Post-Pomo Hip-Hop Homos: Hip-Hop Art, Gay Rappers, and Social Change on JSTOR

Contents:

• INSIR EXPOS HOW RAPPERS ARE DGGED AND RAPED BY GAY MIC EXECUTIV AT HOLLYWOOD MANSN PARTI AND STUD SSNS
• [WATCH] DJ AKAMIKS CLAIMS DOWN LOW GAY RAPPERS ARE SLEEPG WH MIC EXECUTIV
• RAPPERS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY
• 21 BT GAY RAPPERS WHO EMBODY THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY
• HERE ARE HIP-HOP ARTISTS WHO EMBRACE BEG GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
• THE GAY HIP HOP BOOK, REVEALED: ACTORS, RAPPERS, AND A 'MEGASTAR'
• 30 BT GAY RAPPERS (LGBTQ+ HIP-HOP ARTISTS)
• EXPOSG HIP-HOP'S GAY SUBCULTURE
• GAY RAP, THE UNTHKABLE BE REALY
• GUS WHO'S GAY HIP-HOP
• RAPPER SACKLIFE PG EXPOSED AS GAY FOR PAY AFTER $EX TAPE VIO OF HIS HOLE WI OPEN AND SACKLIFE PG TWERKG NAKED LEAKS

INSIR EXPOS HOW RAPPERS ARE DGGED AND RAPED BY GAY MIC EXECUTIV AT HOLLYWOOD MANSN PARTI AND STUD SSNS

”“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. “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.

[WATCH] DJ AKAMIKS CLAIMS DOWN LOW GAY RAPPERS ARE SLEEPG WH MIC EXECUTIV

”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.

RAPPERS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY

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. ”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.

21 BT GAY RAPPERS WHO EMBODY THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY

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..

But don’t have to be turbo-homo-DL-thug [stuff], eher, ” a snipe at the reali that face black queer artists when tryg to get their mic heard.

HERE ARE HIP-HOP ARTISTS WHO EMBRACE BEG GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL

This hip-hop sir tails how rappers are dgged and raped durg Hollywood Mansn parti and stud Hip-hop sir claims the groomg procs starts wh a gay executive sendg a stylist to a rapper who will see if they are willg to wear outfs that a straight man normally wouldn’t wear. It’s crazy to thk that some of the most gangster rappers throughout history may have been possibly forced to or willgly did gay thgs behd the scen, but wh so many people scribg the same kd of stori there has to be some tth to price for fame may be much steeper than we all once JordanThrilla Staff. We saw Snoop Dogg's famo 2013 terview wh The Guardian, when the "G and Juice" rapper claimed, "[Homosexualy is] acceptable the sgg world, but the rap world I don't know if will ever be acceptable bee rap is so mascule.

Odd Future has long been cricized for s homophobic lyrics, so much so that the band was booted om Atralia's massive Big Day Out ftival 2011, acrdg to Billboard. In Ocean's letter, which was origally meant to be clud the "Channel Orange" ler not, the rapper spoke about havg his first gay romance at the age of 19. Nohels, the Odd Future DJ wasn't exactly accepted to the gay muny, particularly nsirg Odd Future's ntroversial history (Tyler the Creator the word "f****t" 200 tim on "Gobl" alone).

THE GAY HIP HOP BOOK, REVEALED: ACTORS, RAPPERS, AND A 'MEGASTAR'

1 but on the Billboard 200, and a multi-ln dollar rerd al wh RCA, which ontman Kev Abstract claimed was gog to help them ph their "gay agenda.

30 BT GAY RAPPERS (LGBTQ+ HIP-HOP ARTISTS)

Sheran has sce parted ways wh Drake, who helped him nab a Grammy nomatn, but he ma an even bigger impact on his own when he me out as gay on Twter 2017.

By 2015, the rapper felt like people still didn't get the ht and took to Twter to air her grievanc followg an onslght of accatns claimg she was homophobic.

However, her work still feels radil rather than regrsive, bee Young MA is one of the few outspokenly gay members of the greater hip-hop muny. The star knew she was gay sce her first year of school, but nied to her mother until she me out — to the support of her fay — when she was 18 years old.

EXPOSG HIP-HOP'S GAY SUBCULTURE

"There's a lot of rappers out there, a lot of gay girls exprsg themselv; I'm not the first to say , I'm not the first to rap about , " she told The Guardian.

He admted to "BBC Breakfast" that he didn't feel like homosexualy was "accepted eher the untry [or] hip-hop muny, " but he hoped fans would "feel fortable" wh . NBC News noted his mic serv as a much-need opposn to a hip-hop culture where homophobic lyrics have tradnally been the norm (50 cent, famed for g the "f" word his songs, has sce apologized for past homophobia, as has Emem). " She also prevly told The New York Tim that she don't re whether people thk she's gay, but was important for her to mata a modicum of mystery around her personal life.

In 2012, he revealed he is gay and once claimed to be the first rapper to e out as such, though this is disputable (Frank Ocean's g out, for stance, cid wh Y-Love's). " He highlighted the signifince of livg his tth, revealg he spent years worryg about the potential effects g out might have on his public reputatn, before ultimately ncedg that his personal happs — and the value of reprentatn as a Black gay rapper — eclipsed a need for acceptance wh the hip-hop muny.

GAY RAP, THE UNTHKABLE BE REALY

" She also discsed the prevalence of vlence agast butch-prentg gay women, highlightg the murr of a number of lbians a regn of Chile that has bee notor for s homophobic hate crim. "Beg 'butch' means wearg your sexualy on your sleeve, which, an age still explibly marred by homophobia, n have grave nsequenc all over the world, " she stated. "I never knew where I stood [ the gay scene] until I looked around and realized that not only did a certa group of people fd me attractive, but the feelg was mutual, and that was the bear muny, " he revealed.

Regardg beg a gay hip-hop artist, he ntrasted himself wh straight rappers, many of whom he emed preoccupied wh rcg women to the sum of their parts. While other genr, gay sgers like Elton John and Sam Smh have been phed by labels, rappers that are gay are vastly outnumbered by their straight unterparts.

In a 2005 terview wh SPIN, 50 Cent stated that homosexualy is taboo hip-hop: “In hip-hop, there’s (sic) certa standards of thgs you n’t do.

GUS WHO'S GAY HIP-HOP

There’s always been nflict at the center of hip-hop, bee ’s all about which guy has the petive edge, and you n’t be that aggrsive if you’re gay. Emem, who famoly the slur “f*****t” multiple songs, claimed a Rollg Stone terview that he never equated the term wh homosexualy, but “[i]t was more like llg someone a b**** or a punk or a******. Pop star Lil Nas X me out as gay durg Pri Month 2019 while his song “Old Town Road” was number one on the Billboard Hot 100, tellg his fans “efore this month ends, I want y’all to listen closely to c7osure” wh a rabow emoji.

” Sce then, the artist has released an album lled Hedonism, as well as several extend plays and mixtap characterized by quickfire rap, aggrsn, and unabashed gay eroticism.

The artist’s name ntas a nod to gay slang, as he noted, “[i]n the gay muny, your backsi is lled your k, and I have a lot of that… [w]hen I thk about ke, I thk sweet, mpy and edible, which is one si of me.

RAPPER SACKLIFE PG EXPOSED AS GAY FOR PAY AFTER $EX TAPE VIO OF HIS HOLE WI OPEN AND SACKLIFE PG TWERKG NAKED LEAKS

The artist has spoken out agast allegedly homophobic treatment after beg arrted Portugal and posted solidary wh Rsia’s LGBTQ muny after news of a police raid on a Mosw venue where Blan was schled to perform.