Hell You Talmbout Song Analysis

What does it mean to be an American citizen in the current hyper-polarized political moment? How do social identities shape our perceptions of race, gender, and ideology in America? Why does vocal gender inform ideas about female agency and power? In modern-day American public discourse, identity politics are seared into the minds of partisan politicians, social identity groups, and political movements. However, absent from these conversation is a frank discussion about how the role the of race-based identity politics play out in music and why the gender soundscape influences our perception of female musicians. Alicia Garza, founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, coined the phrase as a vocal declaration of black love, agency, and pride
Simply put, these internalized emotions are projected through the art of song. Nevertheless, Monae’s cathartic lyrics build a broader appeal for the recognition of African-American identity; her clarion call for justice echoes the Black Lives Matter movement and the need to value the lost lives of unarmed African-Americans. According to Bailey and Leonard, “the expressions of black love, the creation of spaces of protest, the demands for justice that follow, each can gather momentum and spread to become large-scale social movements that can no longer be ignored. Black Lives Matter necessitates the demand for an alternative to the present racial configuration in the United States” (Bailey and Leonard 2015). In sum, the intersection of politics (civil rights) and social identity (race and gender) play out in music in a variety of ways. Kitty Wells and Janelle Monae embody the archetypes of musicians’ willingness and openness to confront sexual oppression (Wells) and black liberation (Monae) in their controversial songs (Meyer 2014). Both women convey how identity politics can influence art and prompt critical discourse through their lyrical messages and musical
In the Vocal Gender and Gendered Soundscape (2015) article, Christine Ehrick poignantly writes that “thinking historically about gendered soundscapes can help us conceptualize sound as a space where categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’ are constituted within the context of particular events over time, and by extension the ways that power, inequality and agency might be expressed in the sonic realm” (Ehrick 2015). While the timbre of our voice is based on our biological sex and anatomical structures, our vocal qualities (vocal fry, pitch, and vocal uptick) are learned behaviors built on and informed by social constructs about gender (Ehrick 2015). The prevailing idea that the female voice grants a woman her agency captures the ethos of the modern-day Feminist Movement. In order words, the voice serves as an authentic expression of our inner