Kanye West's recent tweet asking whether the term was acceptable deserved an emphatic 'no'. But at least rap is thinking about whether there are words that have no place in music

When Kanye West tweeted a couple of weeks ago about the use of the word "bitch" in hip-hop, he joined a debate almost as old as the genre itself. "I usually never tweet questions but I struggle with this so here goes," he asked. "Is the word BITCH acceptable?"

For most, the answer was simply "no" – and yet his tweet highlighted hip-hop's use of the word. When the genre was relatively young, the use of "bitch" was shockingly misogynistic. On songs such as A Bitch Iz a Bitch (NWA), Sophisticated Bitch (Public Enemy) and Bitches 2 (Ice T), women were portrayed as "hoes and tricks"; gossipy, money obsessed and fake.

Its meaning later broadened with Jay-Z perhaps defining it by everything it was not. On 2002's Bitches & Sisters (which samples NWA), he contrasts hard-working, supportive "sisters" with their uptight, game-playing counterparts who "only fuck with actors". While on 1996's Wonda Why They Call U Bitch, 2Pac lays out the reasons for for using that term to describe a woman (trading her dreams for one-night stands) – but there is no condoning those who use theword.

The term is often used by the likes of Eminem and Odd Future, who are happy to play along with the image of rap as violent, deplorable and prejudiced, and yet are equally attached to its comical, persona-playing elements. So much so that their use of the word can be interpreted as an uneasy parody of the sharper end of the genre. Still, it's a dangerous game these artists are playing. Ironic or not, they are just reiterating the acceptability of the word.

Around the same time, female MCs were making strides towards reappropriating the word. At the height of their success, Lil Kim described herself and Missy Elliott as "real motherfuckin' bitches" (on Checkin' for You on 1999's Da Real World), while a year later she proclaimed herself Queen Bitch. Missy Elliott wrote She's a Bitch after working with Whitney Houston, whose take-charge attitude inspired the song and saw the word being spun into a term of empowerment.

In 2010, Nicki Minaj's scene-stealing turn on Monster, from My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy, saw her taking the spotlight from Kanye and Jay-Z in a verse that had her proclaiming herself as a "bad bitch that came from Sri Lanka", while last year Azealia Banks's all conquering 212 saw her cockily label herself as a "rude bitch". In this context, the word denotes female rappers demonstrating their dominance in a male world.

If the use of "bitch" has changed in hip-hop, maybe the genre is ready to completely reassess its use of the word. Is "bitch" actually necessary or just a lazy signifier? If Kanye wanted to bring real change he would have stopped using the word, but Big Sean's verse on his new single Clique suggests we'll have to wait a bit longer for that to happen. Perhaps it's more realistic to hope his questioning tweet will make others think before they flow.