The Guardian 25/8/01
Setting the record straight: Diamonds, furs, girly hair - rappers have never
been camper, but they still think gay is a dirty word. Rising star Caushun's out
to change all that. Precious Williams hangs with the homie-sexuals
You can't fuck no faggots . I will only do a man if he got a wife or girlfriend,"
sighs a tall, shaven-headed security guard who tells me to call him Dagger. "I
like to fuck men for fun but I ain't gay and I ain't trying to love some damn
man. I got a son. I don't want my family exposed to that kinda nasty shit."
Dagger's homies Mike and Shakeem (both aspiring rappers ) nod their
cornrowed heads in agreement. I meet the trio at a gay hip-hop night in a
Manhattan night club. The rap tunes are booming but there is not a flamboyant
outfit or camp voice in the club. Not even a smiling face. Just throngs of
mean-looking, tattooed homeboys dressed in nondescript baggy jeans,
Timberland boots and Phat Farm and Sean John T-shirts. Yet, by Dagger's surly
reckoning, at least 75% of these homeboys have sex with other men. "Just
because you mess around with men you can't be acting like no female," growls
Shakeem. "Messing around with sissies and faggots ["out" gay men] will get you
a rock to the head or even killed where I come from."
This is the paradoxical world of America's "homie-sexuals" and "homo-thugs"
in-the-closet gay homeboys who worship a subculture that shuns
homosexuality. "I'm not a faggot - I just mess around with other brothers" is
their mantra. Homie-sexuals usually have girlfriends or wives and claim to be
both heterosexual and homophobic while giving straight-acting gay men "the
cookies" (anal sex) on a regular basis.
For the homo-thugs, manhood - in its most macho sense - is crucial. They
never primp or pose and prefer to look as though they have just been released
from jail. Baggy jeans, big boots, baggy T-shirts, bandanas - and tarty
girlfriends - are all parts of their "disguise". They would not dream of coming
out and believe that all gay men should remain in the closet.
In the Bronx, where Dagger, Shakeem and Mike live, manhood (in its most
macho sense) is a big deal. Thus this trio are proud to be politically incorrect.
They don't believe in openly embracing their (homo) sexuality. Instead, they
believe in going out en masse and "beating the shit out of" openly gay men or
"sissies".
Ironically, established rappers are suddenly camping it up almost to the point
of dressing in drag. Andre from the duo Outkast frequently appears at award
shows wearing dresses and shoulder-length, straightened hair-dos. Ludacris,
with his huge, lovingly primped afro, has more hair than the scantily clad
women who dance in his videos. Snoop Dogg has taken to parading around on
roller skates, sporting a silky girly hair-do he refers to as his "Shirley
Temple" style.
And Puffy is not averse to dressing up in ankle-length fluffy white fur coats.
In fact, the rapper -entrepreneur's latest designs for men for his fashion
label, Sean John, include skintight fur tops and lots and lots of thigh-gripping
white leather. According to Dagger, only a truly heterosexual rapper would
have the audacity to "dress like such a faggot ".
"You gonna get found out if you started paradin' around in that kind of shit,"
adds Mike.
But a 23-year-old hairdresser-turned- rapper from Brooklyn thinks he can
change all that. Over lunch at a cafe in downtown Brooklyn, Caushun tells me
that he is one of the few gay rappers to have ventured out of the closet. "I am
definitely not the only gay rapper in the industry," he croons. "Do you really
mean to tell me that none of the others are gay? Sure there are some gay ones.
I just haven't slept with any of them yet. And anyway, the only person I am
interested in outing is me."
Caushun's rap career began a year ago when he cold-called New York rap radio
station Hot 97, introduced himself as the Gay Rapper and began rapping about
his unique experiences. A beauty-school graduate, by day Caushun continues to
be the "weave king", a sought-after stylist, hair-extension and toupee
specialist to stars including Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
In his spare time, he has created the world's first-ever gay rap album, Proceed
With Caushun. The album, due out in December, includes lyrics about Caushun's
desire to play one of the love interests in a Snoop Dogg video and the hilarious
Come Out, with its chorus of "come out the closet, why don't you babe?"
crooned over a sample of a Blondie song.
Although Caushun claims that he is often categorised as a "homo-thug", there
is nothing thuggish about his appearance today. His shoulder-length hair is
neatly cornrowed and his huge hazel eyes are fringed with long curly dark
lashes. A skin-tight white Fendi top clings to his lean, muscular torso and a
shiny gold Gucci dog tag hangs around his neck.
So why on earth is Caushun attracted to a culture that prides itself on its
intolerance of gay men? "I fit in because I can rhyme. I just wanna rhyme,"
sighs Caushun in his high, slightly whiny voice. "Hip-hop was an important
part of my childhood." Caushun grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, the
gritty neighbourhood that inspired Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing and also
produced Lil' Kim, Biggie Smalls and Puff Daddy.
"I've always been interested in Jay-Z, LL Cool J and Nas," Caushun purrs.
Interested in what respect? He giggles conspiratorially and then pouts.
"Nas is a pretty thug. And I like the way he rhymes. He is one of the most
thorough MCs. And I'm gonna make rap videos with scantily-clad men dancing
in 'em. I'm gonna exploit the pretty men!"
Meanwhile, Dagger and his homies stand around on the fringes of the
dancefloor, drinking beer after beer and managing to look both tough and
intimidated at the same time. Shakeem tells me to make it clear in my article
that he is not "in the life" and that he is only "up in the club" tonight because
he has had a stressful week and needs to "get down".
Shakeem, and other homo-thugs, are not talking about showing off the latest
moves on the dancefloor when they talk of "getting down".
"It's about coming up in the club on the down-low and messing around wit'
some guy," says Mike. "I'll let a sissie suck my dick but I don't want to talk to
him or hang out with him," says Dagger to nobody in particular. "I just think
gay people are punks," he adds with a faraway look in his eyes.
According to Caushun, many of the homo-thugs are simply insecure in their
manhood and desperate to attempt to "prove" that they are not gay, even
though they obviously are. The macho posturing and self-denial, are, says
Caushun, a mix of survival and self-hatred.
"With me, it was like everyone in my neighbourhood knew I was always
destined to be gay and they tolerated me. Because, girl, I am not gonna hide it.
I am secure enough in my own masculinity to admit that I am attracted to men.
I don't see why that is such a big deal. But I have fought my battles for
sure.
"And, yes, you do have to be real," he sighs. "You can't really turn up to the
Redman concert in skintight pedal pushers and pink open-toed Timberland
boots. But I am keeping it real. Because real ain't frontin' like you are straight
when you are gay."