If you’ve been watching the 2024 Summer Olympics, you’ve no doubt seen Team USA’s Number 1 Hype Man, Snopp Dogg. He’s barely edging out my favorite Olympics Hype Man, Flavor Flav, who is sponsoring the women’s water polo team and hyping them hard. Though I’m enjoying these two guys, I must admit that I’m missing the ultimate Olympics Hype Man (or, Hype Woman), Leslie Jones.
So what exactly is a Hype Man?
According to this article from Vibe magazine:
The omnipresence of the hype man in 80s and 90s rap was a crucial and monumental element to any good show. It was the “everybody get out your seats and scream,” or the “when I say this, you say that,” that ultimately caused a crowd reaction and made them legends in their own right. The art of the unsung profession has been lost over the years, but its impact on the culture still echoes in the ears of every true rap fanatic.
The Hype Man is there to get the crowd excited and build up the experience of being at the event. A great Hype Man makes everyone feel like they are part of the action, part of the show. The Hype Man doesn’t just focus attention on the artist (or, in the case of the Olympics, the athletes), the Hype Man makes it COOL to focus on the artists, to lose yourself in the glee of it all, to be an unabashed fan girl/fan boy.
Even a 19th century Impressionist painter can be her own Hype Man
Though she certainly wouldn’t have identified as such, I recently read an article in the Washington Post that convinced me that impressionist artist Mary Cassatt was her own Hype Man. The article, focused on a new exhibition of Cassatt’s work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, talks about “Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field” and her “fixation on art as a career rather than a pasttime,” as most women artists of the day were hobbyists being supported by their husbands. “Women could paint but only as one of the refinements, including music and needlework, that were considered proper for their sex. Making money as an artist, competing in the market, was a violation of class dignity.”
Cassatt was determined to be a professional, working artist and, among other strategies, hyped her own work in order to be seen as such. Rather than staying in her native US and pursuing art as a hobby for gentile women, “Cassatt broke with the usual expectations, moved to France, made art and sold it with gusto…. By talking and writing so frequently about her work, she gave it definition and highlighted its importance as a source of income, independence, contentment, professional stature, and pride.”
The description of Cassatt reminds me of many online influencers of today (there is a certain family of sisters and a brother that comes to mind). Cassatt had talent and vision as an artist and was a shrewd businesswoman. She also had guts, daring to set herself apart in a man’s world. She didn’t just depend on luck or word or mouth to make her career happen – she spoke frequently about her work and was intentional about placing herself among other professional artists, not hobbyist or amateurs. (In fact, as the article states, “Cassatt understood that the art world is about gatekeeping, allowing some in and others not. She earned the status of gatekeeper and could be prickly about it, expressing her displeasure in 1897 when her work was shown in the company of art by women she considered amateurs.”)
Cassatt was her own Hype Woman. While lacking the “more the merrier” attitude of classic rap Hype Men , she wasn’t afraid to promote herself and create buzz around her work. She knew how she wanted to be perceived and kept her eye on that prize. She did what she had to do to achieve the professional status she craved.
Who is your Hype Man?
Do you create a buzz around your work? Do you have others who do that for you? Is it done with intention, or are you depending on luck and good fortune to get the job done?
For many of us, it feels “icky” to hype ourselves. I think this is especially true for women — we are supposed to be modest and grateful, right? What if we took the attitude of the classic rap Hype Man and made it more about bring the crowd along with us? What if it was not just about elevating our own profile, but giving others the opportunity to be part of a group experience?
And, honestly, if you’re not your own Hype Man, who else is gonna do it for you?
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