Homosexuality and Hip-Hop : The Gay Rapper Thread

Good thing there aren't any poor, black, gay Americans.

Whether 10% or 100% of all people, rappers or lower-class blacks are "latently homosexual" isn't very helpful in understanding why it is harder to come out of the closet and flaunt it in front of everybody in a that community. That's what I think is the question being asked.

this has gotta be in the running for "most ignorant question ever asked," don't it? let's review the reasoning here

1. San Francisco has a high per-capita
2. San Francisco has a lot of gay ppl
therefore
3. gays are affluent

rofflICIOUS I tell you. Where are these affluent gays getting their money, Cunga? from the straight culture that so famously employs them in so many well-paying capacities?

I said there was a correlation between homosexuality and affluent areas, not a causation neccesarily, so don't strawman me please. Homosexuality has long been a staple in artistic and intellectual circles--which you might be interested to know that San Fran and NYC has(!)-- so I don't know why you are now acting like this is shocking news or act as if that accusation is now a bad thing. So what if gays are concentrated there and what if they do have a lot of cash? Why do you act so defensive about this idea?

Where are these affluent gays getting their money, Cunga?

I don't claim to have all the answers on this issue and maybe there is no causation at work but wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that the fact homosexuals don't "typically" (I say this to avoid those glib all-or-nothing responses) start families leave them with more disposable income than the average person?

from the straight culture that so famously employs them in so many well-paying capacities?

If 10% of the population is latently gay (along with 10% of rappers, as someone suggested), wouldn't it make sense that there is a problem detecting who they are and wouldn't that explain away why straight people have no problem paying them equally?

wtf does this mean? what about sweden?

An interesting theory except he seems to completely ignore the education factor.

Yeah, the Twisted G thread was a big miss. Still "processing."

Oh, and there's plenty and I do mean plenty of non-rich gay men of other races, too. I've never filed a tax form other than a 1040EZ, FYI.

http://gawker.com/389588/the-gay-hip-hop-book-revealed-actors-rappers-and-a-megastar

Dean's friend "Corey" is a singer-songwriter who was featured on the MTV series The Cut, opened shows for Jay-Z, appeared in a Broadway musical, and then signed with "Eli, a popular multiplatinum rapper, who had just started a label at the time (in the 90s)."

"Eli was a force to be reckoned with. He flew out the gate with his debut album and would become a mainstay in the ever-changing Hip Hop industry, where many rappers are one-hit wonders. He has been hailed as one of the greatest rappers to bless the mic."

It turns out that Corey has been giving oral sex to Eli (whom Dean describes as "fine as hell") in Eli's home studio. "Up until that moment I had never heard anything remotely close about the rapper being gay. Eli was a burgeoning superstar who parlayed his marketability into television and movie credits. He even had a promising clothing line. But every man's got needs and Eli's needed tending to."

For Immediate Release
January 28, 2010

WHERE THEY AT: A MULTI-MEDIA ARCHIVE OF NEW ORLEANS BOUNCE

Documenting the Latest Indigenous Musical Genre To Arise From the Streets of New Orleans, Focusing on Gay & Transgendered Performers

February 11 – March 27, 2010 at Abrons Art Center
The Abrons Arts Center is proud to announce Where They At, an exhibition that portrays the founders, architects, and players in New Orleans hip-hop and the uniquely regional rap known as bounce music, a phenomenon that evolved from the communities based in the city’s housing projects. Photographs, oral histories, and video footage compiled by photographer Aubrey Edwards and journalist Alison Fensterstock document the passing of seminal beats from New Orleans music traditions to a new generation in the late 1980's, and the creation of this new voice in Southern roots music.

This exhibition at the Abrons Arts Center features portraits culled from the larger archive of New Orleans hip-hop and bounce artists to focus on women and gay and transgendered men in early New Orleans hip-hop and bounce. The prominence of queer members of the bounce community, such as Big Freedia, Sissy Nobby, and Vockah Redu, defies the myth of insurmountable homophobia within Hip-Hop, and speaks to a curious tradition in African-American entertainment in New Orleans, which has accepted and celebrated queer and cross-dressing entertainers for over half a century. Katey Red, a Sissy, was signed to the prominent bounce record label Take Fo’.

Audio-visual stations offer footage of live performances as well as oral history recordings by members and tradition bearers of the Bounce community. Collected ephemera, such as LPs, tapes and posters highlight the material culture and its adaptations over time. A full online cultural archive will be launched in conjunction with the exhibition, serving as the only resource of its kind in hip-hop research.

This multi-media archive draws a line to the present-day diaspora, as Hurricane Katrina has scattered a once tight-knit bounce and hip-hop community whose music only existed at home — a home that has been redefined physically and culturally. Where They At will also be exhibited during SXSW in Austin, Texas and will launch during Jazz Fest in New Orleansat the Odgen Museum of Southern Art, where numerous events spanning several months have been planned.

New Orleans has midwifed every existing form of indigenous American music, including funk and the street music exemplified by 2nd Line bands and Mardi Gras Indians. Hip-hop is the newest manifestation of that Southern tradition. Mardi Gras Indian chants, brass band beats and call-and-response routines equally inform bounce music, which almost invariably samples the Showboys’ “Drag Rap” (a.k.a. “Triggerman”) and Derek B’s “Rock the Beat” or Cameron Paul’s “Brown Beats.” Featuring lyrical patterns that focus mainly on sex, parties and dancing, it invites – even demands – audience participation by calling out dance steps or prompting replies.

In the 90’s heyday of New Orleans hip-hop, female rappers like Mia X, Ms Tee, Magnolia Shorty and Cheeky Blakk appeared in significant number with songs that were just as bawdy and aggressive as their male counterparts. Often, their tracks served as answer songs that challenged male MC’s sexism in a way that created playfully ribald conversation, such as Silky Slimm’s “Sista Sista” or Mia X’s “Da Payback.”

The full Where They At archive project will open at the Smithsonian-affiliated Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans in April 2010, on the eve of the first Jazz Fest weekend.

Where They At is the title of a song generally recognized as the first bounce release, recorded by DJ Jimi Payton in 1992 for producer Isaac Bolden’s Avenue Records. (The song was recorded earlier the same year as a homemade cassette-only release by rapper T.T. Tucker, with the late DJ Irv.)To all accounts, these recordings marked the point in time at which New Orleans rap found its own voice in the raw, celebratory, infectious block-party sound that would go on to influence artists at the top of the game. The chants Jimi originated on that track, “Do it, baby, stick it” and “Shake that ass like a salt shaker” are still quoted by Bounce artists recording and DJing parties today. DJ Jimi famously used his mother and grandmother as backup dancers.

Alison Fensterstock is a New Orleans-based music journalist. From 2006-2009, she wrote an award-winning music column for the city’s alt-weekly, The Gambit. Her writing on roots music and New Orleans rap has appeared in MOJO, Vibe, Q, Paste, Spin and the Oxford American Music Issue. Recently, she wrote the text for “Unsung Heroes: The Secret History of Louisiana Rock n’ Roll,” an exhibit currently on display at the Louisiana State Museum. She is the programming director for the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation. Her Gambit cover story on gay and transgendered bounce artists in New Orleans, “Sissy Strut,” was selected for an honorable mention in Da Capo Press’s Best Music Writing 2009.

Aubrey Edwards is a Brooklyn- and New Orleans-based music photographer and educator. Edwards was the primary music photographer for the alt-weekly Austin Chronicle from 2004-2008; her present client list includes the United Nations, Magnolia Pictures, Playboy, SPIN and Comedy Central. She teaches photography and videography in Brooklyn schools, as well as with continuing adult education. Her recent work in New Orleans includes guest lecturing with the University of New Orleans photo department and conducting workshops with the New Orleans Kid Camera Project.

UPCOMING “WHERE THEY AT” EVENTS

February 11, 2010, 6-9 pm: Opening at the Abrons Art Center/ Henry Street Settlement

466 Grand Street (on the Lower East Side), New York, NY
212.598.0400
Trains: J/M/Z or F to Delancey/Essex; B/D to Grand St.

March 16-21, 2010: South by Southwest events

Day Party/Closing party at the Birdhouse Gallery

1304 E. Cesar Chavez, Austin, TX

April 22, 2010: Full archive opening at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art

900 Camp St., New Orleans LA

April 23, 2010: Partial exhibition opening on the grounds of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in the Grandstand.

Ongoing programming at the Ogden Museum, including performances, live interviews and screenings, will continue through July 2010 – dates TBD.

haha Katey Red and Vockah Reduh used to diss the shit out of each other. "They call her Vockah Redu because she re-do all the shit that I do."

http://twankleandglisten.blogspot.com/2008/08/katey-red-part-1.html

faggotbruce.com

"Love me or hate me, it ain't matter. You still gon' git touched." apparently

was hoping this thread would be revived for kanye's official but i guess we'll carry on waiting

Aubrey Edwards & Alison Fensterstock on NY radio taking about Bounce and sissy rap. The host makes much of how hard it was to even find brief clips that were playable on the radio. lol FCC lol fundie U.S.

They're also taking Partners-N-Crime, DJ Jubilee, Katey Red, Big Freedia, Vockah Redu, Magnolia Shorty and Ms Tee to SXSW in March, kickstarter page here.

I've been thinking about Tupac.

I'm definitely not saying Pac is gay,
(I seriously doubt that)

but I do think it's interesting what he got away with
while still being considered "hard"
I mean, his Thug Life legacy
overlooks the fact that he started out a ballet dancer in school
and rented books from his school library such as "The Definitive History of Theater"
He also apparently listened to Kate Bush & read Shakespeare.
seriously, how did he get away with that stuff?

here's a contrast between early tupac & later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrD-Yp3a-dY&feature=related

oh, btw I don't believe homosexuality is intrinsically synonymous w/ effeteness or some kind of "masculinity fail"
but hard / gay is the dichotomy within mainstream hip hop obviously

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxdtlls0Zm1qz93a6o1_400.jpg

that's a very nice leather bustier you've got there, pac

<3 early marc loi 2pac <3

haha otm

that Sissy Bounce shit is the bomb. loved writing that event up while listenin to katey red.

i have the last issue of Outpunk somewhere, there's a great, lengthy article on queers in hip-hop. i'll pull it out sometime sooon.

50 Cent: Not Homophobic/"Ain't Into Faggots"

Untrue.

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/c/camron/album-confessions-of-fire.jpg

we work hard, we play hard

http://onstuff.net/img/the-anvil.jpg

Not revived for Emanuel Vinson?

holy shit, "Ghost De Megafloor" is fucking fantastic

Too many adjectives and backslashes.

lol okay this guy has only 1 good track

where all them gay rappers at?
it's like xanadu in this habitat

seems like i should have an opinion on this but

recently a guy i know's been at the center of a 'gay rapper' controversy -- basically he's been on the local battle rap circuit for a few years, has a slight lisp and has been dressing more loud/hipsterish lately, decided to respond to gay rumors by spitting some o_O innuendo at a battle to throw an opponent off his game. then when video of the battle got online, it ended up all over worldstarhiphop, thisis50 as 'the gay battle rapper'. he says he's straight so i dunno how he's dealing with all this but it's pretty nuts.

well, hey, free publicity can't exactly be all bad for someone trying to break into the music industry

ya it worked for joe budden

lol

but yeah dude seems to be looking at it primarily as free publicity

this the battle you talking about?

http://worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh0qQ6bL6JB3MmdeCp

yup

dude is a pretty good battle rapper

haha