From fly girls to bitches and hos

From fly girls to bitches and hos

Author: Joan Morgan

Date: 10/26/12 published 1999

Topic: the background on why girls are referred to bitches and his in rap music.

Exigence: brothers need to learn to love their "sistas" but the males are having depression problems themselves.

Intended audience: I believe this message can go to everyone, but it seems primarily geared towards the younger generation that listens to rap music.

Purpose: to inform our younger generation how rap music effects out society and how the lyrics effects the rapper, women, and the people who listen to the rap music now.

Claims: "The leading cause of death among black man ages fifteen to twenty-four is homicide." (602) "Women are the unsung victims of black on black crime."(602) "What passes for 40 and a blunt good times in most of hip-hop is really alcoholism, substance abuse, and chemical dependency."(603)

Audience: There are two main audiences that I can see this writing being geared towards. The  younger generation that is listening to rap music  is being influenced by this and also the rappers that are writing the lyrics and singing them. I believe that the audience expects to listen to the same type of music and the rappers know what type of music that is. The rappers know more than the author because they are the ones who are talking about and to women in this degrading way, such as bitch and ho. Also the rappers are the ones feeling the pain and depression that's causing them to rap those things. This pain is evident the author gives suicide rates including "Big Poppas" suicide.

Purpose: furthermore I believe that the purpose of this writing is to inform people on why rappers act and talk the way that they do to women and what listening to rap music promotes. I also feel that this piece of writing is here to convince women who are being abused both mentally and physically that its ok to love someone like that "...but from a distance that's safe."(604) as Morgan states.

Context or situation: This writing was written in 1999, by Joan Morgan who is a black feminist, analyzing rap and hip-hop. She knows that this music has had bad connotation to women, but she still has a passion for it. This passage is meaningful to black women, the young generation today, and all rappers. The people who recognize the names Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Notorious B.I.G are going to relate to this text. This is a very opinionated piece of writing, so it's usually written by one person particularly a feminist in this case.

Style: The style that Morgan uses in this piece of writing is formal, where as I would have thought it to be less formal because of the audience that it appeals to. On the other hand the terms such as bitch, ho, and “sistas” relates more with the younger generation on a personal level. The main points are in the introduction paragraph followed by evidence and then another main point and more evidence.

Throughout the text, the author uses ethos, logos, and pathos to give evidence to the claims she is making. She establishes her credibility as a music writer, a fan of hip-hop, and a black feminist. She tells sad stories of abuse, depression, and suicide to evoke emotions, and final she uses facts and logic to explain the background information and statistics.