Browsing by Subject "genius"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Genius or Madness: The Gendered Public Discourse of Kanye West & Lauryn Hill
(2021-05) O’Neill, Connor
Kanye West and Lauryn Hill are hip-hop superstars. They’ve cemented their legacies among the all-time greats of the genre. Both artists grew up closely tied to American education but decided to forego higher education in order to pursue music careers. Both began their careers as hip-hop became the mainstream music, fashion, and cultural phenomenon in the 1990s. Both expressed their disdain for institutions through their music, whether it was education, the legal system, the music industry, or pop culture. Both could be considered modern American prophets. Both are highly-successful, renowned artists. And most importantly, both have been characterized as “genius,” “mad,” or some combination of the two. However, there is one stark difference between Kanye West and Lauryn Hill that affected the trajectory of their careers – their gender. I explore the intimate connection between “genius” and “madness” and place it in context with the development of hip-hop and its entry into mainstream pop culture in order to compare the characterizations of genius and madness between hip-hop artists Kanye West and Lauryn Hill. Though the characterization of “genius” was both equally and aptly applied to West and Hill in public discourse, I argue that the characterization of “madness” was much more of a detriment to Hill’s career than West’s because of her gender. While hip-hop has been used as a vehicle to push the boundaries of pop culture since its inception, it has not been invincible from sociopolitical limitations. Namely, Hill’s attempts to experiment with hip-hop and pop culture were met with extreme misogyny, an unfair public treatment that West has never had to face. The combined stories of West and Hill are a lens through which we can see yet another example of misogyny in America, but from the current cultural, mainstream phenomenon of hip-hop.