The play confronts some of hip hops allegations of misogyny and exploitation of women, but also talks about how it’s helped lots of women too. The most important part of the play is that the audience has to participate in the storytelling. From the moment the audience walks in they are asked to be apart of the play. The legacy of storytelling in Hip Hop has traditionally been dominated by the male voice. In this play—the women tell the story. Taken from a series of interviews Patrick conducted with women in the culture, the performance incorporates true stories in a bold shift in narrative about Hip
Hop culture.
In the play, Hip Hop, personified as a woman and known as HER—inspired by the 1994 Common hit song, “I Used to Love H.E.R.”—is on her deathbed, and five women of diverse and often opposing views show up unexpectedly to decide her future. The all-woman ensemble explore the ideas and theories of sexual objectification, misrepresentation, and misogyny in Hip Hop. With real-life stories describing their pain, the group finds themselves conflicted on what decision to make: whether to keep HER alive or pull the plug, HER’s fate lies in their hands. The performance is about the women and girls who used
to love HER—or still do—this is HERstory.