My Body (Stand Up)

1st for Women wanted to combat gender-based violence in South Africa. Our insight stemmed from hip hop being the most popular music genre in the world. It’s also the most demeaning to women. 37% of hip hop tracks depict women as objects, and 22% of songs condone violence against women.

Radio listenership in South Africa is up 34% since the lockdown, so 1st for Women hacked the medium with the largest audience in order for our message to be distributed as far as possible. We sampled a track from the 1980s credited as one of the best coping mechanisms for survivors of abuse, collaborated with some of South Africa’s most successful women artists, and dropped a beat to speak out against gender-based violence.