Have You Got An Attitude

In life only one person can say they are the first to do something and Jeanette Petri is one of those people. She is the first person to create a hip-hop magazine dedicated to the achievements of women within this musical genre. An Attitude is an annual magazine which features both the pioneers and those waiting to make their mark. Jay Star Nine (j*9) catches up with Jeanette via the World Wide Web.


j*9: You are one of the biggest hip-hop heads, what initially attracted you to this genre?

JP: Hip Hop came into my life as a very young teenager with 11 or 12 years of Public Enemy and LL Cool J. Then I totally lost rap music and punk culture with its revolutionary mind was much more important to me. But year’s later hip-hop came back, especially female Hip Hop. By chance, I heard a Shanté freestyle in the radio while sitting in the car and I was addicted from her first rhyme on. Since then I am really addicted to old school (also new school) and I can't let go. I started digging the females on wax everywhere I could find around the globe and played them in clubs, bars.

j*9: You are a woman of many talents: photographer, film maker and editor, why are you so creative?

JP: Being creative is the best thing.

j*9: What has been the best piece of work you have produced?

JP: I can't say...

j*9: You are a DJ specialising in female spitters, why this particular area?

JP: Really simple, because I love to hear their lyrics, beats in the club, to dance to. I am addicted to old school; I love the energy behind it. But I couldn't find a place where a deejay was spinning these beats .As I started to dig all these female spitters worldwide on wax, you couldn't find anything in the web for example for Roxanne Shanté or in books or magazines. Nowadays, nine years later a lot changed, fortunately, and you can find and get information as much as you want in the web. Also a lot of these early spitters are back on stage. But at that time, the only thing to discover the female side of Hip Hop culture was to find them on vinyl. To hear their stories, to enjoy the lyrics and beats. But that was a big challenge and you had to hunt for it worldwide, because you couldn't find more than one 12" in the whole record store. That was really frustrating, but also a good feeling if you got some. Now it’s a little easier to find rare wax on discogs.com, but it has its price.

j*9: Why did you create An Attitude?

JP: I started An Attitude magazine in 2005. One year before I produced the female rap reader "Here's a little story..."a collection of what I could find concerning female MCs and DJs in books. I have been collecting good magazines all my life, studied photography and video in Art School in Germany and I'm very much addicted to Hip Hop. I felt that there is nothing for the ladies or the contemporary female Hip Hop culture is nonexistent or represented in the media. So all this together brought the idea of starting a magazine of my own to keep a Hip Hop culture alive. And I'm very proud that half of the readership is actually male, because I never wanted to do a magazine for the ladies only.

j*9: Do you have an attitude?

JP: What a question!

j*9: Could An Attitude be described as feminism activism?

JP: Personally I have nothing against feminism, but An Attitude is much more like a feminist project. The feminist idea doesn't stand in the foreground. Ok it’s a magazine where the ladies are presented, but the most Hip Hop magazines are used to present males. But An Attitude is much more interested in opening the Hip Hop world to present people with attitude and who have something to say where hip-Hop is what you came to represent. It is all about a fresh, sexy and clever Hip Hop culture having an attitude, that is all.

j*9: What is your most attractive quality?

JP:Just to do it.9. describe yourself in 3 sentences?only need three words: workaholic, tough, shy.

J*9: What is your gulitiest pleasure?

JP:?

j*9: if you could have special powers what would they be?

JP: More financial support.

j*9: What is missing from your life?

JP:More time for taking pictures.

Images sourced from: http://www.jeanettepetri.com/