and if so, become extremely successful. Because of this male dominance, many have come to see hiplife as a genre exclusively for men. Hiplife is thought to be aggressive, masculine and manly. The authenticity of hiplife has been tied to masculinity, hence it is less likely for the Ghanaian society to accept female rappers doing the job of a man.

Most female rappers are either advised to quit doing rap music and start singing or are asked to quit music in general if rap is what she considers to do. Hiplife music tends to be misogynistic. Ever since its inception in the early 90s, women have been exploited and sexualized by hip-life artiste and most of them have also been character assassinated because they chose to do hip life or rap music.

In Ghana and Africa as a whole it's very difficult to breakthrough the music scene with rap music if you are a female. Ghana can only boast of two female rappers in a genre filled with over 1000 male rappers. Eno Barony and Freda Rhymes are currently the only two female emcees in the Rap business. Year after the year they both keep releasing good Hip - Hop content and put in much energy, but it's sad to say these two ladies hardly even win any award with regards to Rap music. This highly male dominated culture which only sees females as either Video vixens or objects to be used in hip-life just to make money must stop.

Women need to be encouraged more in the rap game. Just as most men share their stories through rap music, women also go through struggles that they also need to put out through music. We must encourage and empower our women in the rap game so as to help raise and build our communities. Undoubtedly Eno Barony is lyrically dope than most of the males dominating the rap game in Ghana but little is done for her to keep up the fire. 

She's put out a lot of good quality rap songs, laced proper verses, shot doper videos but hardly is she recognized by the industry. Women must be encouraged and thought the business side of music. In the Hip - Hop culture misogyny is still there but we have a lot of women who can boast of their successes through the Hp-Hop culture. The likes of MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliot, Lauryn Hill, Eve and a few others can boast of great achievements through Hip-Hop music. 

Our women should not be denigrated, we need to push more women to do rap music and be thought and encourage them. We need to award them to keep them motivated. 

Women also have a voice in Hip-life.