"Speak about My Idea!": Women MCs in Hip Hop Battles

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the participation of women in MC battles. Battles are improvised rhyme competitions (freestyle) that are part of the Hip Hop movement and are one of the ways in which rap is presented. Qualitative exploratory research was conducted, using YouTube as a database to search for videos of competitions in which the opponents were a man and a woman. Five videos were selected, one from each region of the country. The gender perspective was used as the category of analysis and content analysis as the method. In addition, images from the videos of the battles were considered with the objective of following the public's reactions to the rhymes. It was found that both young men and women reinforced stereotypical gender roles, even when the young women confronted the machismo of their opponents. It was also found that, in a space constructed from a male perspective, the presence of women is subversive, since many of them question the format of the competition and the sexist attacks directed at them. From this discussion, we hope to contribute to the construction of the knowledge produced about the participation of women in the different elements of Hip Hop culture, a predominantly young movement.