Lynne d Johnson || The Mastream Media's Fascatn wh Gay Rappers (Aga)

Contents:

• RAPPERS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY
• 14 CELEBRY MEN ACCED OF BEG GAY
• 30 BT GAY RAPPERS (LGBTQ+ HIP-HOP ARTISTS)
• 21 BT GAY RAPPERS WHO EMBODY THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY
• HERE ARE HIP-HOP ARTISTS WHO EMBRACE BEG GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
• NOT ANOTHER GAY RAPPER
• TWO OF THE MOST PROMENT RAPPERS ALIVE ARE OPENLY GAY

RAPPERS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY

”“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.

”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.

14 CELEBRY MEN ACCED OF BEG GAY

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. 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.

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

” 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. 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.. 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.

21 BT GAY RAPPERS WHO EMBODY THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY

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). 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.

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. "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 .

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

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.

NOT ANOTHER GAY RAPPER

" 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.

TWO OF THE MOST PROMENT RAPPERS ALIVE ARE OPENLY GAY

Anti-gay bigotry is on the fensive hip-hop right superstar Lil Nas X, who me out as gay 2019, has been sparrg wh people who exprs many of the logil nsistenci that unrlie homophobia. On Instagram, DaBaby then ma thgs worse by explag that he had been tryg to show that his gay fans “got class, ” unlike the “nasty … junki on the street” who get AIDS.

But the reactns he’s kicked up, and some other recent velopments hip-hop, have outed bigots and unrled the gnive dissonance they live ’s speech did not mentn Lil Nas X, hip-hop’s new, openly gay superstar.

But Lil Nas X has clearly set out to tt the bounds of such progrs, and we’re now seeg the How ‘Old Town Road’ transforms the listenerMsage-lan art such as the “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” mic vio is part of that ttg: It playfully dramatiz the way that gay people have to wrtle wh beg told they’re damned to hell. He’s playfully shot down the notns that queerns is a morn Wtern ventn; that he promot looser sexual ethics than straight rappers do; that he acts gay for fame; that prev generatns of queer stars have stayed closeted bee of tastefulns rather than bee of reprsn; that his art turns viewers away om heterosexualy; and that femy unrm male strength.