Media Culture Project: Nelly's "Tip Drill"

Nelly's Tip Drill Music Video

The objectification of women is pervasive in music videos, particularly in the genre of hip-hop and rap. Music videos run rampant with images of women or the so-called “video girls” dancing half-naked in front of rappers while the cameras focus on their body parts. These women are often portrayed as “provocative” and “slutty,” suggesting that their only value is physical. The music video “Tip Drill” performed by popular mainstream artist Nelly reflects this phenomenon and serves as a source of controversy due to its depiction of women. This music video is part of Levy’s “raunch culture,” suggesting that the women in “Tip Drill” are not the image of an empowered woman but instead, the image of a woman as viewed through the male perspective.

The content of “Tip Drill” makes it appear as soft-core porn. It portrays dozens of voluptuous women in skimpy bathing suits strutting around in stiletto heels. Also, it depicts men condescendingly throwing money at women’s bodies, treating them like prostitutes and strippers. Women are seen making out with one another and there is a controversial scene where Nelly swipes a credit card through a woman’s backside. The term “Tip Drill” itself, coined by Nelly, has become a part of the language within Levy’s “raunch culture.” “Tip Drill” refers to an ugly girl with a nice body having sex with multiple men in exchange for money. Even in Urban Dictionary, you can find this definition. However, there remains ambiguity towards its true definition indicating that most women have been deceived; in other words, “raunch culture” has manipulated them.

This video relates directly to Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. “Raunch culture” refers to the nature of mainstream female sexuality, which is about “endlessly reiterating one particular-and particularly commercial-shorthand for sexiness” (30). Levy would argue that “Tip Drill” fits right into this society by objectifying women and exposing the way these rappers, the recording industry, and their male audience view women as a commodity.

The song includes derogatory words that further enforce the notion that women are valued as sex objects:

"It must be ya money, cause it ain't ya face.....I got you payin my bills and buyin automobiles.....I know you a trick go spend that shit," "turn that ass up mama put that dip in ya back," "now baby girl bring it over let me spit my pimpjuice," "I need a freak to hold me tight....for seven days and seven nights....I need a freak that will not choke....let me stick it down her ohhh."

Furthermore, in the chorus of the song, Nelly repeats, “I said it must be your ass cause it aint ya face, I need a tipdrill, I need a tipdrill,” implying that he wants a female who is promiscuous and willing to perform sexual favors. Her looks are not important.

In “Tip Drill,” Nelly expresses his power through his money. An example of this is the scene in which a woman presents her backside to be used as a credit-card-scanner, where the lyrics “We throwin money in the air like we don’t give a fuck. Lookin for a tipdrill, I mean a tipdrill” are stated. The money he has, Nelly implies, is what attracts these kinds of women. These chauvinistic ideologies are as Levy argues a part of patriarchal notions of manhood.

What is fascinating about today’s culture is that these women choose to do it. In Nelly’s video, most of the women who willingly took part in the video, viewed it is a lifestyle. Levy adds to this idea when she interviews porn stars such as Jenna Jameson. When these women describe why they do it, the predominant answer is “because I was paid to” (43). According to Melyssa Ford, an aspiring model who has appeared in numerous rap and hip-hop music videos:

“I am the highest-paid video girl to date. I've endured all the snide comments and ignorant remarks from people who presume to know me because I'm on their television screens and in the pages of their magazines. But I'm not the promiscuous twit I'm often mistaken for. I am a businesswoman who has used videos to launch a multimedia career. My product is me. Besides being the lead girl in hip-hop and R&B videos, I am a sex columnist for a men's magazine. I star in my own DVD. I've hosted television shows, and I've produced my own calendar, which I sell on the Internet. My job is to sell fantasy and perfection. When the cameras go on, I detach myself and play the sexy vixen who will turn a nigga out” (Valenti and Friedman, 59). When asked whether music videos, overall, are “demeaning to women,” Ford replied, “Yes, I definitely have to say that” (Valenti and Friedman, 59).

There are several reasons that women are embracing this culture. They thrive off of the attention they receive from their bodies, which boosts their self-esteem. Women feel that by being part of this “raunch culture” they become a “strong, powerful woman” (26). As Levy argues, “hotness has become our cultural currency” (31) and this is precisely what these women in the video aim for in order to make a lucrative career for themselves. If the act is strictly for the pleasure of men, Levy would ask in what way is that empowering? If women's liberation was originally aimed to provide women more opportunity to explore our individuality, in what way are these “video girls” expressing freedom for women? What is the guiding force that motivates these women to take part in this?

In terms of investigating the motives of the women to take part in the video, Levy’s argument contrasts to these “video girls.” Levy would argue that these women are inauthentic and have not achieved the power of the femininity; instead, they strive to gain access to that circle of men and fight to become “one of the boys.” One can blame the women in the “Tip Drill” video for subjecting themselves, and being portrayed in this way. However, it is important to keep in mind who shoots the videos, who writes these songs, and who picks the outfits. These women act for the benefit of the music industry which generates profits for the men behind the scene.

Each of the women in “Tip Drill” represent a “Female Chauvinist Pig,” (93) who Levy defines is a woman who thinks that by being in on sexist jokes, wearing as little as possible, choosing to perform in this way, and by seeming to be promiscuous that she is an empowered, liberated woman. These women are "embracing something liberal” (30) and therefore involved in a culture that is “essentially commercial" (29). Thus women are burdened with demands to be sexy, because “empowered women must be overtly and publicly sexual” (30). They stand as merely accessories for the rapper. This behavior is dangerous because women are engaging in sexual behavior not for their own pleasure, but because they want to please men just like the Girls Gone Wild videos which Levy addresses in the chapter titled Raunch Culture in her book.

Like Levy, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting indicates that these women are not liberated. In her book, Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women, she criticizes them for conforming to the stereotypes of female sexuality masked as sexual liberation:

“Like hip hop culture’s offering of sexual liberation and expressivity to young black women, the ‘new niggaz’ draws its cache not from politics but from the wells patriarchy has left exclusively to women: sex and beauty. On the surface at least and perhaps individually, the ends, as the cliché goes, seems to justify the means – female power seems to be achieved. But sex and beauty as trade commodities are depreciating assets” (147).

It is also interesting to investigate the motivations for the women viewing the video. In this “raunch culture,” they are simply supposed to accept it. Levy would argue that they have even less power and agency. They are tricked into how this society should be and how it should present itself.

“Tip Drill” continues to serve as a source of controversy. Somewhere along the line of women’s empowerment and feminism, women in “Tip Drill” show themselves to be in need of the approval of the opposite gender. As women continue to be engaged in this type of behavior, they are making a statement that to be a woman is to be inferior. The question remains: How can women seek empowerment in “raunch culture?”

Work Cited

Friedman, Jaclyn, Jessica Valenti. Yes means yes!: visions of female sexual power & a world without rape. Seal Press, 2008.

Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs. New York: Free Press, 2005.

Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women. New York: New York University Press, 2007.