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MC Lyte Addresses Beyonce's Gender Equality Essay
By: hiphopdx.comPosted On: 01/28/2014 10:13 A
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MC Lyte also says women are objectified in Hip Hop and that it is "the same when watching football."
MC Lyte recently addressed Beyonce's "Gender Equality Is A Myth" essay.
Lyte spoke about Beyonce's piece, which was published in the annual Shriver Report, and expressed whether she agreed with the singer.
"It’s a man’s world," MC Lyte said in an interview with XXL. "I don’t know anyone who can read it and not agree or find some points within it that are extremely accurate."
Beyonce's essay included the following excerpt:
"We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality," Beyonce said in the piece. "It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more—commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect...If women received pay equal to their male counterparts, the U.S. economy would produce $447.6 billion in additional income."
The complete Beyonce essay can be read here.
MC Lyte Says Women Are Objectified In Hip Hop & In Football During her interview, MC Lyte also applied her view on gender differences to her perspective regarding the treatment of women in the music industry, specifically within Rap.
"Many years ago, I was stunned when I watched this music video and saw a female rapper dressed the way that females were dressed when being objectified in male videos," Lyte said. "I was shocked. I was like, 'What the hell? Oh my goodness. She looks like a dancer. Wait a second.' I think that was the beginning. Of course we have explicitly dressed women throughout hip-hop before. I think it started some time ago, when the majority of Hip Hop music consumers were male. It’s the same when watching football, where it has nothing to do with women, yet we have women out there cheerleading. It’s the objectification of women, period."
In 2012, Lyte spoke with HipHopDX about her views on several women who rap. During that interview, Lyte, who had been dissed by Tyler, the Creator at the time, addressed her favorite emcees who are women.
"It’s a difficult question because I respect and admire a lot of the female emcees for their unique qualities," Lyte said at the time. "Of course I would wanna say Lauryn Hill, but her body of work is not even so much as an emcee. I would of loved to hear more from her as an emcee – even now, I would still appreciate hearing her. She would certainly be at the top of my list.
"I like to look for an emcee’s emcee," she added. "So I like Heather B, I like Bahamadia, Rah Digga. I love punchlines but I also like the substance within the bar as well. So, yeah, those would be a few I would name certainly."
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