Why Gay Hip-Hop/Rap? by Khali Amani

“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!

I find it quite insulting to even ask such an asinine and insidious question about gays in hip-hop! Hell, why hip-hop at all? What is hip-hop if it is not inclusive of any one who’s got something relevant to say? It’s not like every straight rapper is droppin’ science when they open their mouths. Quite the contrary and so much so that Nas declared, “Hip-hop is dead!”

Hip-hop was born out of poverty—out of powerlessness—out of voicelessness. When N.W.A. came on the scene, no one asked, “Why gangsta rap?” And if they did, it didn’t matter. Gangsta rap didn’t give a fuck about what mainstream America (or other genres of rap) thought about its misogynistic and gangster lyrics. When “Freaknic rap” (as rapped by the likes of Two-Live Crew) came on the scene, there wasn’t a backlash from within the hip-hop community over the way they portrayed women. The government may have had problems with what they were rapping about but they couldn’t stop that Freedom of Speech train they were riding.

So, I ask, “Why not gay hip-hop?” If…if… if gay Liberace can prance around in diamonds and furs and let his well-manicured fingers stroke the keys of the piano playing CLASSICAL music and sell millions of records and sell out Vegas—If gay Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “Architect of ROCK & ROLL” can woo black and white audiences with Tutti Fruitiand Long Tall Sally all the way to the bank—If gay Freddy Mercury and Queen can sing We Are The Champions and still not damage the persona of ROCK—If gay Elton John can be a force in ROCK, POP and SOUL singing Bennie and the Jets—If gay Sylvester can sing DISCO and have all the straight bell-bottom wearing men doing the bump—If gay gender-bending Boy George can wear a face prettier than most women and still garner mainstream attention singing POP—If gayGeorge Michaels can sing R&B and not shame the genre—If gay cross-dressing Rupaul can have a top 40 record on the radio—If Madonna can introduce a record and a dance called Vogue, which was created by homosexual men and make it a dance craze—If “ex-gay” Donnie McClurkin can put a Band-Aid (religion) on his (homo)-sexuality and sell millions of GOSPEL records along with feminine-acting Dr. Bobby Jones—then why the fuck can’t we have a GAY “gayngsta” Tupac-esque RAPPER named Deadlee?

Why can’t we have a gay Hispanic brotha from the Midwest named Bigg Nugg or a couple of innovative and socially conscious gay wordsmiths like Tori Fixx and Tim’m West? Or an alley cat rhyme-sayer named Cat-Eyez or a Dirty South brotha named Diamon D.I.V.A.? How about a Tampa lesbian trio named Yo Majesty? Why can’t we have a dime-piece transgendered rapper named Foxxjazell or a white-gay-Jew boy-Eminem-esque rapper from New York named Soce—the elemental wizard and his UK counterpart—Q-Boy or some fire-spitting lesbian sistas like FELONi, Delacruz, Mz Fontaine, Veto Ali, JenRO, Ricoshade and Mélange Lavonne or even a Latino/Hispanic bisexual group calledSalvimex? (By the way, these are real gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered “GLBT” rappers that have great stories to tell.) Why does homo-hop have to stay as a subculture of a subculture? Let’s keep it “historically” real! Gay people have influenced hip-hop no matter how homophobic we are and no matter how we feign ignorance of the homo-paradigm!

In-the-closet gay/flamboyant Liberace was such a brilliant musician and entertainer that many in the hetero rap world are on his jock! Dr. Dre, in his song, California Love rapped, “Diamonds shinin’, lookin’ like I robbed Liberace….” Mannie Fresh rapped, “The ring I got, Liberace want it. He couldn’t afford that shit, but I can afford to flaunt it!” Other straight rappers have paid homage to Liberace through their lyrics—Juvenile, Baby, 50 Cent (Hustler’s Ambition), Kid Rock (American Bad Ass), G-Unit (Stunt 101), Eminem (Criminal), D12 (Fight Music), Big Pun (It’s So Hard), Lil Wayne (We Fly High-remix), Clipse (Mr. Me Too). Don’t tell me that gay artists haven’t influenced hip-hop!

Are rappers the first to make it fashionable to wear excessive jewelry? No! Gay Liberace did! Was Cam’ron the first to wear pink fur? No! Gay Liberace wore furs down to the floor! Rapper/producer Jermaine Duprisaid, “You ain’t a balla unless you drive one of these!” (a Bentley). Liberace drove a tricked-out Rolls Royce! Whether consciously or unconsciously, covertly or overtly, Liberace set the standard for stuntin’—an ostentatious show of wealth, celebrity fashion, celebrity clothing lines and excessive jewelry. He is the undisputed bling-bling king—the original stunna! And gay Elton John is the prince of stuntin’. Lil Jon might be in the Guinness World Book of Records for the biggest pendant, but he’s just a copier of something a gay man started before he was born! All of your clothing lines, your pink furs, your virgin chinchilla spreads, your outrageous jewelry, your ostentatious show of wealth—gay, feminine! I didn’t create the paradigm. I’m just showing you where hetero rappers have bitten off their sense of style from—gay men!

And even pop stars like Michael Jackson and Prince are afforded great respect by rappers, even though they are very effeminate and androgynous in their appearance, wearing makeup, eyeliner, high heel shoes, tight suits, permed hair—speaking with the softest, feminine voices. They are not models of machismo and virility, yet you ain’t never heard the most hardcore rapper diss them! And while their sexuality has been questioned, it hasn’t stopped them from selling millions of albums worldwide. Michael Jackson had the richest selling album in musical history, yet there isn’t one piece of “known” pussy that he’s ever been in! Name one! Brooke Shields? Hell no! She said he ran from the poonanny! Lisa Marie? That fake-ass TV image makeover marriage/kiss after the child molesting allegations, which he settled out of court, awarding the child a rumored 15 million dollar settlement for something he adamantly and vehemently denies he did! Shiiit! Lisa Marie claimed they never slept in the same bedroom! And the so-called “mother of his children?” Artificial insemination! He didn’t even man-up and fuck that ugly white woman to make his children! They even say those aren’t his biological children! Any one with an eye for genetics knows there’s not an ounce of Negro blood in those kids! They ain’t mulatto, biracial, quadroon, octoroon or niggaroon! As rapper Deadlee raps, “Ain’t been in pussy since the day of my birth!”—Michael Jackson… and you know it’s true! The same can be said for one of our greatest musical voices—Luther Vandross! We all have made love to his music, but we ain’t never heard that HE was “makin’ love”… to a woman!

The point is that they are making mainstream music despite their quirky eccentric lifestyles. And there are others in the music industry whose sexuality has been questioned as homosexual, like Freddy Jackson, Queen Latifah,Mc Lyte, Da Brat and Missy Elliot. I’m not saying they are gay/lesbian, but the rumor mill in the ‘hood has speculated that they are. And still, there are/were many outwardly gay/lesbians in the music industry, including Janis Joplin, Melissa Etheridge, kd lang, Me’Shell NdegeOcello, Chastity Bono, Nona Hendryx, Grace Jones, Iggy Pop, Johnny Mathis, Joan Baez, etc., etc., etc. But goddamnit! Their sexuality just shouldn’t matter! It should be about the music and the message and there’s a large part of me that feels stupid for even having to write on this subject to make a case for homo hop!

Every genre of music has gay and lesbian artists—from gay classical musical composer Tchaikovsky to blues singing lesbian Ma Rainey. Check your music history pimpin’! And then… and then here comes the infant of musical genres… rap music frontin’ like a gay person ain’t got no place or business in this particular genre of music! Get the fuck outta here with that shit! The same genre of music that talks about the underdog, the impoverished, the voiceless, the disenchanted, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the ‘hood, the ghetto, keepin’ it real… the dregs of American society! Yeah, rap music has been around 30 years, but that ain’t shit on the world stage of musical history! Humankind has been making music for more than 8,000 years! Can you dig that? Do you want rap to last? Then it’s got to evolve! And homo rap is a part of its evolution. Not all hip-hop heads like all types of rap. Gangsta heads don’t like backpack heads! Conscious heads don’t like party heads! So what! You ain’t gotta like every genre of rap, but EVERY genre of rap has a right to be heard! Even the whack-ass heterosexual rap of a fake-ass Vanilla Ice! Get-in-where-you-fit-in and stop hatin’ on what you personally don’t like. Hell, if we left it up to some people ALL RAP would be banned—even the shit that you like.

I’ve heard these hetero hip-hop heads talk about gay rap! Ignorantly, sarcastically andsmugly they ask, “Can these gay rappers even rap? Maybe there’s never been a mainstream gay rapper because their raps are garbage!” as if every hetero rapper on the radio is lyrically gifted! To them I say, “Have you ever taken the time to listen to any gay or lesbian rapper’s CD?” No! Caushun, perhaps the most visible/famous homo rapper that had his “15 minutes of mainstream fame,” getting a little shine on B.E.T. is probably most heterosexuals’ answer to gay hip-hop. A true flaming fag with limited skills and subject material! He has been exposed as the “Milli Vanilli” of homo-hop. Kimora Lee Simmons(ex-wife of Russell Simmons) signed him to her Baby Phat record label. The rumor is that Caushun neither wrote, recorded or rhymed live. He never put out an album. He was the face behind the farce! A fuckin’ gimmick! That ain’t homo-hop! Let me refer you to some real homo rappers!

We’ve heard of someone named “Misdemeanor” (Missy Elliot), but have you heard of someone named “FELONi ?” There ain’t a better straight woman rapper out here who she can’t go rhyme for rhyme with! You can take words like “lesbian,” “woman,” and “feminist” from this rhyme-sayer’s name and sit them in the corner! She is a true MC in the purest form. Her CD, A Woman’s Revenge is one of the best rap CDs I’ve heard in years—a CD where every song is bangin’—no filler bullshit—and thank God, no special guest appearances from lesser popular rappers! Thirteen tracks of pure fire—all FELONi—A “Five Mic” classic CD! Definitely a homo-hop/rap classic. On her opening song “No Fear,” she comes right at you rapping, “My mama never had a good man in life, for all you muthafuckas wantin’ to know why I’m a dike!” On her title track song “A Woman’s Revenge,” a spoken word piece, she raps to the men, “Try to change your world ’cause pretty soon no girl will be willing to bow down and suck your dick—especially after she—suck my clit… this is a New World Order and it involves some of your daughters.” Fuck what you heard (about gay and lesbian rappers)!

Lil Kim, Trina, Missy, Shawna, Remy Ma, Jean Grae, Eve, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Lady of Rage, Salt-N-Pepa, Foxy Brown, Khia, Jackie-O—FELONi is better than most of them and as good as any of them! Add her name to the pantheon of great female MCs. The rap game better not sleep on this chick FELONi! And she ain’t the only lesbian rapper doin’ the damn thang!

And this nigga Deadlee, the “gayngsta” rapper—another homo rapper who summons the spirit of Ice-T’s CD Cop Killer. His CD, Assault With A Deadlee Weapon—a groundbreaking record, courageously contrived to dispel the myth of the soft, effeminate homosexual man. His rap style blends rap, rock and spoken word, woven together to fit his uber-hyper-masculine persona. And at the same time Deadlee exposes us to the woes of growing up gay in a masculine world with cuts like the soul-bearing “Good Soldier II,” which conjures up the ghosts of Otis Redding with its heart-wrenching backup vocals. Again, fuck what you heard about gay rappers! Check the technique!

Anyone who does not want to see homo hop/rap succeed in the mainstream is the enemy of rap/hip-hop! Why? When you censor the growth of any artistic expression, you run the risk of killing it. Don’t tell me what America isn’t ready for! America wasn’t ready for black folk to sit on the front of the bus either! And don’t tell me that rap music’s foundation is based on some superficial bullshit “street credibility!” You’re a hypocrite and let me tell you why! When critics of rap criticize rappers for their lyrical content about guns, bitches, hoes, drugs and sex, rappers are quick to point out that movies show violence and killing all the time! And this is true! But the difference is that Stallone and Schwarzenegger don’t carry their movie personas on their sleeves! Stallone is not Rambo in real life and every moviegoer knows this! Stallone and Schwarzenegger ain’t never been shot like Tupac and Fiddy! So the analogy between a Rambo (Fictitious) and a 50 Cent (certified gangster with a rap sheet) are bogus!

But so-called “gangsta rappers” claim they are what they rap about! They call it “Keepin’ it real,” “Keepin’ it gutter.” “keepin’ it ‘hood.” And many of them have rap sheets to prove it. So the comparison is unfounded. We don’t associate words like “killer,” “thug” “gangster,” or “menace to society” when we see Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Steven Seagal, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Rock, Vin Diesel or any action hero movie persona when we see them in the street. Why? Because even the simplest among us know that they were just ACTING! You will never see Stallone at the Oscars mean-muggin’ Mel Gibson and shouting, “PPPP…Paramount Pictures Bitch!” as he accepts his award. But when we see Tupac, who was shot five times rap, “Call the cops when you see Tupac! Pull your Glocks when you see Tupac… we gon’ kill all y’all niggas…”—when 50 Cent says he was shot nine times and raps, “Front on me, I’ll cut ya, gun butt ya… I’ll have yo’ mama pickin’ out yo’ casket, bastard!”—When Jay-Z raps, “If you shoot my dog, I’m-a kill your cat…I put my muthafuckin’ faith in a Tech [9=gun] “—when Rick Ross raps, “Nigga try me, I’m-a teach his mama homicide!”—When Trick Daddy says, “I’m a thug!”—When Young Jeezy and TI inform us about their trap star (selling drugs) days—when The Game raps about gang life, you better damn well know that they are what they rap about… the so-called “street credibility” factor that you wouldn’t question if you met them on the street! They don’t stop being what they rap about and become nice citizens and wear suits and have aspirations to run for governor. Nay! They want you to believe that they will fuck you up in the street! And indeed, they will! Their thug persona is what helps sell their records. They’ve got ‘hood rap beef videos. They walk the walk and talk the talk! When you read about them in rap magazines, their thug persona is clearly on display. Even the way they pose on the magazine covers. It’s never a big cheesy smile with the words, “I’m rich bitch!” over their heads. Nah. They gotta mean-mug and ice-grill us as they floss their Jacob watches. Angry at nothin’! Got a million dollars and still can’t find happiness!

A so-called rap expert appeared on the Tyra Banks Show and said that gay rap would never be acceptable in the mainstream rap world because rap is based on “street cred.” Is he saying that a homo rapper does not have street credibility? And just what is street credibility? In its present incantation, “street cred” has to do with your reputation in the ghetto as a gang banger, drug dealer, thug, hustler, predicate felon, pimp, murderer, head bussa, battle rapper or a miscreant with a police record to validate you’re persona. 50 Cent raps, “I know niggas from your ‘hood—You have no history!—Never poke nothin’!—Never pop nothin’—nigga stop frontin’!” 50 Cent destroyed Ja Rule with verses like this, claiming that his street credibility was fabricated, thus nullifying Ja’s gangsta and reputation in the ‘hood. People like 50 Cent further create the illusion that a rapper must have validation from the streets. But that’s not how rappers viewed each other in the advent of hip-hop. Street cred/gangsta rap is a sub-genre of rap!

Street cred was birth with the advent of gangsta rap. When rap first hit the airwaves, people weren’t thinking, “Is this dude from the streets?” We were just happy to hear something new out of our community! We didn’t question the street cred of Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys, Run DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J, Kool Moe Dee, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, Beastie Boys, Eric B. & Rakim, BDP, Heavy D, Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff, Salt & Pepa, Queen Latifah, Mc Lyte, Leaders of the New School, and even MC Hammer (who made street cred an issue by changing up his dance act for a thugged-out album called The Funky Headhunter, which exposed him as a fake gangster). Again, street cred came to the fore with the advent of gangsta rap acts like NWA, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, ICE-T, DJ Quik, Biggie, Jay-Z, etc. The “street credibility” argument is the most bogus reason for keeping gays/lesbians out of mainstream hip-hop! If it were truly all about street cred, please explain how we got polka-dotted Kwame, suave Special Ed, super high-top fade Kid & Play, aesthetically challenged Biz Markie, backwards pants-wearing prepubescent Kriss Kross, college graduate Young MC, fake Jamaican accent rapping Snow, underwear modeling Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, lip-syncing C&C Music Factory, Latin Adonis Gerardo “Rrrrrrrico Suave,” and MC Hammer dancing impresario Vanilla Ice? Fuck STREET CREDIBILITY!!!!!!!!!! Bring back STREET TALENT!!!!!!!!!!

It’s okay to call black women “bitches & hoes,” but don’t let those gay people tell their stories! It’s okay for the ‘hood man to rap about his days as a D-boy/snowman (drug dealer) and all of the criminality of “trapping,” but those gay rappers gotta go? It’s okay for rappers to tell us how they are fucking the be-Jesus out of daughters, but don’t let those fags rap about man love! It’s okay to slide credit cards up black women’s ass-cracks ala Nelly, but don’t be rapping about a man suckin’ another man’s dick and liking it! It doesn’t matter that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg had visions of homosexual sex with rapper Luke (Skyywalker) when they rapped, “Gap teeth in your mouth, so my dick’s got to fit… Luke’s bendin’ over so Luke’s gettin’ fucked…” You can rap about homosexual sex if it’s meant to degrade, dehumanize and emasculate a person—this is acceptable homoerotic poetry. It’s acceptable that we bounce to the lyrics of the bling-bling materialistic nature of mainstream rappers who floss diamonds that our brothers in Africa dug up from the earth in an effort to support their starving families, but goddamnit, those fucking homos got no business in hip-hop! Damn we’re some ignorant cusses!

Personally, I don’t believe that rap music was ever intended to include gays and lesbians, just as it was not intended to include a parachute-pants wearing brotha from Oaktown (Hammer) or some silly white Jew-boys from the Bronx (Beastie Boys). But something wonderful happened—rap evolved! Those early South Bronx rappers didn’t foresee a Beastie Boys, a Third Bass, a Vanilla Ice, a Bubba Sparxxx, a Paul Wall or an Eminem, who is arguably one of the best to ever spit on wax! This is the essence of Hip-hop! Hip-hop was founded with the same mentality that they claim America was founded—a melting pot of cultures, religions and ideas. The Statute of Liberty reads, “Give me your tired, your weary, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe… send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me…” That was the promise of America, but like America, hip-hop reneged and became the bastard love-child of mainstream America, frontin’ like it’s all-inclusive when, in reality, hip-hop is a hypocritical child weaned from the breasts of its mother (America). America is male-centered and hip-hop is male-centered. Young brothas and sistas, huddled together in the ghettoes of America, yearning to breathe (have a voice) during the “tempest-tossed” era of Reaganomics and hip-hop was that way out. Hip-hop became the voice of the voiceless, decrying all of the social ills and hardships of living in urban America as a black heterosexual male (and to a lesser degree) and female.

And yet still, 30+ years in the rap game, no homosexual voice has been heard in the mainstream. Pathetic! Again, I say homo rap was never meant to be a part of hip-hop! Some of the earliest rap lyrics suggested that as such. In 1982, rapperGrandmaster Flash released, The Message, an ode to ghetto life. He hints at homophobia when he raps, “Crazy lady/livin’ in a bag/eating out of garbage piles/used to be a fag hag… Got sent up for a eight year bid… spent the next two years as an undercover fag… till one day you was found hung dead in a cell….” He called homosexual/bisexual men “undercover fags.” Today they are called “down-low” or “D/L”.

Many of the new hip-hop fans of rap music don’t know or understand where and how rap evolved. They don’t know that rap was a movement among the ghetto-voiceless that grew out of the concrete jungle of South Bronx, New York. Rap and hip-hop represented change! It was no fad like Disco music! Hip-hop is to minorities, as Rock & Roll was to white folk—rebellion, liberation, and freedom to think outside the box. Rappers came on the scene and presented themselves in ways that were clearly in protest to what America stood for—baggie pants, oversized shirts, hats twisted backwards, tattoos, earrings, fancy cars, excessive/gaudy jewelry, profanity, creative vernacular (slang & Ebonics), etc. But along the way, the hip-hop community lost its way. Women became bitches & hoes, money became more important than the message, and talent was decided by which rapper could “diss” another rapper the best and payola. The truth be told, gay people were never even considered in the hip-hop equation for the voiceless, which is the hypocrisy of the hip-hop movement! Word!

I’m holding this book up before the hip-hop world and asking for a Reformation. Like Martin Luther (the 16th century German/Catholic monk), who nailed his famous 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, I’m nailing this tome on the door of hip-hop! And I’m looking to start a “Protest Movement”—not just against homophobia, but also misogyny, xenophobia, and the “minstrel show” that Wynton Marsalis so eloquently analogized.

Taken From Khalil Amani’s Upcoming Book, Hip-Hop Homophobes: Origin & Attitudes Against Gays & Lesbians In Hip-Hop Culture; As Perpetrated By Rappers, Thugs, Athletes & Religionists; Essays On A 3,000 Year Old Polemic Against Homosexuality; A Religious Hoax! (Aug. ’07 iuniverse)