How hip-hop learned to call out homophobia – or at least apologize for it
Addressing claims of homophobia, the rapper wrote on Instagram: “I didn’t write the line about gay people.
- Addressing claims of homophobia, the rapper wrote on Instagram: “I didn’t write the line about gay people.
- … I got love for all people.” He continued: “To me [by] ‘queer’ I don’t mean someone who’s gay.
- As rap music approaches its 50th anniversary in August, I believe it is increasingly embracing challenges to – and debates about – homophobia.
The history of homophobia in rap music
- Indeed, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, high-profile rap groups such as N.W.A and artists like DMX similarly used pejorative language against members of the gay and lesbian community.
- Perhaps the most famous rapper using homophobic lyrics is Eminem.
- Throughout this controversy, there was only a muted response from the rap community itself.
- Indeed, researchers who studied the link between rap music and resistance among young men of color to coming out found that it influenced some gay men’s decision to conduct any same-sex practices on the “down low” to avoid revealing their sexuality.
The start of change in rap community
- For example, in 2005 Kanye West apologized for his past homophobia and even urged fellow artists to cease using lyrics that degrade the LGBTQ+ community.
- These individual actions did not end anti-gay expression in rap, but it does, I believe, show progress among those in the hip-hop community.
- However, many present-day male rappers wear tight-fitting clothes – a fashion choice once considered “gay” and therefore demeaned in the rap world.
- Moreover, such outfits are created by gay fashion designers, a point that Offset acknowledged while defending himself against claims of homophobia.
Out of the closet and onto the mics
- Even more telling, I believe, is the growing number of mainstream LGBTQ+ rappers.
- Over the past decade, there has been a rise in the number of successful gay and lesbian emcees.
- Albeit the music of openly gay Lil Nas X is more pop than rap, it has sold over 1 million copies.
- Even 50 Cent, no stranger to homophobic lyrics, praised her on Instagram: “Young M.A the hottest s*** out right now.
Still room for growth in rap music
- But it does show that hip-hop has evolved to a point at which self-reflection and conversations are taking place on past and present instances of homophobia.
- That’s not to say that anti-gay beliefs don’t persist in the music of some.
- And at least for now, rap artists are called on it – increasingly by members of their own community.