Gay and Hip Hop
"Hip-hop's one of the most homophobic of all musical genres… There's an excitability in our culture around issues like homosexuality, transvestites and so on. And as wonderful and outrageous and avant garde as rap is, it's never meaningfully challenged any of these boundaries… the hip-hop community isn't suddenly going to embrace these folk [gays/lesbians], but they're going to have to make their peace with them one way or another."
--Professor Michael Eric Dyson--
(Author of Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur)
Why Gay Hip-Hop/Rap?
by Khali Amani
First of all, why not? We've got gangsta rap (NWA/Snoop Dog/The Game), beefing rap (50 Cent/Ja Rule), freaknik rap (Two-Live Crew/Petey Pablo), party rap (Hammer/Young Joc) dope boy rap (Young Jezzy/Rick Ross), sex rap (Trina/Lil Kim), backpack rap (A Tribe Called Quest/Kanye West), conscious rap (Common/Talib Kweli), militant rap (Public Enemy/dead prez). And then there's Snap, Crunk, and Hyphe rap genres. So what's the problem with gay rap, besides homophobia?
You homophobic hip-hop rap niggas sound just like white folks sounded forty years ago when the day came for integration and they had to "allow" black folk to eat in the same restaurant and drink out of the same water fountain and shit in the same toilet! Listen to yourselves! They thought that our black skin was gonna rub off on them or we got some different kind of germs that were unheard of in white people. Some of y'all think there's a "gay" germ or you're gonna turn gay or someone might mistaken you for gay. You're just as hypocritical and bigoted as a 1950's Southern racist cracka–ass cracka! (Chris Rock's expression) They used to call white people who helped blacks achieve civil rights "nigger lovers." So, by all means, call me "faggot lover." I'll be dat!
There might come a day when these so-called "faggots" start physically fighting back against homophobia. "Gayngsta" rapper Deadlee alludes to that when he raps, [You heterosexuals] "Dissin' faggots blindly, I'm doin' you the same! [to you heterosexuals] Unless you change the rules in this fucked-up rap game. Realest nigga after 50 Cent, you lookin' tame. Homo-thug for life G-A-Y-N-G…bang! Crucified for the truth, like Jesus I will hang. When the faggots strike back, I will take the blame. Sunday, bloody Sunday, they killin' in my name. Spell it! D-E-A-D-L-E-E… for all the years of shame!" 
Sounds like there ain't gonna be too much more name-calling without repercussions! Niggas will fuck you up for talking about their mama! Deadlee is warning us that the day will come when a homosexual goes over the deep end and pulls a "Columbine" or a "Virginia Tech" for being teased about his or her homosexuality. And just as others have claimed to have killed in the name of Marilyn Manson, some psychotic homosexual might take Deadlee's lyrics literally and take matters into his own hands. Better give ear to the prophet! There is a great amount of anger brewing in the homosexual community, listening to these lyrics. We don't hear him though!
We, hip-hop heterosexual males think we're the baddest S.O.B.'s walking the earth! We think we can't be touched—especially by some gay dude. Oh hell no! We've learned nothing from the deaths of Tupac, Biggie, Big L, Jam Master Jay, Soldier Slim, Freaky Tah, Mac Dre, and Big Hawk. We're still beefing over bullshit! And we're comfortable in our homophobia, so much so, that we freely use the words homo and fag on our rap albums. But I must say that nobody is more homophobic than some of our West Indian (Island) brothers. They call homosexual men "chi chi men" and "batty boys," meaning bottom/lying-on-your-back-like-a-woman boys. Beanie Man, Elephant Man, Tok, Sizzla, Buju Banton and Bounty Killer—these brothas take homophobia into another realm!
Elephant Man, who's video has aired on B.E.T. and he's appeared on 106 & Park raps, "When you hear lesbians getting raped, it's not our fault. Two women in bed, that's two Sodomites that should be dead!" Bounty Killer raps, "Mister faggoty, wince in agony!" Meanwhile, your country is reminiscent of a Third World Whorehouse, yet you have the time to rhyme violent diatribes against your fellow gay and lesbian countrymen? You scream, "Jah Rastafari!" and wish that homosexuals be raped and killed? Rastafarianism preaches love, respect, justice, unity and freedom from oppression—yet you oppress some of your own people because of their sexual orientation? That makes you and/or your religion hypocritical. 
You claim that Emperor Haile Selassie was the "Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah"—that he was Jesus revisited—the messiah, yet you can't find one speech or quote where Selassie puts gays and lesbians down or preached death to the batty bwoy! That homophobic shit coming from the Islands is not Rastafarianism! It is cultural imperialism masquerading as religious truth! Haile Selassie encouraged freedom and tolerance! He said:
"Since nobody can interfere in the realm of God, we should tolerate and live side by side with those of other faiths…. We wish to recall here the spirit of tolerance shown by our Lord Jesus Christ when he gave forgiveness to all, including those that crucified him." … "Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph."
You may have been raised to hate gay people in the Islands, but it is wrong! Raise up your voices in song and proclaim that it is evil to sing praise to the raping and murdering of homosexual people! This is God-talk!
It ain't gay people who got your ass living in shantytowns! It's your goddamned BLACK government that's got you livin' in hell! Don't hate! Respect the truth! And the truth is that a gay Reggaeton, Dance Hall or Reggae artist will emerge from the islands and shut some of this homophobic ignorance down! Ire mon!
Eminem rivals these Third World Island fucks when he raps, "My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge. That'll stab you in the head. Whether you're a fag or lez. Or the homosex, hermaph or trans-a-vest. Pants or dress—hate fags? The answer is yes!" 
But a gay rapper named Dutchboy challenges Eminem's definition of "fag" with a superb retort when he raps, "They say a fag is a feminine actin' guy, but to me it's anybody got somethin' to hide. … Eminem is a faggot for braggin' on beatin' his wife. Every fake ass rapper is just a fag with a mic. Always lookin' for the lesser one to fuck with. That's a bitch move! You just another spoil rich dude!" You telling me that these homo-rappers ain't got nothin' relevant to say? Heteros please! Bring on gay hip-hop!
You can peep the full article in the links below..
<li>Davey D Myspace Blog: Why Gay Hip Hop?
