Homosexuality and Hip-Hop : The Gay Rapper Thread

Maino On Rappers: "Some of These Guys Got to be Gay"

I <3 Maino

Big article on Mykki, House of Ladosha, Le1f, Zebra Katz, Cakes da Killa, etc. in Pitchfork today: http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8793-we-invented-swag/

Guffawed at the A$AP Rocky's comment about Ghe20 Goth1k. Ridiculous!

Someone should do an anthology of the yearly "this crop of underground gay rappers defy stereotypes" article that always seems to have a completely different crop of underground gay rappers

good article; lol he got scurrrrred at gg

that was a good read!

i find a lot of these guys' music really interesting but only zebra katz has translated that into an undeniably great song so far.

have you checked out house of ladosha at all? think my favorites ("hold up wait" and "tuna fish") are only on their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/houseofladosha/music/songs?filter=featured

yeah i love their BMF refix but the others i heard were again...good ideas not great songs

that was a good read!

i find a lot of these guys' music really interesting but only zebra katz has translated that into an undeniably great song so far.

― lex pretend, Wednesday, March 21, 2012 1:05 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree with this

did we talk about the new diplo track/video with Nicky Da B?

quite a good read

le1f's mixtape dark york is streaming here - http://www.thefader.com/2012/04/18/stream-le1fs-dark-york-mixtape/

turns into a download in a week.

i shall get back to it in a week then

wish the vocals were produced/mixed better

start a thread for this imo

Ask and ye shall receive: Le1f - Dark York (2012): QPOC SHAKUR / #seapunk

micah domingo - leather (produced by rizzla)

http://soundcloud.com/micahdomingo/leather

Dana, this is a strange way to stay in the closet, girl.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/05/queen-latifah-to-headline-pride-event.html

it's pretty sad/offensive that anyone period performing at a pride event immediately has to have their sexuality brought up

Latifah's kind of weird in general about being in/out. last year she exec produced a show, Single Ladies, in which she has a recurring guest role as a lesbian who claimed to have been involved w/ one of the main characters.

naux, faux, not when they've been in a glass closet for 20+ years.

buying into gossip and celebrity-hounding isn't any sort of excuse for it

also, what fictional character someone plays on a fictional tv show on an entertainment channel should also not be fodder at all for the aforementioned gossip and celebrity-hounding

i wasn't saying that. i was just saying that, given the rampant speculation, her choosing to cast herself in that role was noteworthy. when i saw it i actually thought 'oh i guess she did finally come out of the closet and i must've missed it in the news' so morbs noting the pride day thing was the first recent acknowledgement i'd seen that she's not officially out. as a straight guy, i'm not going to lecture or judge gay people on the evils of speculating on the sexual orientation of celebrities, that seems like a popular pasttime and it's not really my place to say whether that's a bad thing.

yeah, it just propagates a homophobic environment, drawing lines between US/THEM by setting up the notion that only people of certain sexualities take up a certain job/role/creative endeavor, those just shouldn't be factors at all; yeah the gossip angle is a popular pasttime but it's a terrible one. but i think the same of spectator sports so w/e

lezbihonest tho, couldn't it just as well be argued that refusing to recognize signs of someone's sexuality unless they've explicitly acknowledged it is equally homophobic? (says guy who is continually frustrated that no one seems to recognize i'm gay even tho i make no effort to hide it)

Yeah, I'm with Rev on this one. My issue with the ENTIRE paradigm of how we talk about this stuff is that it's based on the underlying assumption that people are straight by default and we must treat them as such until they explicitly acknowledge that they're queer.

Generally in person, I'm not down for labelling anyone's sexuality as gay, straight, bi, pan, a, or other unless they identify themselves as such, but something sits wrong with me about the default = straight, even if it's statistically more likely to be an accurate assumption.

I mean, my two options are this: either I can pick up on the signals people are sending out in terms of not only self-presentation but implied statements, comments, *vibe*, and so forth.Or I can default assume everyone is queer until proven otherwise, which in some contexts, I do. Does that mean I'll be wrong sometimes? Sure.

But while I understand that "it's pretty sad/offensive that anyone period performing at a pride event immediately has to have their sexuality brought up" is a valid statement in the sense that plenty of non-queer people can be and are supportive of the LGBT communities, I also feel like the idea that it's "offensive" requires an assumption that it's "offensive" for a straight person to have to deal with speculation that they're gay, when very few people would ever say that it's "offensive" for someone to speculate/assume that I or Rev or any other queer person is straight before being told otherwise.

But on the other hand, speculating that people are queer based on stereotypical aspects of who they are just reinforces notions about what constitutes appropriate presentation/performance of gender and straightness or queer-ness, so this entire thing is pretty much a big mess, I suppose.

I think it's a lot easier to deal with this stuff on a personal/interpersonal level than a media/celebrity level and I suppose faux's right that the issue is that people are interested in gossip and celebrity's sex lives in ways that aren't relevant in the same way that kind of knowledge is in the context of friendships, sexual relationships, etc., but given that this sort of prurient interest isn't disappearing, we need to have a better way to discuss queerness and celebrity than 'straight until they hold a press conference or appear on the cover of People'

if i was a celebrity i'd be tempted not to officially come out just so i could watch everyone doing their nut "speculating" and making themselves look like twats

Johnny Weir already played that card iirc.

You're right, I'm just assuming that Latifah is L, the same way I'm assuming the Romneys are not really friends with the Gingriches, despite Mitt's statement the other day.

i mean, yeah, i agree with marc that doing a pride fest doesn't mean shit, but a lot of other things w/r/t latifah do. at any rate it's the "default to straight" thing that bothers me.

xps

if i was a celebrity i'd be tempted not to officially come out just so i could watch everyone doing their nut "speculating" and making themselves look like twats

― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Thursday, May 3, 2012 11:18 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i've kind of assumed latifah's playing this card (tho with the intention of keeping her name in peoples' mouths not out of any petty malice)

lezbihonest tho, couldn't it just as well be argued that refusing to recognize signs of someone's sexuality unless they've explicitly acknowledged it is equally homophobic? (says guy who is continually frustrated that no one seems to recognize i'm gay even tho i make no effort to hide it)

what signs are there outside the subject (by which i mean target) explicitly saying what they are that aren't based on stereotyping and gossip?

I also feel like the idea that it's "offensive" requires an assumption that it's "offensive" for a straight person to have to deal with speculation that they're gay,

nah it's just offensive that anyone would have to deal with anyone else speculating what they are period

i mean, MYOB, etc

says guy who is continually frustrated that no one seems to recognize i'm gay even tho i make no effort to hide it

after enough questions about whether or not i'm security at the club i gave up on caring re: others

It is offensive to be coy if making one forthright statement would increase tolerance by an ounce.

and I say that as someone who wishes Elton John would go back IN

wherein being "coy" == not caving into or confronting whatever assumptions about you that other people somehow feel they're entitled a response to

yep, welcome to showbiz:society relationship as it is

"Coyness" is a noun that's effective after the fact -- when the celebrity comes out and explains why they weren't out to the public for years (e.g. Neil Tennant, Ricky Martin).

I've yet to form an opinion on this. I might never form an opinion on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC-QH74zha8

old track with new video, rev initially posted it in feb. nothing alone really got me into blanco but this sold me on things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPc2sJJnTQ

huh, apparently mykki's little brother is one of those NRK pyramid people. i guess that kind of makes vague sense.

Black Jewish rapper Y-Love just came out (http://www.out.com/entertainment/music/2012/05/15/y-love-yitz-jordan-hip-hop-jewish-gay)

Latest video, 'focus on the flair'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FSR_tDgTonA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSR_tDgTonA

huh, apparently mykki's little brother is one of those NRK pyramid people. i guess that kind of makes vague sense.

who are the NRK pyramid people?

the "join my militia" video is quite something. "wavvy" is still a better song though

they are a collective vaguely connected to odd future (matt martians of jet age of tomorrow/the internet is a member of both) who are kind of like OF if they were inoffensive and bland

frank ocean

is not a rapper