(PDF) Te Niggaz A't Quare: An Examatn of Black Gay Male Rappers and Hip- Hop Authenticy | Melv L. Williams

Contents:

• TE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICY
• LI’L YACHTY: MAKG THE ARGUMENT FOR GAY RIGHTS AND GAY RAPPERS
• KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO
• BYRON PERKS MAK HISTORY AS FIRST OPENLY GAY HBCU FOOTBALL PLAYER
• “GAY RAPPERS” 902 VIDEOS
• ARE THERE “GAY RUALS” TO BE A STAR IN HIP-HOP?

TE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICYTE NIGGAZ A'T QUARE: AN EXAMATN OF BLACK GAY MALE RAPPERS AND HIP- HOP AUTHENTICY

ILoveMakonneniLoveMakonnen follows one person on Instagram -- jt 12 ls than Kanye Shropshire via Getty ImagThe Atlanta native who embolned to thk clubbg on “Tuday” was acceptable 2014 performed a bolr act this January when he announced that he was gay. Given the hip-hop muny’s reputatn of homophobia, which is particularly geared towards gay men, iLoveMakkonen’s cisn to e out to the public was mendably unapologetic.

Followg the the mass shootg at Pulse nightclub, Ocean took Tumblr to share his experienc wh homophobia followg the horrific attack which targeted the LGBTQ muny last June. Syd the KidSyd the Kid was formerly a member of hip-hop group Odd Grimwa via Getty ImagThe only thg better than an artist beg openly gay is listeng to them croon about their same-sex attractns their mic. ”“It’s hard to be out genr where beg gay, or exprsg your sexualy, is owned upon, ” add platum rapper and sger iLoveMakonnen, born Makonnen Sheran, who rose to fame as a protégé of Drake and me out as gay 2017.

”Before the viral sensatn of “Old Town Road” turned Hill to a pop star and gay in, hip-hop was already reachg a turng pot s clivy, as more young black men explorg sexualy and terrogatg masculy their work are gettg mastream attentn. Rap culture has always been powered by unbridled machismo, and one would be hard prsed to not fd a gay slur embedd the lyrics of any of the genre’s most famo archects. Slang such as “s” and “No homo” and “Pse” that e queerns as a punchle have been thrown around sually for as the old guard has been replaced wh a younger generatn unncerned wh rigid labels and unbothered by genre, today’s rap and R&B scene isn’t as exclively heteronormative as once was.

LI’L YACHTY: MAKG THE ARGUMENT FOR GAY RIGHTS AND GAY RAPPERS

“We know folks our muny have always been religly nservative, and beg gay is still seen as taboo, ” said Ebro Darn, the global edorial head of hip-hop and R&B for Apple Mic and host of “Ebro the Morng” on New York’s Hot 97 rad statn.

”Over the past uple of years, Ocean’s former Odd Future llaborator, Tyler, the Creator, has transned om a bratty provotr who hurled gay slurs wh reckls abandon to a thoughtful nfsnalist, one who surprisgly and rather matter-of-factly raps about his own attractn to men. A diverse array of talents such as Brockhampton ontman Kev Abstract, Steve Lacy (also formerly affiliated wh Odd Future) and Skype Williams have all prented works this year that are eely crafted through a black queer his “Arizona Baby” album, -produced by Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift), Abstract reflects on growg up gay and Corp Christi at the turn of the lennium.

1 song Ameri and jt eclipsed a chart rerd that Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men set 23 years ago wh “One Sweet Day, ” a song spired by the AIDS crisis and the tragic peril brought to so many black gay men this untry. Walter Thompson Innovatn Group back 2016 found that only 48% of 13-20 year-olds intified as exclively heterosexual, pared to 65% of the generatn before is an dience that shgs when Tyler, the Creator do an about-face the way he did on 2017’s stellar “Flower Boy” where he sually rapped about beg attracted to men after years of g gay slurs — a topic he still ref to addrs outsi of the mic (he cled to be terviewed for this piece). “Tth is, sce a youth kid, thought was a phase / thought ’d be like the phrase; ‘poof, ’ gone / But, ’s still go’ on, ” he that’s not to say the rt of the mic dtry is that much further mic had lacked an openly gay superstar before Adam Lambert and Sam Smh ma history wh their chart buts and Grammy victori, rpectively.

KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO

And spe their stat as legendary rock hmakers and gay ins, there was much hand-wrgg over how bpics for Queen and Elton John would handle the queerns of s evolutn hip-hop is signifint, albe more gradual and ls pronounced than the larger shift pop culture over reprentatns of black male was Fox’s hip-hop drama “Empire, ” which ma a powerful statement by makg one of s leads a gay black R&B sger (for a time, the rerds released by the character — played by Jsie Smollett — were the only mic by an out gay black man gettg mastream rad play.

)“Moonlight, ” a g of age tale about a gay black boy, won bt picture at the Amy Awards 2017 and for the first time queer people of lor outnumbered their whe unterparts on TV, acrdg to GLAAD’s annual TV diversy report. Seri such as “Queen Sugar, ” “Dear Whe People” and “This Is Us” feature storyl abound nuanced black LGBTQ characters; meanwhile, Ryan Murphy’s “Pose, ” which has exposed the world to a part of black queer culture that has spired pop divas for s, is up for two Emmys, cludg one for Billy Porter, the first openly gay black man to receive a lead actor nod. ” And Emem has yet to retire his age of “faggot” the 18 years sce he famoly performed wh Elton John at the Grammys as a PR-orchtrated act of good will agast his vicly homophobic lyrics.

A wave of black queer rap artists, cludg Le1f, Zebra Katz, Cak Da Killa, Mykki Blan and Hoe of LaDosha, broke out of New York at the start of the wh mic and visuals that upend the very same genr nstcts that have been weaponized agast gay men for the last century by pairg hyper-feme athetics — high fashn looks, weave, manicured fgertips — wh braggadocs’ rhym.

BYRON PERKS MAK HISTORY AS FIRST OPENLY GAY HBCU FOOTBALL PLAYER

”Jt a few weeks ago, New Orleans rapper Young KSB went viral wh a glorly rnchy o to anilg that’s as sexually explic as anythg domatg Spotify playlists — but ’s impossible to image that viralns transng to the as Hill was celebrated for breakg rap’s gay glass ceilg, the jok about his sex life also ma to the news verage. When asked about Hill’s g out, Young Thug — a rapper who jumped on an “Old Town Road” remix and has toyed wh genr norms by drsg uture gowns — said that Hill “probably shouldn’t have told the world” he was gay. Dcribg the spiratn behd “Sorry I’m Late, ” he clared that “work ma by gay people don’t necsarily need to be like Troye-Sivan-twk-lily-whe-lhe-pastel-pk-pop..

In the same ve, we also tend to see and hear a certa type of emcee over others—one who checks every box that aligns wh the genre’s firm power stctur both sonilly and athetilly, leavg many talented artists out of the equatn simply bee of who they self is an extensn of black culture and the muny that birthed , one that rri a longstandg, well-documented history of homophobia and transphobia.

This mdset often translat to the lyrics ma famo by some of the game’s top artists, such as Emem’s rampant homophobia 2000’s “Crimal, ” Lil Wayne’s e of “faggot” 2008’s “A Milli, ” and Kanye Wt’s “no homo” bar Jay-Z’s 2009 h “Run This Town, ” stanc hardly scratchg the surface.

“GAY RAPPERS” 902 VIDEOS

“[A song or beat] n be fire, but ’s not accepted [by listeners] bee ‘Oh they’re gay, they’re trans, we don’t know what that is, we don’t know what that looks like, I don’t want to hear that gay sh, ’” she explas. (“A lot of didn’t know Frank Ocean was [bisexual], ” she not, and as we know, Lil Nas X did not e out as gay until after the succs of “Old Town Road.

ARE THERE “GAY RUALS” TO BE A STAR IN HIP-HOP?

There’s also Le1f and Brockhampton’s Kev Abstract (who are both gay), Angel Haze (who is openly pansexual) and Mykki Blan (a trans woman), who reprent their muni while lettg their talents take center stage. A and Chika are lbians who prent as “butch” (mascule), while Big Freedia, who intifi as gay, wears lorful outfs and long wigs, and both “he/him” and “she/her” pronouns. ”)Durg Cak’ dn round performance on the show, judge Cardi B asks him pot-blank: “In the dtry, do you thk that you’re gonna be that first gay artist?

Origal Gangster highlighted one of the first tim a straight rapper nmned anti-gay sentiments on wax, specifilly on the song “Straight Up Nigga. “But when ’s a gay or transgenr issue, ’s very silent, we don’t get that type of ’s this double standard there that I don’t like bee at the end of the day, gus what? But, if everyone who’s mastream is sayg words like ‘faggot’ and ‘no homo’ and ‘pse’ and all that other sh, we’re losg the lor and the queerns and the joy of life.