J*9:  Of all the different forms of art, why did you choose graffiti?

SONPY: When I returned to France to live there, I was fascinated by all the colours on the walls of the city.  My older brother and his friends has been practicing graffiti for many years and I wanted to be like them, I said that one day I too will do that!

J*9:   What was it like when you did your first piece of art?

SONPY: Ohhhhhh it was super ugly! It was not as easy as I thought.

J*9:   How long have you been ‘writing?’

SONPY: Basically it has been 5 years since I put my first small Sonpinette on a wall. I `m really putting it too three years ago, since I’ve been in a fierce and determined mode.  Now it is like a drug!  If I do not do at least one painting a week I feel bad! My evolution and my style are progressing smoothly.

J*9:  How has your style changed over the years

SONPY: When you are operating alone it is difficult to have a critical eye on your stuff. You start by making simple pieces with large flat areas and features that resemble anything but a fine line. Then after you play with colours, shadows, location and you work your style to each piece in reality. Looking at other people paint you get to understand many things!  I’ve been lucky to paint with my friend Honk of CKT crew, MCZ Vizion from Paris, mister Choq a pro of characters and Sake 132. I still trying to evolve in this environment, but I ‘m not yet satisfied with the result!

J*9:  What types of characters do you like drawing?

SONPY: Sexy girls, hip hop and funnily enough I like to draw animals. But most of the time they are female characters that you find on the walls, I am tempted sometimes by a small SONPY lettering, but it `s really not my speciality.

J*9:   A lot of male writers draw sexy women, how is your different?

SONPY*:  The difference with my lil chica’s is that they do not come from a male fantasy or an ideal that I would want in my bed! It has just always been easier for me to represent more rounded forms of femininity because may be I am one!

J*9:  Have you collaborated with other graffiti artists?

SONPY: I had the chance to start the graffiti with Honk, Sake, Vizion, and Choq. I’ve made some connections from time to time with friends Beller from LSK and SF crew Kasdie, Pearl, the FM who were at school with me in. But most of the time I paint alone. I am a solo girl; I don `t belongs to any crew. If I did I think that it would have to be all female and consists of girls as crazy as me! Girl power!

J*9: LOL.  Do you have any favourite artists on the scene?

SONPY: Yes I love Mode2 art! Lazoo Mac, the 132 crew. I really like Chicanos style and mister Cartoon in LA.

J*9:  What has been your favourite piece?

SONPY: of my graffiti?

J*9:  Yea.

SONPY:  Aww I don’t really have favourite but I do like the piece I made for my dead grandmother.

J*9:  Ahh.

SONPY: The rip with the angel, cross and roses

J*9:  My last question, what are your plans for the future?

SONPY: My plans are able to do what I like as long as possible and who knows may be painting on the walls when I’m 85 years old and in my wheelchair.

Facebook: LadySonP

She opens the track with: “Get fuck from the back singing lalala/I’ve fucked six mans on the camera…” When listening to this and the other rest of the song millions of thoughts rushed through my head. Firstly as a young black woman seeing an even younger black woman talk about her sexuality in such a way regurgitates the jezebel stereotype that labels all black female sexuality. Then I remembered, she is only 16-years-old, she has just finished her GCESEs, she is still a child – she can’t even vote.  If, she knew the history of where her narrative places her, would she talk about her body, well her pussy in such a way?  But, this is where we as older women come to help support, guide and educate this young about her womanhood. There is no point hatin’ if we are not going to take ownership and responsibility for our young women. What is the point in telling her how “nasty” she is without showing her an alternative?

Trying to understand the psychology of someone you don’t know is very hard, for obvious reasons. I guess I can only speculate why she has chosen to emerge herself into the Grime/Hip-hop scene in such a fashion. But there is a sense of agency and ownership that Niki executes here. She puts out her business before anyone of the guys can and ultimately she is in charge of the information, she eradicates he-said-she-said gossip.  She is able to use her sexual exploits as way to gain attention to her music. But the real question here is whether she is gaining the right attention? Admittedly, as a fan of hip-hop music, OG Niki has a great rhythm and flow and could quite easily put a few guys to shame. In her own words, her twitter followers went from 198 to over 4,500 in space of two days when this video was posted on youtube. Not only that, the amount of virals in response to this song have literally assassinated her character. I expected and she did too to get a lot of responses, ranging from her “keeping it real” to being called a “slag,” the latter being the emphasis. Comparing Niki’s treatment to Skepta’s (a Grime emcee), who graced us with a short porno to accompany his song, ‘All Over the House,’ speaks volumes on accountability of sexual relations between men and women. To be fair to Niki, she used her own sexuality and body to gain attention; Skepta used a woman’s to achieve the same means.

There is no doubt, that Niki has capitalised on our obsession with scandal and sex, but does she deserve our attention? Since her internet debut, there has been only one follow up track which she features on, again telling us how great she is at sex. So, has Niki somehow manipulated this generation’s addiction to easy fame through selling female sexuality? Something tells me Niki was and is aware of what gets people talking and by being outrageous as she possibly could she has done just that. But I also sense naivety about what she has engaged herself in, the pragmatics of undertaking the ‘hypersexual female rapper role,’ is a shackle that is impossible to shake. If we look at a contemporary example, Miss Niki Minaj, who offers the braggadocio of, ‘I am just as bad as the boys’ it is not too hard to understand why 16-year-old OG Niki has taken route to get her music heard in this way.  The difference is, Niki Minaj has corporate label to promote her music on an international scale, if you are going to sell female sexuality lets globalisaed that sh!t. When we are used to seeing women’s bodies and sexuality being exploited to sell anything as the norm, then why not use your own to promote your artistry? Has Niki taken patriarchy by the balls and said, ‘you are not using my sexuality to sell me, I am!’ Or is she complying with the oppression of women and their bodies?

I do hope whatever she was seeking from posting up that video, she has obtained it- at her own expense. Whether it was 15 minutes of fame, a record deal or just to get “people talking,” I would like to believe that she could look back and reflect on the productivity of her actions.  But in the mean time, as women instead of hating on her lets support her through love.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As a Black woman, why would you need to enhance a body part that is a natural asset to you just like the color of your skin? Your protruding heritage is almost what deciphers the cultural group you belong too, right? As Black women, whether we realises it or not, we exist within a “double consciousness” as Dubois would put it. We are full aware that we do not conform to the Western standards of beauty, and thus are ugly, but at most times we are fine with that. When we leaf through pages of mainstream magazines or watch our favorite television shows are our face is not being represented, but we have adapted and learnt to live with that, it’s the norm. But simultaneously, we have rejected and conformed, when we dye our hair to lighten it from its natural ebony hue or straighten our kinks we are internalizing this every infliction of White beauty. But as cultural group, we have challenged this notion of beauty by developing our own standards.  The very ones that aim to slap White Western values in the face, because the Black woman looks like this: pear or hour-glassed shaped, thick thighs, ample busts and a big ol’ booty.

So when rounded pair of firm cheeks is not amply placed between our lower back and upper thighs, the interrogation of our “blackness” occurs. Whether that is an internal process or others question us questioned on how we can perform to our womanhood. Honestly, how can you be Black woman with no bum? So when Claudia went to one of her auditions as a music video girl where her behind was deemed unsuitable, her womanhood was rejected. Her body did not perform to role of what a Black woman’s body ought to be, it was not gratifying enough to enthuse the lustful male gaze.  Not only was Claudia rejected by her own cultural group for not possessing the right asset to legitimize this identity, but she experiences rejection everyday when she watches adverts for L’Oreal, reads or a glossy magazine or watches the latest hip-hop music video on television. So her Black Womanhood automatically correlated to how big one’s ass is.

But where did this morbid fascination come from? Answer: as a cultural group we have absorbed the representation of the dominant White Patriarchy: racist misogyny. The Black ass and generally female body existed out the norms of the White female body that represents purity. Us Black women with our exoticism and deviant sexuality was conceived as primitive the stage up from the primates, this racism was being born out of slavery.  The big ol’ booty came to European attention with the arrival of Sarah Baartman who was parodied as the ‘Hottentot Venus.’ She was bought in South Africa, where she came from and was sold to a circus. Her attraction, her enlarged buttocks. She was exhibited throughout Europe especially in Science Fairs and was forced to gyrate her buttocks, for the bemusement of the audience.  She was the original booty shaker.

When the Black female bum navigates it why through public space, it carries a vast and inhumane history. When I see Nicki Minaj or any other women shaking her moneymaker, I see Sarah Baartman. I feel her pain, her humiliation, and regret. For Sarah, there was no choice and for these women their choices are limited. But yet our bodies are used as currency to negotiate a lifestyle, a way of being and worse of all prostituted

Image as appeared in text:1. Featured image, Sarah Baartman.2.Sarah Bartman3. Nicki Minag

Dear Diary,

Today,  I had a toe implants. I know, I know, I’m crazy right! You may be thinking, Nicki why did you do that, your toes were perfect? Well, I have to be honest; I want my toes to be big, juicy, like real sex yo. I know I act like I don’t have any insecurities, because I don’t, I mean it did cost Lil Wayne a lot of money to make me this perfect. But I always felt my toes you know were lacking a bit, like, I don’t if its anything to do with the fungi on my big toe on my left foot – but something weren’t right. You know, like, I wanna be walking up in the club and have the guys be like damn, ‘look at her toes!’ Because you know it make feel real sexy like real hot, which I am, but anyways, I digress (love that word).  Cos you do know that 2011 is all about the toes, nobody cares about my booty implants, it will be all about my toes. Wait for all my music videos they will be showing close ups of my sexy toes looking real sexy and shit. So I got to go, cos Drake be calling me to go write his lyrics so I’ll be back!

So you heard here first, Nicki Minaj, has had toe implants, who would have thought?

After wasting an hour of life, that I will never get back, I was left thinking so what was the point?  What did BBC 3, really investigate that we don’t already read in the Daily Mail?  The narrator, Nel Hedayat tried her best to employ a devil’s advocate approach but her naivety failed her too many times; was she the authoritative independent woman or the flirtatious sweet heart? Her constant giggling meant I could not take her seriously, she was patronising to the black interviewees and kept making disparaging comments on the size of their derrières, surely this was the misogyny she was meant to be tackling in this piece? I could not help but notice her bias towards the white video model and how she justified her behaviour as ambitious whilst the Black models where some how deluded.  She nicely skipped over the racism or skin prejudice, perhaps the reason why this White model was more successful because, wait for it, she is White. Yes, the White female body too is sexualised as a commodity but it exists as the ultimate feminine ideal. So, Black models of darker skin tones are relegated to the sidelines or at the back of the shot where nobody will really notice them.

This piece really did not explore how the Black bodies are viewed in a White male patriarchy, with its roots from slavery.  Or even women of colour, like Asian, Chinese, Arabic etc whose exotic otherness exists outside the paradigms of the dominant Western culture. Perhaps, that is too much history for the BBC who too championed British Colonialism and the urgh-ban generation would not understand this.

The complexities of female identity influenced by the social construct of femininity does not solely exists in music videos; we are barraged in magazines, internet, television all forms of mass media that conspire to tell us we are ugly.  The young black video model that was considering deforming her body in the name of vanity and more importantly male desirability is a product of massacring of the female self-esteem.  Yet this was barely touched upon as the “bum-budget.”

Lastly, I should mention that I love Hip-Hop music and not all artists prescribe to such misogyny and it would be more objective to hear their views. More importantly, how do female rappers feel and how do they subvert their roles as women in Hip-Hop? We have to bear in mind Hip-hop is a counter-culture that exists in a matrix of White Male Capitalism, so values like sexism, free-market economics and colour prejudice will be absorbed and recycled in a new name.

It is just a shame that the BBC did not go into more detail here. They could have discovered a lot more than the age-old argument of exploitation versus empowerment.

Apart from pointing out the obvious, Chuck D, now-turned-label-boss, is making a valid point. Female rappers have virtually disappeared to the no-career-land of hip-hop oblivion.  Let’s takes a quick test.  Name your top three rappers of all time. Now, out of them, how many were female?  If all three, then you were clearly guilt tripped by the previous sentences. One to two, well done for applying positive discrimination. Zero, you might as well call yourself Snoop Dogg, and show how your “pimp-hand is way strong.”

The contribution that women have played in the progression of hip-hop is pivotal, but as usual it has been forgotten. Tanya Winley, daughter of Paul Winley, founder of Winley Records, (the first record label dedicated to hip-hop music) released ‘Vicious Rap’ in 1980. It was the first commercially recorded hip hop song to feature social commentary rather than just party rhymes. Such records would remain a rarity until the success of ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. However, the true female pioneer of hip-hop is Roxanne Shanté, considered by many to have made the first answer song in hip-hop history. In 1984, a then fourteen-year-old girl brought out ‘Roxanne’s Revenge.’ It was in response to U.T.F.O track, ‘Roxanne, Roxanne,’ in which the group dissed the protagonist of the song for spurning their advances. Roxanne Shanté hit back by saying: “So, if you’re trying’ to be cute and you’re trying’ to be fine, You need to cut it out ’cause it’s all in your mind.” The long and the short of it was that these grown men got told off by a teenage school girl. Lauryn Hill was the first rapper to be awarded ‘Album of the Year’ at the Grammy Awards in 1999. The role which women have played in advancing the genre is akin to a witness giving evidence in a Mafia murder case: silenced and never heard of again.  If this is the unfortunate status quo for female rap, how can this moribund genre be saved?

The current state of hip-hop is like a sufferer of Alzheimer’s. This once conscious genre has regressed to the maturity of a teenage boy on heat. Both male and female rappers are recycling the same old, clichéd sexual braggadocio and gangsterism. It seems light years ago that hip-hop had something intelligent and remotely cerebral to say. The present capitalist nature of the genre has resulted in it being stripped of authenticity and the female voice has been reduced to the ‘jezebel image.’ Female rappers of the Golden Age of Hip-hop had more poignant things to say from, female equality to safe sex. But their contemporary sisters seem more concerned about receiving oral sex. Queen Latifah’s lyrics advocated a positive feminist stance. Her song ‘Ladies First’ (with the UK female rapper Monie Love) championed respect for women.  In the late 90s MC Lyte showed that female rappers did not have to compromise their sexuality to get their voices heard.  Sha Rock, part of the first rap group from the Bronx, Funky Four Plus One More, provided intelligent lyrics which proved her worth.  These rappers were a product of the zeitgeist; the post black-power-generation was still in tune to Afrocentric ideas and the real roots of what hip-hop was all about.

By the early nineties, the mood of hip-hop was beginning to change. The brutal attack on Rodney King in 1991 by the LAPD and the murder of Latasha Harlins by a Korean shop owner were both catalysts for the LA Riots. The many ‘hood’ films, such as, ‘Menace to Society’ and ‘Boyz in the Hood’ brought South Central LA to national attention. Along came Warren G, Snoop Dog, Dr. Dre and Nate Dogg – all of whom were from the G-Funk (Gangsta Funk) era which was unique to the West Coast. With this area experiencing poor social housing, low educational achievement, high unemployment and continuous police harassment, what was the black male supposed to aspire to?   These artists provided an alternative to the erosion of black male masculinity, with their brash lyrics that advocated violence, misogyny and the pimping lifestyle. Rap was the perfect tool for these male rappers to promote their hyper masculinity to which women were an extension of their pimping lifestyle.  This in turn naturally provoked a female backlash. Salt’n’Pepper – a trio from New York, espoused lyrics which focused on sexual competence, preaching safe sex and the values of finding a good man. The female rappers from the West Coast too adopted a brooding style. YoYo told us, well, not to mess with her YoYo and Lady of Rage informed us not to annoy her because: “I rock rough and tough with my Afro Puffs.”

Women in hip-hop have been subsequently cheapened and reduced from the majestic, intelligent female rappers to the status of booty-shakers in the male rappers’s one dimensional music videos. The gangster lifestyle determined what rap was going to be about: sex, drugs, ‘the hood,’ misogyny and materialism. If female rappers wanted to be part of that picture, then they had to fit into the already male-decided paradigms. The famous “hip-hop intellectual” Michael Eric  Dyson, a Professor at George Town University in DC, has written: “The success of female rappers  Has suffered as a result of the prerogative of men who set the standards for what’s acceptable in hip-hop and set the lyrics, the styles and what genres will be most popular.” This is where female rap went seriously wrong – by compromising the femininity of its protagonists.

The simultaneous emergence of late 90s female rappers like Foxy Brown, Lil Kim and Da Brat set the first agenda for female rap. To get into the spot light, you must be the first and only lady of an all male rap crew. If you think about it, most of the contemporary female rappers have stemmed from male groups, such as Rah Digga from Flip Mode Squad, Eve from Ruff Ryders and Remy Ma of The Terror Squad and more recently Nicki Menage from Young Money to name but a few.  Once these females made their debut as solo artists, their careers were dependant upon the success and popularity of their male counterparts. Secondly, as a contemporary female rapper, your sexuality and braggadocio must “out male” the men. Andy Cowan, Editor of Hip-Hop Connection magazine, thinks: “The female rap cause was put back immeasurably by the brief reigns of Foxy Brown and Lil’Kim. By reducing the whole female experience to mere sexuality, in Lil Kim’s case near porn, they played into the hands of chauvinistic stereotypes the world over.”

Although, these two females subverted the roles of women in hip-hop, they also conformed to hackneyed stereotypes of black female sexuality. It was rare for females to be so sexually crass in their lyrics and to reduce men to sexual objects. But they reinforced the negative and erroneous image of the black woman as sexually lascivious and sexually deviant which has plagued black women since the days of slavery. Mimi Valdes, the former Editor of Vibe magazine, once said: “It seemed like the female artists mentored by male MCs to look and sound a different. Biggie developed Lil’Kim and Jay Z was working with Foxy Brown. I think they are strong women and took advantage of America’s obsession with sex.”

The plight of the female rap cause has been extensively ridiculed by VH1’s ‘Miss Rap Supreme,’ which was supposed to find ‘the new queen of female rap.’ The show ignominiously ended in April 2008, and the winner Reece Steele is exactly where she started off with: no record deal. Female rappers now have to contend with r’n’b artists who are literally stealing their act. The revamping of r’n’b’ music in the last couple of years has taken on a much harder, more street persona. Ebro Darren, Music Director of the US hip-hop radio station Hot 97, said in an article: “Fergie and Gwen Stephanie do not have street or emcee credibility. But they are selling the hip-hop lifestyle and that is what is getting them the audience.” If the boundaries between r’n’b’ and hip-hop are becoming increasingly blurred, where does this leave female rap?

Whether you have realised it or not, there are no females on the same level as Jay Z or P Diddy, for instance.  There are no female hip-hop moguls who are influencing the genre for the commercial gain of women and overseeing how they are represented. If we had more women in rap doing the controlling, instead of being controlled, things would be much better. Ice T, one of the most famous rappers from the West-Coast- Gangster- Rap era, once remarked: “Rap is very aggressive, testosterone based, hard-core music at its base. To rap, you’ve got to stand on the stage and say I’m the best and that is what’s up. It’s very narcissistic music. It takes a special woman to be able to pull that off.”

But, contrary to what Ice T said, I think that in 2010 there are plenty of ‘special’ women who are ready to change the chauvinistic face of hip-hop. Let’s hope they come forward, because hip-hop as a genre urgently needs them.

I guess whatever makes good song, this track has all the correct ingredients. I think what I like most is that it is distinctively different from the original. In my book thats some good remxing! Also, the spontaneousness of the video tickles me a lot. One can assume it was completely random as it Yarah and Vadim having fun in front of a camera. There is no air of pretentiousness, just good ol’ fun. Check it!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Overall, if you have some spare time and cash, check them out you may walk away learning a thing or too…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/nov/29/female-mcs-street