T-Pa: rappers will not work wh Frank Ocean bee he is gay | Frank Ocean | The Guardian

Contents:

• IS T-PA GAY?
• T-PA: RAPPERS WILL NOT WORK WH FRANK OCEAN BEE HE IS GAY
• T-PA SAYS RAPPERS BLACKLISTED SGER FRANK OCEAN FOR BEG GAY

IS T-PA GAY?

What T-Pa Gets Right—and Wrong—About Homophobia Hip-Hop. Rapper, rerd producer, Auto-Tunist extraordaire, and gay rights advote—n that last tle really go wh the others? Over the urse of six mut, T-Pa—expletive-rich and double Solo cup sual—speaks about the issue of homophobia hip-hop wh bracg honty, rervg particularly strong cricism for men wh the muny who exprs gay paranoia (the fear that all gay men your vicy are somehow magilly attracted to you).

And if that weren’t enough, he’s also charmgly protective of his gay assistant. Gawker’s Rich Juzwiak, for example, appld T-Pa for “beg on the right si of history” and for seeg “homophobia for the absurdy that is.

For while this terview is clearly an enuragg ntributn to the evolvg nversatn surroundg homophobia hip-hop, also perpetuat certa pernic trop that unrgird that homophobia the first place. To start wh, at one pot the terview T-Pa talks about the notn of givg “pass” to his iends for sayg somethg that n be taken as “slightly gay.

T-PA: RAPPERS WILL NOT WORK WH FRANK OCEAN BEE HE IS GAY

But T-Pa would have to be OK wh a iend g all of his pass and perhaps actually beg gay—his sayg homophobia is unacceptable should be evince enough, right? If you want a parable example of gay disfort chned progrsive language, look no further than A$AP Rocky’s teractn wh gay NBA player Jason Colls at last year’s MTV Vio Mic Awards.

T-PA SAYS RAPPERS BLACKLISTED SGER FRANK OCEAN FOR BEG GAY

Disfort asi, the most troublg aspect of the T-Pa terview is his weird oversimplifitn of the gay experience. In a rhetoril move meang to both women and gay men, T-Pa posns the two groups as “gettable” objects by sayg that a straight man the club fely n’t get a gay man if he don’t get women first.

Addnally, he stok the irratnal fear that gay men are predators by sayg “The gay niggas will get on you. ” It’s evable that gay men will prey upon you and proceed to engage gay terurse wh you. “Even if [gay men] did like you [they’re] gog to be bottoms, so you’re the one fuckg [them].

Serly, though, T-Pa’s gross oversimplifitn of what means to be gay works agast acceptance by ntug to image gay men as alien creatur ready to abduct you at any moment if they so choose. All that said, I don’t want to seem like I’m jt hatg on a rapper who was bold enough to say somethg supportive of gay people, however awkwardly. As a hip-hop fan and gay rights activist, I have a few thoughts about how we n e this moment to ntue the stggle for te gay acceptance.

First, g sweepg generalizatns about the gay experience has got to stop; that kd of thg is not nducive to unrstandg what ’s like to be gay an unacceptg space.