Gender-Biased English Language in Hip Hop Music

Music is a great way to learn a foreign language. Instead of memorizing various rules of a language, language learners can be introduced to authentic expressions in a foreign language while enjoying world popular music. According to the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of February 2nd, 2020, 49% of music played on radio stations and streamed online is hip-hop/R&B. This prominence emphasizes how hip-hop/R&B is the most popular music in the modern world, and the lyrics of this genre may have a great influence on English language learners around the world. However, it has been argued that the hip-hop industry is interested in profiting from gender-biased language by utilizing sexist remarks against women. For instance, De Leon (2007) states that “The Hip-Hop industry isn't really interested in the diversity or even really the art. It's more interested in products and profit obtained by toxic masculinity and sexist remarks towards women” [1].This further suggests that listeners to this popular gender of music are unknowingly exposed to gender-biased language. Furthermore, music has a much deeper cognitive effect on how individuals behave. According to Murphey (1990), “Songs may act as an activator cognitively, or be a strategy in the ontogenetic development of language and behavior” [2]. Because of the dominance of Hip-Hop in world music and popular culture, coupled with the status of English as a global language, there is a growing concern that English language learners may learn the profanity of the language towards either gender without realizing its far psychological effects.