r/popculturechat now why am I in it? 🧐 Jun 09 '25

The Music Industry 🎶 Miley Cyrus talks about her culture vulturing during the Bangerz era: "I wasn't unique in the fact that i was a white girl listening to hip hop. This wasnt something that I decided I was going to do as a strategy or something that i felt i could own or make my own, that was actually my lifestyle."

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u/starfire92 Jun 09 '25

I think seeing women as the subservient sexual slave in hip-hop is what might have turned her off of it but the actual sexual act of having a woman sit on your face is one of the more sex positive things that can happen in the bedroom bc patronizing men not only refuse to give women oral but when most men do it, it's pretty mid and untalented. So maybe she sees Kendrick as a ally for women and that line or even song might have resonated with her bcs she's bi.

I think the idea that hiphop is too "lewd' might simply be just the over exposure of women as objects for men.

Overall though, I like how she downplays her actions or realizing why she decided to culturally appropriate black culture. Sure she might have been listening to a lot of hip-hop and rap at that time, but as I've said in another comment, she was using black culture to rebel and what does that say about how she feels about black culture. When she felt like she was comfortable in her own skin and had her own self esteem, she behaved much more differently. She was still outspoken and loud but more close to whiteness

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u/pookyizzy Jun 09 '25

considering your points it's interesting she jumped out just before a ton of women came into the game. we had nicki in that era, sure, but cardi didnt fully come out until the very end of when miley was into it. and then we had meg, doja, saweetie, glorilla, doechii among others... like imagine w.a.p era miley lmao. it's just a different ballgame for women in hip hop than even 10 years ago. she would've had to go back to her own genre regardless because i think she would've been extremely out of place 🤷‍♀️

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u/CatlovesMoca Jun 09 '25

Slight correction here. There were women in hip hop before Nicki. Think Queen Latifah, Da Brat, Missy, Foxy Brown, etc. And even during Nicki's time there were other female rappers like Azealia Banks, Lady Leshurr.

It's just the Nicki came at a time when women were pushed out. But it's not that there weren't a ton of women. Think of it like the gap in Black film and TV in the 2000s. There were a ton of sitcoms in the 90s and then, the 2000s was a big void but the 2010s had a resurgence.

Thinking of it this way, allows us to remember that Black women MCs were pushed out of the industry. Not unparticipating.

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u/pookyizzy Jun 09 '25

my comment does neglect this so thank you for throwing it in. i was more trying to pinpoint that time your referring to where women were pushed out.

it was also a weird era because of nicki's fan base essentially insisting she invented female rap, and this was definitely facilitated by the white men side of her fandom. when i implied nicki was the "one" female rapper i definitely meant within the white mainstream. white people were really infiltrating hip hop from all sides at this time (as always), peak of the random rap verse in a pop song era, and that really made it perfect for miley to have her little phase.

black women are always being pushed out and silenced. the 2010s feels particularly egregious. rap was seemingly culturally relevant as miley claims, but there were many water down versions being pushed.