An interview with St. Louis rapper Bates that covers a range of topics, from why she doesn't use 'bitch', linguistic (re-)appropriation, FemFest, discrimination, and being female and queer in the underground hip-hop scene

00:35 – use of words like ‘bitch’ and the n-word:
“It really boils down to context.”

06:57 – sexism and the patriarchy in hip-hop:
“You’re under the thumb of these men all the time.”

08:24 – Black vs. white rappers using the n-word:
“Do I think that it’s less problematic for black rappers to use the n-word in comparison to white rappers? Abso-motherfucking-lutely.”

12:21 – discrimination against women in the underground scene:
“What do I have to do?!”

17:15 – visibility of and rise of queer women in underground hip-hop culture, how it differently affects femmes and studs:
“They flat-out don’t like the LGBT community.”

21:31 – the history of FemFest and how Bates came to co-found it:
“A lot of people were like, we didn’t know, we didn’t know, we didn’t know…”

24:12 – writing poetry and writing rap, having her poetry published:
“I wrote poems way longer than I wrote rap.”

26:02 – the hustle and how to keep going:
“What keeps me going is knowing that I’m great at this.”

28:15 – back to words and their use, and the real difference she sees between ‘bitch’ and the n-word:
“We never use bitch for empowerment.”

40:15 – is music a reflection of culture, or is culture a reflection of music?
“Hip hop is like a religion and the rappers are the gods.”

41:25 – What does Bates listen to? And how to listen to music conscientiously, even if we aren’t listening to “conscious” music:
“I don’t listen to no Common my damn self!”

Aesthetics for Birds