Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere

Rating:
Summary: Erudite and Culturally Relevant
Review: Throughout the history of Hip-Hop, its relationship with women (particularly Black women) and feminism has been strained. Though there have been a few success stories regarding women on the scene and behind the scenes of the Hip-Hop movement, women's place in it have been, for the most part, invisible, degrading, and kept to a minimum. In Gwendolyn's Pough's exciting new book, Check It While I Wreck It, the assistant professor of women's studies at the University of Minnesota examines the dysfunctional relationship between Black women, feminism, and Hip Hop.

The book commences with a history of Black women in the public sphere who have contributed to the betterment of African-Americans such as Angela Davis, the historical Black clubwomen, and women who were trailblazers in the blues music industry. Pough reveals how Black women laid the foundation for future successes for the entire race. Pough writes "Black women were major players through Reconstruction, the civil rights movement, and the Black Power movement." In fact, because of their exclusion, the author even suggests a re-writing of history.

Later the author gives us a more recent history of women's contributions to the arts and Hop, including Sylvia Robinson, the label owner of Sugar Hill Records, break dancer Baby Love, and female rapper Roxanne Shante. The book gives major props to Grammy-winner Queen Latifah, Sista Soulja, MC Lyte, and poet Jessica Care Moore.

Pough also critiques the products of popular culture such as movies like Boyz N The Hood and Just Another Girl on the IRT, books such as Sista Soulja's The Coldest Winter Ever and Omar Tyree's Flyy Girl, and of course rap records such as L.L. Cool J's I Need Love, and Latifah's U.N.I.T.Y.

The book is best when examining the problems that exist between women and Hip-Hop, from the objectification of women in music videos to the acts of hyper-sexual rappers such as Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown. Pough writes "Today, in addition to the old images of the sexually promiscuous Black women...we have the bitches, hos, stunts, hoochies, pigeons, chickenheads, and baby mamas put forth by Black men rappers. The need to struggle against stereotyped images is still present." Let's hope this book will keep the discussion that invokes change alive.

"Check It While I Wreck" is a thoroughly researched, erudite, and culturally relevant work that is virtually impossible to put down. Reminiscent of the writings of bell hooks, this scholarly work in feminist theory and Hip-Hop culture is destined to be an instant classic taught in college lecture halls across the country.


Rating:
Summary: Bringing Wreck
Review: When hip hop made its debut onto the urban scene in the 1970s, most saw it as a fad that would eventually fade into oblivion. Some thirty years later this culture, essentially born from urban decay, with its eclectic mix of rap music, poetry, dance, dress and attitude, has become universal.

In her new book CHECK IT WHILE I WRECK IT, Gwendolyn Pough, assistant Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Minnesota, highlights some of the contributions of noted female rappers to hip hop and explores their impact on the evolution of the genre.

Dr. Pough explains the phenomena of "bringing wreck" a catch phrase often used in hip hop circles, as a form of praise, to describe "skill and greatness." The author uses this terminology to ascribe to the ways in which various female rappers; from the lyrically raunchy Foxy Brown and Lil Kim to the socially conscious Queen Latifah and Lauren Hill have brought "wreck" to the world of hip hop by causing "disruptions which somehow shifted the way black people were viewed in the society at large." The author further expounds on the theory that the hip hop culture has the power to "affect change and bring wreck in a meaningful way" and exhorts female rappers to recognize the tremendous possibilities of hip hop and use it as a force for good.

CHECK IT WHILE I WRECK IT is a thought-provoking, enlightening read which affords all readers a window into the world of an often misunderstood, yet extremely popular culture. At the core of this book is the author's call for female rappers to continue to "bring wreck" to the hip hop world, as they strive to carve their own niche in this essentially male dominated culture.

Reviewed by Autumn
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers