Hip Hop Groupies Get a Bad Rap

Everyone has seen them before: short skirts in the dead of winter, bad attitudes, and a deeply rooted yearning to belong. These women will do almost anything for the music artists they praise (and the artists' friends if need be), reaching for that feeling of acceptance. The hip hop groupie in particular has a reputation far past other genres of music in Toledo.

There is a serious difference in helping out a friend, and offering sexual favors in return for VIP passes at the club. There is not a single hip hop artist from Toledo that has a major record deal as of today, yet their city-wide popularity is enough to make certain women here lose any, or all, sense of reality.

The gleam in a groupie's eyes tells a familiar story; low self-esteem, little confidence, believing that a round bottom and large cup size is all a man will ever see. With the mini skirt riding up her legs at the speed of lightening, that probably is all they will ever see. That is all that is being offered.

Women will often tell you that there is a difference in a supporter and a groupie. Supporters do a specific job, and once the task is completed, they are back to normal. But for a groupie, the task is never done. The ultimate prize is a rapper that has yet to move out of his mother's house. Who cares how much money he has when he's popular, right?

Groupies play a very important part in a hip hop artist's promotion, though. These women are "down for the cause," and will do whatever is needed. Pass out fliers? Sure! Do internet promotion? Why not? Make you look good? Got it! In hip hop, as cliché as it may sound, sex sells, and these women are oozing sexuality. So is it their fault for having such a tarnished reputation? Someone has to pass out all those cds at the club!

When people think of hip hop, they usually think of sex, drugs, and violence (see article below). Besides some of the misogynistic lyrics, the groupies are definitely carrying the torch to keep the stereotype alive. How can a rapper degrade a woman that wants to dress in barely-there clothing, bend over, and show the world her goods? No one forced her to show her most intimate areas in public, yet she's mad when someone tries to touch her. Hmm....

The groupies of Toledo have no shame; they feed, clothe, and supply funds for artists that honestly don't even have a shot at making it out of their mother's house, let along signing a record deal. The sex the rapper gives the groupie clouds her mind, making her believe there are not only real feelings there, but an actual future. But once the well has run dry, the rapper is gone to the next warm bed and deep pocket to supply his habit of looking good while he's on stage. And the groupie moves on to the next rapper who feels like dealing with her.

Perhaps the bigger issue is that these women seem to lack positive role models. Someone must step up and tell these women that they are more than their bodies, and a real man would never dare treat them as if they don't exist from the neck up. But until that time comes, there will be an abundance of women shaking their fannies for attention.