The article, “There are Bitches and Hoes” starts out by introducing the concept of the glamorization of pimp culture.  The author, Tricia Rose, goes on to mention a few rappers that have also “bragged” about the pimp lifestyle, such as “Too Short, Snoop Dogg, Ice T,” etc. (Rose 2008).  The article then points out that because street culture has been so influential to black identity in the hip hop generation, “many women parrot the sexist ideals that are so widely circulated in hip hop” (Rose 2008).  Rose’s argument is that by glorifying the pimp culture, people are essentially turning women against each other, and therefore, continuing the sexism.  However, there are women who are extremely angered about the degrading lyrics that Rose mentions throughout the article.  Some of these women, she argues, do not speak out to challenge the sexism in fear of being “marginalized” (Rose 2008).  There are other women though, that “embrace ‘bitch’ as a term of empowerment” and often feel no connection between themselves and that word (Rose 2008).  Rose quickly shuts this kind of thinking down.  She points out that just because a word or phrase isn’t offensive to one person, does not mean it is not offensive to others. 

  Moving on to talk about the racial aspect of pimp culture, Rose notes that the “gangsta rapper image needs ‘bitches and hoes’” because women labelled this way create value for the pimp image (Rose 2008).  This would almost encourage young women to fill this role in order to feel included in the society that the media creates for them.  Rose carefully clarifies that she did not write this article to be demeaning to hyper-sexual popular culture, but rather because she is worried about the overall freedom and equality of black women (Rose 2008).  She says rap and the hip hop culture used to be a means of expression and art around 15 years ago.  Instead today, the hip hop culture has “evolved” to cast people as either a player, or someone being played. Because sexism and racism have always existed in this world, hip hop or pimp culture is not responsible for these things.  But Rose says “hip hop is [an] extreme engine for black popular culture” (Rose 2008).  To finish the article on a strong note, Rose demands that “empowered women be in charge of their own sexual imagery” (Rose 2008).

Even though the “Cornrows and Cultural Appropriation: The Truth About Racial Identity Theft” article was written to explain the issue of appropriation, some similarities can be drawn between these two articles.  Both discuss the issues of race and racial culture, and even the effects of racism.  It would be interesting to look at how appropriation specifically affects hip hop culture.