How Lil Nas X is revolutnizg hip-hop as an empowered gay star

Contents:

• LIL NAS X TRIED TO EXPLA WHY HE ME OUT AS GAY. THEN KEV HART TERPTED HIM
• HERE ARE HIP-HOP ARTISTS WHO EMBRACE BEG GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
• HOW LIL NAS X IS REVOLUTNIZG HIP-HOP AS AN EMPOWERED GAY STAR
• LIL NAS X TEMPORARILY DECIS HE'S NOT GAY AFTER LOSG AT THE GRAMMYS
• IS P DIDDY GAY? RAPPER ASKED TO 'E OUT' AFTER BACKG LIL NAS X OVER BET AWARDS KISS
• 'OLD TOWN ROAD' RAPPER LIL NAS X APPEARS TO E OUT AS GAY

LIL NAS X TRIED TO EXPLA WHY HE ME OUT AS GAY. THEN KEV HART TERPTED HIM

The mic ftival Lollapalooza dropped rapper DaBaby om s lp after he ma homophobic remarks.

And so he's no stranger to the variety of out that queer people are often told by homophob or, you know, like, quote, unquote, "people who really re" about what might happen to him - whether he go to hell, whether he'll go to jail or he'll do this, that and the third.

It's almost like he's sayg, homophob don't actually have that great of an imagatn, and I do. Did you get the sense that the fa of beg imperv to all the homophobia and hatred - that ever drops?

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

You seem to only rpect gay artists when the gay part is tucked away. - where he is a gay pop star who's e out at the height of his fame or - you know, for all we know, he uld somehow get even bigger.

We have so many gay pop stars but so few openly gay pop stars and even fewer gay pop stars who are explicly sexual. But what Lil Nas X do is he mak gay sex jt as part of his entire persona as a, you know, name lerally any straight pop star ever.

”Overnight, the 20-year-old Atlanta native — born Montero Lamar Hill — beme the biggt gay pop star the world. ”“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.

HOW LIL NAS X IS REVOLUTNIZG HIP-HOP AS AN EMPOWERED GAY STAR

”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. ) Kev Abstract, founr of hip-hop llective Brockhampton, me out as gay 2016. 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.

LIL NAS X TEMPORARILY DECIS HE'S NOT GAY AFTER LOSG AT THE GRAMMYS

In fact, an entire lexin dited to potg out disfort wh gay men has permeated rap lyrics. 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.

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).

IS P DIDDY GAY? RAPPER ASKED TO 'E OUT' AFTER BACKG LIL NAS X OVER BET AWARDS KISS

“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.

'OLD TOWN ROAD' RAPPER LIL NAS X APPEARS TO E 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.