Killing Me Softly or on the Miseducation of (Love and) Hip Hop

Abstract

In this bluesy poetic prose, the author engages poetry, personal narrative, and performance to reflect on how hip hop served as a soundtrack for her transition to womanhood in the rural south. She uses lyrics from Killing Me Softly (originated by Roberta Flack in the 70s and repopularized by The Fugees in 1996) and other songs from the 90s to tell stories about growing up, love, loss, depression, and abuse situated within her race, culture, sex, and social class. She muses how the cadences of sound and the words of songs helped her become a writer and feminist. She also reflects on how her formal and informal education has informed and been informed by her relationship to hip hop, which at times has fluctuated from fixation to disillusionment.

Keywords

hip hop autoethnography black feminism identity narrative

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brown

R. N.

(2009). Black girlhood celebration: Toward a hip-hop feminist pedagogy. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Clay

(2008). Like an old school record: Black feminism, queer sexuality, and the hip-hop generation. Meridians, 8(1), 53-73.

Cooper

B. C.

Morris

S. M.

Boylorn

R. M.

(forthcoming). The crunk feminist collection. New York: The Feminist Press.

Day

, (2009). Falling out of love with hip hop. Women and Language, 32(2), 32-33.

Durham

A. S.

(2007). Using [living hip hop] feminism: Redefining an answer to rap. In Pough

G. D.

Richardson

Durham

Raimist

(Eds.), Home girls make some noise!: Hip hop feminism anthology (pp. 304-312). Mira Loma, CA: Parker.

Durham

A. S.

(2014). Home with hip hop feminism: Performances in communication and culture. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Durham

A. S.

Cooper

B. C.

Morris

S. M.

(2013). The stage hip-hop feminism built: A new directions essay. Signs, 38, 721-737.

Dyson

M. E.

(2007). Know what I mean? Reflections on hip hop. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Gannon

(1997, March 2). The true source of “killing me softly.” The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/02/arts/l-the-true-source-of-killing-me-softly-836680.html

10.

Lindsey

T. B.

(2016, February 22). Now watch mama: Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, and the rise of the female MC. Complex Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.complex.com/music/2016/02/lil-kim-foxy-brown-debut-albums-female-mcs

11.

Lindsey

T. B.

(2015). Let me blow your mind: Hip hop feminist futures in theory and praxis. Urban Education, 50(1), 52-77.

12.

Love

B. L.

(2012). Hip hop’s li’l sistas speak: Negotiating hip hop identities and politics in the new South. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

13.

McBride

(2015, April 28). The black feminist teachings of “The miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/black-feminism/the-black-feminist-teachings-of-the-miseducation-of-lauryn-hill-c5e6daf5b6f4

14.

Morgan

(1999). When chickenheads come home to roost: A hip-hop feminist breaks it down. New York, NY: Touchstone.

15.

Peoples

(2008). “Under construction”: Identifying foundations of hip-hop feminism and exploring bridges between black second-wave and hip-hop feminisms. Meridians, 8(1), 19-52.

16.

Pough

(2004). Check it while I wreck it: Black womanhood, hip-hop culture, and the public sphere. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.

17.

Pough

Richardson

Raimist

Durham

(Eds.). (2007). Home girls make some noise!: Hip-hop feminism anthology. Mira Loma, CA: Parker.

18.

Taaffe

C. C.

(2015). Black girl gaze: Using photography to tell a Black girl’s truth (Doctoral dissertation). University of Illinois, Champaign.