Female
voices of hip-hop artists get heard
By Christine G. Adamo
On-line Forty-Niner
There
may be nothing worse than feeling anonymous,
except being kept anonymous by a world that
chooses not to recognize your contributions
because of your sex, race or color.
So contends Rachel Raimist, director of
“Nobody Knows My Name,” in her 58-minute
documentary about women hip-hop artists
whose voices go largely unheard. The film
will screen at 7:15 this evening in the
Karl W. E. Anatol Conference Center, room
110 in Cal State Long Beach’s Library East.
Lethia Cobbs is an alternative media specialist
in Disabled Student Services at CSULB, where
she graduated with an English literature
degree in 2000. Cobbs found the film online
and helped bring it to campus.
“Though these women put their time, money
and effort into [their hip-hop careers],”
Cobb said, “they don’t get the financial
return that most people get from it.”
This reveals itself in the film as an issue
of sexism Cobb said. Their struggle, in
her eyes, is to have their talent taken
seriously as that of their male counterparts.
“They don’t want to hear ‘she’s good — for
a woman’ and ‘she’s a good female deejay,’”
Cobb said. “They just want to be known for
being good.”
Cobb heard about Raimist’s film from friends,
on and off campus, who urged her to see
it.
“Someone else told me about the film,” Cobb
said. “The filmmaker interviews women who
are part of the underground hip-hop scene.
They deejay, rap, sing, and produce — and
they come from different backgrounds: Latina,
Filipina, Black.”
According to Cobb, Los Angeles rapper Medusa
is featured in the film performs with a
12-piece band named Feline Science. According
to the singer’s home page, onebadsista.com,
Medusa lent her writing, performing and
producing talents to “My Momma Raised a
G,” a track from an HBO film that she also
acted in called “Stranger Inside.”
Onebadsista.com also cites Medusa as having
helped produce the film score and soundtrack
for Vondie Curtis-Hall’s 1997 film “Gridlock’d,”
starring Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth and Thandie
Newton.
Lynne Coenen, assistant director of the
CSULB Women’s Resource Center said she is
excited about the screening and the panel
discussion that will follow.
“We’re coming into women’s history month,
and history is something we’re making all
the time,” Coenen said. “[This film] is
a lesson in contemporary history. This is
what’s happening today.”
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