Phonte Coleman is a former member of Little Brother, he’s also a solo artist and member of The Foreign Exchange. When I tell you he can evoke some feelings, I’m not exaggerating. That man knows his stuff. His wordplay, metaphors, flow, content…flawless. It’s really amazing. The Foreign Exchange is one of my favorite groups of all time. Phonte? Favorite rapper of all time. But…he, personally, goes against everything I believe in and that makes it difficult to be a fan.

Phonte Coleman is a misogynist.

I am a feminist.

A misogynist, by definition, is someone who hates women.

I’m not really grasping for straws here. Phonte has a reputation for being misogynistic on Twitter. And since learning his true feelings on women I look at his music differently. I hate blogging about feminism because if it’s not something you’re familiar with it’s difficult to explain succinctly. In the simplest terms, feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. That definition actually digs much deeper than many people truly understand since misogyny and patriarchy are SO ingrained in our culture and have been around for so terribly long.

Today, Phonte felt strong enough to share some of his misogynistic feelings.

“@phontigallo: Many will hate, but she spittin that real. RT @CurtisScoon: A feminist sees the error of her ways at long last. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530741/Theres-no-room-MANLY-Controversial-feminist-writer-Camille-Paglia-speaks-against-loss-masculine-virtues-negative-impact-society.html …”

@phontigallo: Shit is for whiny, privileged white women. Black folk got much bigger fish to fry. RT @LincolnHardo: you don’t like feminism, why?

@phontigallo: THANK YOU THANK YOU FUCKING THANK YOU! RT @staHHr black women have more power than black men though. System is set up for us to win w/o yall

Why does this bother me? I’m a woman. I have sisters, aunts, a mom, nieces. Seeing men mistreat women and having few people stand up for us is difficult. And having someone with such an important voice in the Hip hop community totally ignore our needs is hurtful. To say feminism is for “whiny, privileged white women” is ignorant and foolish. To say the “system” is set up for black women is….preposterous. WHERE? Where is this great system for Black women? We get paid less. We are viewed as less. We are abused, disrespected, berated openly without warrant OR consequence. Where the fuck is all this win that we’re experiencing? And that link about a feiminist seeing “the error of her ways”??? It’s merely a feminist promoting her new book. Clickbait ‘fo dat ass.

Phonte has been like this for years. It’s not new. Back in 2006, while in Toronto, Phonte called Canadian rapper Eternia “Tit-ternia” right to her face. When she took to her MySpace page to express her feelings, Phonte posted up in the comments.

“As I’ve been told by people who have worked with you in a much closer capacity, this is a symptom of a much larger personal issue,” he shot back. “I could say a whole lot more, but I won’t.” He added: “Right now, you’re looking like the ‘crazy, emotional bitch female rapper’ stereotype that your music does such a good job of debunking.” — Source

Seriously? Who gives a shit WHAT someone told you about her. You don’t marginalize a woman’s entire professional image by reducing her name to a pun based on the size of her breasts. How dare you.

But don’t get me wrong, I don’t think all urban artists are misogynists. Many of them actually acknowledge that we’re continually shat on.

“And thanks for not snappin when our rappin didn’t reflect ya worth…” — Raheem Devaughn

I understand the music industry is a huge marketing project. You have to try and express yourself while giving people a reason to spend money to see/hear you. But when you take to social media, that’s all you. You control what you say and if it happens to be offensive, it’s because you’re showing us who you REALLY are. When you listen to music you can separate that person from the real message because it sounds nice. Let’s explore that…

“Authenticity” is one of my favorite Foreign Exchange songs. When that album (of the same name) came out I was going through some things. And when that’s the case it’s easy to not REALLY pay attention to what’s being said. You attribute the song to your own situation and not to the artist’s message.

“I could confess that you’re not enough,
And that with others you must share”

So…basically Phonte’s telling his woman…uh er wife….. that he’s gonna cheat? Hmm. Ok. Moving on.

“She wants me to feel her need,
She begs for authenticity,
You don’t want truth from me,
You just want what you want”

These are just small pieces of that one song, but it’s enough for me, as a woman, to stop and think he’s uncompromising when it comes to monogamous relationships. If you’re not monogamous then just say that, bruh. Don’t waste her time by telling her she’s not enough but suggesting she stay anyway. It’s not “just the way it is”. Using the guise of human nature to treat women terribly is one reason feminism is important to me. It’s also a large reason Phonte is less important to me.

This is one thought on the many feelings I have surrounding creative people of the arts that we love so much but are horrible people behind closed doors. They, usually, don’t deserve the pedestal they are placed on.

❤