Women activists from the group AquaMoon used verses of poetry to spread awareness of explicit hip-hop lyrics during Wednesday’s “Who’s to Blame, Is it the Hip-Hop Game” meeting in the Holmes Student Center.

Today, hip-hop songs often use racial slurs and sexual lyrics about women.

Many believe hip-hop music videos portray women negatively because they display women half-nude, doing lewd acts.

AquaMoon member “camil.williams” called some hip-hop songs camouflage for porn.

“And we call that music,” said Williams. “The visuals mislead the viewer.”

NIU organizations for black women, S.I.S.T.E.R.S. and E.B.O.N.Y., decided that more students need to be aware of hip-hop’s negative effects on women.

The President of S.I.S.T.E.R.S, Dominque Wheatly, said when she started the program she first needed to find a performer that gave the real definition of hip-hop.

“AquaMoon gives the sense of awareness of what’s going on in African American culture,” said Wheatly.

AquaMoon is a lyricist group of two women, “veronica precious bohanan” and “camil.williams,” who both defiantly prefer their names spelled lower case. The group is a Spoken Existence community organization that uses lyrics to discuss issues on women and gender.

Wheatly believes that the show demonstrates how lyrics affect our generation and youth.

The musical feminists included their own experience with abusive boyfriends and life in the projects to describe the struggle of black women in today’s society.

AquaMoon also discussed the uses of racial slurs in our society.
“We reserve the right to tell you what not to call us,” said “veronica precious bohanan.” “We choose our language.”

Dubbed the ill professor, “veronica precious bohanan” raised the question of how we can reclaim a word that historically has been used to belittle a group of people.

Organizers of the event hope that people will listen to hip-hop lyrics more closely after they attend the event.

“I hope people get their own perspective on hip-hop and how society sees hip-hop,” said Webb. “Hopefully we’ll change the way hip-hop is perceived today.”

A panel discussion is scheduled for today at 7 p.m. in Grant Towers North, Lower Lodge. Faculty and students will be discussing hip-hop’s negative messages.

Sometimes women often think that when sexist slurs are used, it doesn’t affect them, but it does, Wheatly said.

“People need to take more of a stance on what’s going on rather than dismissing issues,” said Wheatly.

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