BBC Three Documentary: 'Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys'

Women in hip hop videos are confident, liberated young women who are using their sexuality to exploit men and empower themselves by making money. Women in hip hop videos are not making money, but believe they will eventually turn their dream into a career because of the success and popularity other women are having in these videos.  Aside from not making money, as most of the girls do, they still take part in videos for the 'feel good factor' and their own self-confidence. For many unsuccessful women, this enjoyment usually comes in low budget, independent artists' video shoots, as this is all they can then fall upon. The women in hip hop videos are sexually objectified and exploited, and this has a negative effect on attitudes and behaviour of real young women. All women in hip hop videos are sexualised, making it very difficult for real young women to not be taken in by this. Resultingly, the more sex sells the more extreme music videos will become. Despite most women believing they're in control of their status in music videos, men being the directors of these videos gives them most control. The way both women and men in hip hop videos are portrayed creates an unrealistic and possibly dangerous set of expectations in real young men. 

 Men are exploited and pay the money for the female models to be included in their video. As a result they are being drawn towards women's sexual portrayal. Young men are being tainted with the judgement that all they take for their music videos is an objectification of the woman they want to include. The sexualised representation of women in hip hop videos (and the representation of men as powerful) is an intergral part of the genre and just a bit of fun - the videos are just fantasies and completely harmless. Women improve the song itself and make it seem better than it actually is. Audiences are therefore attracted more towards the women rather than the music. But as long as the public are viewing the video and making it popular and successful, artists are content with this view.For example, with artist Timbaland's 'Carry Out' single (featuring Justin Timberlake) mentioned in the documentary, although the single includes some not-so-subtle references to sex as well as a sexist message comparing a woman's body to fast food, it doesn't contain profanity or anything too explicit in the way of sexual descriptions - It's all 'just a bit of fun'. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x1wz7/Music_Money_and_Hip_Hop_Honeys/
Nel Hedayat explores the controversial world of music videos and meets the girls who dream of being in them. Nel uncovers the dark side of the industry in the UK and in America.