A study by two political science professors at North Carolina State University has concluded that while hip hop may make sexist people more prone to vocalise their prejudices, the music isn't the cause of the sexism itself. It also reckons that rap in general can give rise to more vocalised sexism, oblivious of whether the rap lyrics are in themselves sexist, though those who are the victims of the sexism are more sensitive to actual lyrical content.
Dr Michael Cob and Dr Bill Boettcher worked with three groups of young people - male and female - exposing the first to Eminem's rather misogynistic 'Kill You', the second to Beastie Boys' sexism free 'Sabotage', and the third to no rap at all. They found that men in the first two groups were more vocally sexist than the third group after being exposed to rap, but no more so when hearing 'Kill You' than when hearing 'Sabotage'. However, they felt that the hip hop was a catalyst rather than a cause of the sexism.
Cobb: "It's like hearing the word 'chocolate' and suddenly having a craving for a candy bar. Sexism is imbedded in the culture we live in and hearing rap music can spontaneously activate pre-existing awareness of sexist beliefs. Rap music, fairly or unfairly, has become associated with misogyny, and even minimal exposure to it can automatically activate these mental associations and increase their application, at least temporarily. In the absence of explicitly sexist language, the negative associations with rap music are still being primed".
On the reaction of women in the groups, he said they reacted more strongly to specifically sexist lyrics rather than just rap itself. Cobb: "When women listened to Eminem, however, the blatant misogyny is startling to them and it triggers a more careful interpretation and rejection of the premises in the song. Males, who are not the targets, are not as motivated to recognise the mechanisms at work".
Both Cobb and Boettcher, while recognising the catalyst role hip hop can have in making sexist men air their prejudices, said that their research showed that censorship of rap was not a solution, [a] because specific lyrics were not so important and [b] the music was simply amplifying existing sexism caused by much more complex factors that just music.