queersinrap

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Rap is known for being a genre of music that isn’t shy of using homosexuality in a derogatory way. Heteronormativity in hip hop dates back to one of the first rap songs (class notes, 2019), “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang (1979) with the lyrics:

"’And you could be my boyfriend, you surely can Just let me quit my boyfriend called Superman’ I said, "he's a fairy, I do suppose Flyin' through the air in pantyhose He may be very sexy, or even cute But he looks like a sucker in a blue and red suit"

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Homosexuality is a tough subject for a lot of people, especially in the black community where toughness is a highly desired trait of men. Gender roles are a part of society that people from all different backgrounds struggle to get away from, and those that do are often ridiculed.  

In the hip hop community, violence is used “as a way to control and discipline the public spectacle of the black male body—to rid it of any possible traces of homosexuality and to ensure the survival of a “hard” masculine image within hip-hop culture.” (Penney, 2012)

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The internalized and externalized disgust of men being seen as feminine, therefore queer, has spawned a need for rejecting the label at any given opportunity and using it as a way to demean others who are potential threats. Like stated above, Sugarhill Gang called Superman, a masculine figure that a lot of boys grow up idolizing, a fairy because he was with the girl Sugarhill Gang desired. As hip hop grew, the use of homophobic slurs got worse. A rapper notorious for using homophobia in his lyrics is Eminem. While Eminem’s music is often labelled as humorous and hyperbolic, his relentlessness with belittling gay people (and women) is so strong that one would have to assume it’s coming from somewhat of a real place. In his song “Criminal” (2000), he not only patronizes gay people, but he also talks about killing them. Even going as far to inappropriately comment on Gianni Versace’s murder that happened a few years prior: 

“My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge That'll stab you in the head, whether you're a fag or les' Or a homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest Pants or dress, hate fags? The answer's yes Homophobic? Nah, you're just heterophobic Staring at my jeans, watching my genitals bulgin' That's my motherfuckin' balls, you'd better let go of 'em They belong in my scrotum, you'll never get hold of 'em! ‘Hey, it's me, Versace! Whoops, somebody shot me! And I was just checkin' the mail Get it? Checkin' the male?’"

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However, not all rappers use homophobia as the primary insults in their music. In 1991, Ice-T released “Straight Up N****” that included lyrics some may consider to be accepting of queer identity, or at least not using queerness to offend the LGBTQ+ community: 

“Now I'm a write this song Though the radio won't play it But I got freedom of speech So I'm a say it She want to be lez, he want to be gay But that's your business, I'm straight So n**** have it your way.”

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Despite a lot of mainstream rappers being pretty outwardly homophobic in the rap scene, there were still queer rappers in the 1990s and early 2000s. Tim’m T. West from Deep Dickollective coined the term “Homo Hop” as a reaction to the widespread acceptance of homophobic lyrics in hip hop music (Wikipedia, 2019).  This gave queer rappers a chance to express themselves in the hip hop community. Caushun, for example, was the first “openly gay” rapper, even though it was later revealed to be a publicity stunt in 2007. Cazwell was another openly gay rapper in the early 2000s, and there were many more, including bisexual female rapper and R&B singer Me'Shell Ndegeocello. However, gayness was still a societal issue that was only just being touched on in America at the time. It was still extremely hard to be an openly queer rapper when being queer in your daily life was still problematic.

A lot changed with queer representation in rap in the late 2000s and 2010s. Rappers started experimenting with their fashion more, and began wearing clothes that a lot of others in the hip hop community deemed as “gay”. Penney (2012) explained this by stating, “The gender-specific codes established within mainstream hip-hop fashion follow a distinct pattern: the black male body is cloaked in fabric, often from head to toe, while the black female body is revealed with tight-fitting outfits and positioned as an object of sexual desire.” While women can wear whatever they please, whether they are gay or straight, men (especially in hip hop) have a strict dress code. The patriarchal privilege allows masculinity to be expressed by any gender, but femininity is reserved for women (Penney, 2012).

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For example, Beanie Sigel commented on Kanye West and Pharrell’s fashion choices in 2007: “Like you wearin’ Louis Vitton driving shoes! Like who does that in the hood? Who dresses like that? Silk shirts with the buttons, chest hair out and all that? Like they trying too hard... Where I’m from, you walkin’ down the street like that, you liable to get something happen to you. Yeah, you might as well come out of the closet, homeboy.” (Cooper, 2007) Sigel saying this suggests that “when hip hop’s dress code is violated, punishment may be quite literally waiting around the corner, bringing the concept of ‘fashion police to a whole new level.” (Penney, 2012) 

Source: https://thechicdaily.com/2017/02/24/chic-talk-kanye-wests-fashion-evolution/

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Kanye’s response to Beanie Sigel calling him gay. 

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While Kanye seems angry about being called gay (e.g., “don’t disrespect me like that”), he is still addressing that fashion choices have nothing to do with sexuality. The growing popularity of fashion “threatens to destabilize the hyper-masculine identity associated with mainstream hip-hop culture, calling into question the heteronormative assumptions which have long framed the black male rapper subject.” (Penney, 2012)

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Now, fashion is an essential part of rap culture thanks to people like Kanye. But, what’s interesting about this is some rappers are still very publicly homophobic, yet will rap about how cool they feel in designer clothes, while the majority of designers are gay men. Migos, for example, has a song titled “Versace” featuring Drake (2013). Meanwhile, 13 years prior, Eminem was rapping about Versace being murdered because he was gay.

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Offset, a member of Migos, apologizing for his homophobic lyric in the song “Boss Life” by YFN Lucci featuring Migos. 

“I cannot vibe with queers.” Lyric timestamp: 2:02 - “queer” has since been bleeped from the song because of the intense backlash from the public. 

The members of Migos have been criticized in the past for homophobic commentary on and off songs, so to have a song (”Versace”) about a brand previously owned by a gay man is quite ironic. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BeGG7tHnjmD/?utm_source=ig_embed

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Another example of homophobia in a song about designer clothing:

“Bad bitch long hair skin pretty curvy ass Flat stomach double d’s please be the Berkin bag Designer heels Hermes pants how you fit in that Look at me Ray Bans I ain't tryna see you fags”

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What really helped change the queer rap game, however, was Frank Ocean’s “thank you’s” letter posted on his Tumblr in 2012.

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source: http://frankocean.tumblr.com/post/26473798723

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Frank Ocean writing about his sad, romantic experience with an unnamed man changed the way people viewed him almost instantly. With the “use of male and female pronouns on his LP Channel Orange, Ocean’s narrative has done the most to resist queer visibility’s reductionist frame even as he remains captured by its regulatory gaze.” (Snorton, 2014). On further analyzing his letter, Snorton wrote: 

“Ocean seems to long for a temporally marked space of suspension where blackness might be unmoored long enough to produce a moment of possibility, to find a moment where colonial, postcolonial, and continuously anti-black social conditions could somehow give way to a capacity to find the status of the black compatible with the status of human.” 

With or without initially knowing it, Frank Ocean took the bullet for future queer rappers. By coming out with an extremely personal statement, he opened the gate for any rapper, male or female, who doesn’t fit into the heteronormative definition originally associated with rap culture.