Tupac’s “I Get Around” through a Semiotic Lens
A strong presence of white supremacy is paraded throughout the course of Tupac’s “I Get Around” music video. Using semiotics to encode and decode the text of the video it was found that there is a similar relationship between white supremacy and dominant ideology and could fall under the same umbrella. Signifiers that support this idea were found in the text, such as vulgar lyrics, images of women serving men, the inferior treatment of women, internalized racism, handpicked cluster of women for the video, stereotypes, the presence dominant ideology plays in the way these women dress, body type, hair texture, and a multitude of stereotypes are presented inside the text.
As most of us know Rap music emerged as an aesthetic cultural expression of the urban youth in the late 1970s. It has been denoted as the poetry of the youth who are often disregarded as a result of their race and class status. Since it first came on the music scene, rap has gone through a number of phases, and it has been used as a medium to express a variety of ideas, feelings, and emotions. Hope, love, fear, anger, frustration, pride, violence, and misogyny have all been expressed through the medium of rap. This article examines the use of misogynistic ideology in gangsta rap and traces the connection between its prevalence in rap and the larger cultural picture of how African American women have been characterized historically. (Adams) The strong lyrics particularly stand out, without a trained ear, these simple words come across as harmless, or just for pure entertainment, but once encoded and decoded the connotative meanings are quite alarming. In the opening verse of the song; “All respect to those who break they necks to keep they hoes in check.” The signifier is just that of a line from a rap song, this could be taken as, rappers will be rappers, or this is just a publicity stunt, but material from (bell hooks) teaches us that words like these carry deeper meanings. The connotative meaning of this lyric shows how white supremacy has infiltrated the minds of our black musicians through colonization. The meaning behind this lyric can be related to a slave master’s mentality. When a slave was disobedient or did not perform an order to meet the slave master’s desires- immediate action had to be taken to insure that the slave would not make the mistake again, and to show other slaves the consequences of these actions. Breaking your neck to keep a hoe in check would definitely be the equivalent of beating a slave that had lost their way. With this lyric alone one can infer that white supremacy, dominant ideology, and internalized racism all played a role in the development of this song and video.
On the topic of lyrics, another lyric surfaces that deserves discussion. “My pockets got fatter, now everybody’s looking for the ladder.” This lyric is especially under the umbrella of white supremacy, but also touches dominant ideology, and internalized racism. White supremacy and dominant ideology are involved because the American Dream derives from capitalism which is supported by the top one percent of the population, who is also the ruling class. Learning of dominant ideology teaches us that the ruling class who sets the bar and designs the media and dominant culture wants us as people to separate ourselves from each other and the reference to a ladder would imply that Tupac himself believe that he is in a higher class of people if someone would need him to hand down a ladder to be pulled up. The internalized racism is part of the connotative meaning, because a more in depth listen to this lyric would allow one to interpret the true message. The message in the lyric that everyone is looking for a ladder suggest that black people are looking for handouts and that they are not willing to work for anything. This can be found in ETHNIC NOTIONS as a stereotype of the black man. The coon especially, who is perceived to be sneaky, untrustworthy, has mainstream goals and values, and also a scammer. Instead of Tupac helping other black people rise he internalizes racism and turns his back on them the way a slave owner would have if a slave had wanted to gain knowledge or learn to read. (California Newsreel, n.d.)
One other lyric that rings the alarm on white supremacy is “I get around.” This lyric appears most frequently through the course of the song and is also the song title. This lyric ties into the theme simply because of the way it is used in the song. It promotes white supremacy with the effect of internalized racism. Black women in this video are seen as JEZEBELS, HOOCHIES, GOLD DIGGERS, and hoes, and this all comes from the views of a black man. Tupac’s language suggests that his treatment of these women is strictly inferior to him and could not be viewed as equal. These women are viewed as objects who should know their respective places in society and their place is serving men, as you can see a woman lighting Tupac’s cigar. Referred to as “hoochies,” “freaks,” “hoodrats,” or “chikenheads,” contemporary Jezebels can be found jiggling and gyrating in hip-hop music videos. Their scantily clad bodies are often draped over expensive cars or fondled by male rappers. In some hardcore gangsta rap these women are lyrically raped, mutilated, and murdered. (Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire, and Their Homegirls, 294) Other roles for women in the video include: being trophies, objects for sex, play toys, caterers, and complete idiots as they turn a blind eye to what is taking place in the video that they appear to be enjoying. This behavior can also be attributed to the relationship white supremacy has with slavery. We are taught that slave masters bounced around with different women of color treating them poorly and not even acknowledging their children from these rape relationships, or the favor for favor benefits relationships some slave masters would engage in with their property. Similar to slavery this treatment is justified because you cannot rape a hoe, and if she is in the video, wearing a skimpy bathing suit, enjoying herself, at a pool party, having a good time, she must be a hoe.
Dominant ideology and white supremacy can be compared under one umbrella in many images of the text. The video pushes commodified blackness as what and who black people are to the mainstream and this is what the media wants the proletariat to believe is natural. This can be seen as the women in the video surround the men because they have something that they need or want, playing into the dominant ideology that women are just there to look pretty and men make the money and money attracts more women. Portraying an idea that a woman will stay loyal to man that cheats and entertains other women because he makes a large sum of money. Similar to slavery, directly correlating with dominant ideology, slaves stayed loyal to their master because they had food, shelter, and a sense of belonging to someone was enough to suffice, no matter how poorly they were beat mentally or physically. This connotative meaning is that black women will take the abuse from a man with money or in a high ranking class system.
The media superstructure according to subliminally encourages patriarchy creating stereotypes to justify the treatment of Black Americans through imagery and commodified blackness. The savage brute which is seen in the video makes it okay to be afraid of the black man. Dominant ideology keeps the people divided and creates a system of people governed that are invisible because assimilation into dominant culture removes worry of the real problems at hand. The superstructure of media designs tainted images of blacks that seem to become natural and infects the nations psyche, but if we aren’t aware of what is going on it is looked at as pure entertainment. Entertainment which the elite class or business still manages to profit from. The myth that ties to dominant ideology and white supremacy in this particular text is that all Black People can become famous, all black people can live this savage, raunchy lifestyle, as long as you as a person of color have the desire to live like the one percent, and embrace the culture, be a part of the winning team, you too can be this cool.
