Sampled by rappers and vered by everyone om Madns to Kelis, the Londoner is rponsible for some of the bt songs around, wr Alexandra Pollard. But as a black, gay man makg mic the Seventi, he never managed to make big
Contents:
- LABI SIFE: THE BLACK, GAY MICIAN WHO HELPED MAKE EMEM FAMO
- "I KNEW I WAS GAY WHEN I WAS FOUR..."
- PANMIC PLAYLIST: TOP 5 UNAPOLOGETILLY GAY TRACKS THAT HONOR THE MEMORY OF STONEWALL RTS
LABI SIFE: THE BLACK, GAY MICIAN WHO HELPED MAKE EMEM FAMO
* labi siffre gay *
Some of his songs don’t even have their lyrics available to view the sce I disvered Sife’s 70s talogue, I’ve read stori about how beg an openly gay, black folk sger held him back, and how he was dropped for refg to stay the closet. Yet often they exprs romantic ntentment such a simple and relatable way – shared jumpers, wag for telephone lls – that jt havg a black, gay sger perform them mt have felt like a polil statement. He’d warned me about homosexuals graphic terms when I was 12 and I remember thkg: ‘You’re eight years too late!
"I KNEW I WAS GAY WHEN I WAS FOUR..."
Sger-songwrer Labi Sife scrib how he knew he was gay om a very young age. * labi siffre gay *
There’s this bbish about homosexualy beg un-Ain. I realised I was wrg about my life as a gay man and I found myself cryg. “I grew up beg told by society that as a homosexual I was a bad, wicked, evil person.
”I wonr if today’s world is better posned to appreciate Labi Sife, both as a masterly mician and a trailblazer for black and gay people. Labi Sife, a black, gay activist, and one of the most talented sger-songwrers you’ve probably never heard of. Or perhaps bee he was openly gay at a time when to be so – pecially as a black man – was nsired ro.
In 2014, he told the BBC’s Soul Mic program that the song was also fluenced by his experienc g of age as a gay man. Sger-songwrer Labi Sife scrib how he knew he was gay om a very young age. But you don't blame a rattlnake for bg youIn the sce I disvered Sife's 1970s talogue, I've read stori about how beg an openly gay, black folk sger held him back, and how he was dropped for refg to stay the closet.
PANMIC PLAYLIST: TOP 5 UNAPOLOGETILLY GAY TRACKS THAT HONOR THE MEMORY OF STONEWALL RTS
I realised I was wrg about my life as a gay man and I found myself crygSife found the mic dtry stiflg. ’”I grew up beg told by society that as a homosexual I was a bad, wicked, evil personBut then Sife troduced Lloyd to his fay. Labi Sife is openly gay.