Hip hop model
Encyclopedia
Hip hop models are female model
s who appear in hip-hop-oriented music video
s and related men's magazines, calendars, award shows, beauty pageants, or live performances. Many video models are aspiring actors, singers, dancers, or professional models. Their reasons for appearing in rap videos can vary, with most hip hop models hoping to gain commercial exposure and make a living. Other video models work for free and have a brief moment in the limelight.
, signs of male power, and referred to in derogatory terms such as "bitch" and "slut".
In 2004, Nelly
's video for his song "Tip Drill
" came under particular criticism for its depiction and sexual objectification of women. While some people pointed out that the women who appeared in Nelly's video voluntarily chose to participate, others insisted that male rappers continue to sexually objectify hip hop models while denying that the hip hop artists' career is, at least in part, based on the exploitation of other people.
In 2005, former hip hop music-video model Karrine Steffans
authored the book Confessions of a Video Vixen
, in which she depicts the degradation of women in the world of hip hop The book's publisher describes it as "part tell-all, part cautionary tale".. The book went on to be a best seller in the US. Another hip hop model, Candace Smith, said in an XXL interview, "what I’ve seen on [hip hop music video] sets is complete degradation".
.
Nicole Alexander
became an American reality TV show contestant and is known for winning the VH1
reality television shows of Flavor of Love
in its first season
and I Love Money
. Another reality show winner was Chandra Davis
who won the second season of VH1's
Flavor of Love
competition.
Leila Arcieri
was voted Miss San Francisco in the 1997 Miss California
pageant and went on to act in television series, such as Son of the Beach
, a parody of Baywatch
. Melyssa Ford
is an on-air personality for Sirius Satellite Radio
's Hot Jamz
channel. She sells a line of calendars and DVD.
Vida Guerra
has modelled for many magazines, including DUB
, Smooth
, Escape, and Open Your Eyes
, often as the cover girl
. She has also made multiple appearances on several Spanish language
television program
s, such as entertainment gossip show El Gordo y la Flaca
(The Scoop and The Skinny), and commercials
for Burger King
's TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
. She's lent her voice to the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours
. Lauren London
has a successful career in movies and television. Angel Melaku
, Nicole Narain
went on to acting careers, while LisaRaye McCoy-Misick
became a fashion designer.
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
s who appear in hip-hop-oriented music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s and related men's magazines, calendars, award shows, beauty pageants, or live performances. Many video models are aspiring actors, singers, dancers, or professional models. Their reasons for appearing in rap videos can vary, with most hip hop models hoping to gain commercial exposure and make a living. Other video models work for free and have a brief moment in the limelight.
Social aspect
The work of hip hop models and their portrayal in music videos have drawn criticism. Critics suggest that music-video models are typically placed in subordinate and submissive roles while male artists are shown in positions of power. Others argue that music-video models are depicted as sexual objectsSexual objectification
Sexual objectification refers to the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an instrument towards one's sexual pleasure, and a sex object is a person who is regarded simply as an object of sexual gratification or who is sexually attractive...
, signs of male power, and referred to in derogatory terms such as "bitch" and "slut".
In 2004, Nelly
Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. , better known by his stage name Nelly, is an Grammy Award winning American rapper and actor. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album...
's video for his song "Tip Drill
Tip Drill (song)
"Tip Drill" is the name of a 2003 song by Nelly. It was used as a remix of the song "E.I." featuring the St. Lunatics and produced by David Banner. The music video became controversial for its overt depiction of women as sexual objects...
" came under particular criticism for its depiction and sexual objectification of women. While some people pointed out that the women who appeared in Nelly's video voluntarily chose to participate, others insisted that male rappers continue to sexually objectify hip hop models while denying that the hip hop artists' career is, at least in part, based on the exploitation of other people.
In 2005, former hip hop music-video model Karrine Steffans
Karrine Steffans
Karrine Steffans is an American author, most notably of the Vixen series of books. She has worked as an actress and as a hip hop model, having appeared in more than 20 music videos, many by multiplatinum-selling rap artists...
authored the book Confessions of a Video Vixen
Confessions of a Video Vixen
Confessions of a Video Vixen is memoir written by Karrine Steffans which details the first 25 years of her life. Part tell-all covering her sexual liaisons with music industry personalities and professional athletes, and part cautionary tale about the dangers of the otherwise romanticized hip-hop...
, in which she depicts the degradation of women in the world of hip hop The book's publisher describes it as "part tell-all, part cautionary tale".. The book went on to be a best seller in the US. Another hip hop model, Candace Smith, said in an XXL interview, "what I’ve seen on [hip hop music video] sets is complete degradation".
Successful career paths
Some hip hop models who have made a name for themselves in the music video industry, as well as girls with limited work as hip hop models, have gone on to other types of work with greater success, mostly by marketing themselvesCelebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
.
Nicole Alexander
Nicole Alexander
Nicole "Hoopz" Alexander is an American reality TV show contestant best known for winning the VH1 reality television shows Flavor of Love and I Love Money.-Career:...
became an American reality TV show contestant and is known for winning the VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
reality television shows of Flavor of Love
Flavor of Love
Flavor of Love is an American reality television dating game show parody starring Flavor Flav of the rap group Public Enemy.While not a direct spin-off, the show was a result of Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav's failed relationship on Strange Love, as well as The Surreal Life...
in its first season
Flavor of Love (Season 1)
Flavor of Love is the first season of the VH1 reality television series Flavor of Love, in which Flavor Flav brings female contestants into his mansion to compete for his love. The first season aired weekly from January 1, 2006 to March 12, 2006, with a total of ten episodes...
and I Love Money
I Love Money (season 1)
I Love Money is a reality television game show that aired on VH1. The show was created by The Surreal Life executive producers Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin. The contestants on this series are from the first two seasons of Flavor of Love, I Love New York and Rock of Love, and are competing in...
. Another reality show winner was Chandra Davis
Chandra Davis
Chandra Davis , aka London Charles and Deelishis, is an American model, and was a reality show contestant. She is best known as the winner of VH1's hit reality TV show Flavor of Love 2....
who won the second season of VH1's
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
Flavor of Love
Flavor of Love
Flavor of Love is an American reality television dating game show parody starring Flavor Flav of the rap group Public Enemy.While not a direct spin-off, the show was a result of Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav's failed relationship on Strange Love, as well as The Surreal Life...
competition.
Leila Arcieri
Leila Arcieri
Leila C. Arcieri is an American actress and model. She was Miss San Francisco in the 1997 Miss California pageant and has appeared in many films such as xXx, Wild Things 2, and Daddy Day Care.-Early life:...
was voted Miss San Francisco in the 1997 Miss California
Miss California
For the state pageant affiliated with Miss USA, see Miss California USAThe Miss California competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America pageant. Delegates from the states of California, Ohio and Oklahoma have each won the title of Miss...
pageant and went on to act in television series, such as Son of the Beach
Son of the Beach
Son of the Beach is an American sitcom that aired from 2000 to 2002 on the FX network. The series was a spoof of Baywatch, with much of the comedy based on sexual jokes, innuendo and the like. The studly David Hasselhoff character is instead an average, pot-bellied, out-of-shape bald man but...
, a parody of Baywatch
Baywatch
Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999, sans the 1990-1991 season, of which it was not in production...
. Melyssa Ford
Melyssa Ford
Melyssa Savannah Ford is a Canadian model and actress. She attended York University and studied in the field of forensic psychology. Ford's father is Afro-Barbadian and her mother is Russian and Norwegian...
is an on-air personality for Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
's Hot Jamz
Hot Jamz
Hot Jamz was a XL Hip-Hop and R&B station on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 50 and Dish Network channel 6050. On February 2008, Sirius Canada dropped the channel, but it was reintroduced in June 2008....
channel. She sells a line of calendars and DVD.
Vida Guerra
Vida Guerra
Vida Guerra is a Cuban-born American glamour model. Her first notable appearance was in the U.S. edition of FHM magazine in December 2002; since then, she has modeled for many other men's magazines....
has modelled for many magazines, including DUB
DUB Magazine
DUB, founded in January 2000, is a North American magazine covering urban custom car culture and also features celebrities and their vehicles. The magazine also launched the DUB Magazine Custom Auto Show & Concert, a nationwide car show and concert tour that spans 16 United States cities...
, Smooth
Smooth (magazine)
Smooth is a bimonthly magazine, published by Sandra Vasceannie geared toward young urban men that includes a mix of news, entertainment, urban fashion, music, movies, books, sports reporting, as well as feature articles on the hottest stars in black entertainment. Smooth covers feature photos of...
, Escape, and Open Your Eyes
Open Your Eyes (magazine)
Open Your Eyes is an American magazine aimed at Latino men. OYE has been published since 1999, and offers stories on entertainment, women, sports, cars, relationships, humor, and Latino culture.-External links:*...
, often as the cover girl
Cover girl
A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a magazine....
. She has also made multiple appearances on several Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s, such as entertainment gossip show El Gordo y la Flaca
El Gordo y la Flaca
El Gordo y la Flaca is a Spanish-language entertainment news show...
(The Scoop and The Skinny), and commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
for Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
's TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch
Tendercrisp
The TenderCrisp is a chicken sandwich sold by Burger King, an international fast-food restaurant chain. It is one of their "indulgent" products....
. She's lent her voice to the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours
Scarface: The World is Yours
Scarface: The World Is Yours is a video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games. The game is based on and is a quasi-sequel to the 1983 motion picture Scarface starring Al Pacino reprising his role as Tony Montana, with André Sogliuzzo providing Montana's...
. Lauren London
Lauren London
Lauren Nicole London is an American film and television actress, model, and occasional music video actress. Beginning her career in music videos and later transitioning into film and television, London earned recognition for her performances in the film ATL as well as the television shows 90210...
has a successful career in movies and television. Angel Melaku
Angel Melaku
LoLa Monroe is a Ethiopian born American rapper, model and actress.-Early life:Monroe was born Fershgenet Melaku . She is of Ethiopian and Trinidadian descent. She was raised in Garfield Terrace, Washington D.C....
, Nicole Narain
Nicole Narain
-Career:She was chosen as Playboy's Playmate of the Month in January 2002 and has appeared in numerous Playboy videos.She has appeared in music videos like R.L's song "Got Me a Model", LL Cool J's "Luv You Better", Mario Winans's "I Don't Wanna Know" and Fabolous' "Baby"...
went on to acting careers, while LisaRaye McCoy-Misick
LisaRaye McCoy-Misick
LisaRaye McCoy , commonly known as LisaRaye, is an American actress and fashion designer. She is also the ex-wife of Michael Misick, a former Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands...
became a fashion designer.
Other references
- Thompson, Bonsu and Huang, Howard (Aug. 4, 2004). "Eye Candy Hall of Fame". XXL Magazine. New York: Harris Publications. Retrieved on February 11, 2006.