Ignore the Lyrics and Dance to the Beats?: A Discourse of Misogyny in Kenyan Rap Music

Abstract

Misogyny is the detrimental effect of men's aggressive, hostile and scornful talk about women. This paper offers a linguistic analysis of misogynistic discourses expressed by Kenyan male artists in Kenyan rap music. A cross sectional analysis of five Kenyan rap lyrics revealed derogatory terms used to refer to women. More so, women were portrayed as readily available sexual objects whose sole purpose in life is to satisfy men's sexual desires. Lastly, women were characterised as materialistic ‘gold diggers'.