Can Hip-Hop Handle 'I'm Gay?' : The Rerd : NPR

Contents:

• CAN HIP-HOP HANDLE 'I'M GAY?'
• GAY CHIGO
• AM I GAY?
• ENID WARS AT IHOP RECEIV ANTI-GAY MSAGE STEAD OF TIP
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

CAN HIP-HOP HANDLE 'I'M GAY?'

Lil B, the prolific, Inter-obssed Bay Area rapper, announced at Coachella that he would ll his next album I'm Gay – a provotn that extends past the fort zon of many rap fans.

GLAAD qutned his motiv – was this a prank, or a stealth macho move ak to other rappers' e of the phrase "no homo? " Lil B's rponse – surprisgly ser and empathetic – was to exprs "major love for the gay and lbian muny, " spe apparent ath threats. This isn't the first time gay culture and hip-hop have e to ntact, but sce Lil B is a rapper right on the ge of the mastream, and he's puttg himself the middle of the genre's long-term nflict over homosexualy, Ann Powers wrote to Tavia Nyong'o, profsor of performance studi at NYU and blogger at Hear is Queer to talk about where his cisn might take the bate.

This would all strike me as an isolated stunt – claimg that you're g "gay" as "happy, " as Lil B did, sounds kd of like somethg my gra-schooler would do. Big Freedia, queen of the New Orleans "sissy bounce" scene, released her first EP and is brgg her "go homo" anthems natnwi on a succsful tour.

GAY CHIGO

And the Pacific Northwt llective Rabow Noise ed a Youtube stir wh s jamm' cut, "Imma Homo.

" Hip-hop, long assumed by most to be a stronghold of homophobia, sudnly seems a lot more fluid.

In mash-up culture, straight kids appropriatg gay culture isn't weird: what's weird is the ia that we n keep them separate the first place.

AM I GAY?

Myself, I'm not too bothered by Lil B's eeloadg on gay visibily. Unrground artists like Hanifah Walidah, Deadlee, Deep Dickollective, God-D, Cazwell, and basilly all the artists featured the excellent 2006 film Pick up the Mic: The Evolutn of Homohop.

Smalls pots to hip-hop's roots a multiracial 1980s scene that ma space for people like the gay Asian visual artist Mart Wong, who brought graffi artists together wh the downtown gallery scene and was associated wh the semal film Wild Style.

And a polics of rpectabily has llud wh the closet to enforce historil visibily upon lbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenred folk, cludg Bentley herself.

ENID WARS AT IHOP RECEIV ANTI-GAY MSAGE STEAD OF TIP

But was we move om the era of the closet to what I thk of as an era of queer nvivialy, there will be many more exampl of genr like sissy bounce and artists like Lil B who are unaaid to acknowledge a black culture where straight and gay n share space, sp rhym and tra dance mov. Where hip-hop seems to brg a specific and sometim disturbg flair to good-old Amerin homophobia is s expectatns of an unbreakable masculy ground ghetto-centric ials of toughns.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

For too many, "gettg punked" is the absolute anthis of such manhood, such that homosexualy is not so much an inty as a specter that mt be vlently expelled om onelf, one's neighborhood, one's mic, and one's world.

Ubiquo homophobic humor about "sissi" like Amerin Idol risg star Jab Lk — whose recently surfaced mugshot produced hostile ter mentary that he might be "happy" wh some jail time — e about bee of a failure to addrs the problems openly and serly. As the great civil rights lear (and gay man) Bayard Rt once said, "The bravt are the most tenr; the lovg are the darg.

And here's the lk to gay culture as another marg he's reachg for. Viral vios like Rabow Noise's "Imma Homo, " for stance, e the power of the first person to joyoly fang hip-hop's "no homo" tag.