Archived Article:
Kanye West & That Pesky Gay Question!
written by Khalil Amani
Jan 2009
Hey Kanye! This is your old crazy-ass gay uncle! Remember me?
Well, I’m not really your uncle and I’m not really gay, but I thought that would get your attention! It’s time for some real talk about gayness. That shyt really irks you, doesn’t it?
For years, some people thought that Prince was gay. Who knew that one day he’d go on record and say that homosexuality was wrong (based on his own warped understanding of being a “Jehopeless Witness”)-Prince condemning homosexuality? Who knew? WTF? (Lol)
But prior to Prince being religiously brainwashed, you never heard him ranting to the public that he wasn’t gay! Prince didn’t give a fuck about what us little ol’ peasants thought about his wearing eyeliner, mascara, high heels, and booty-cheek pants! Prince was our androgynous sex freak who brought the bomb songs into our bedrooms! (e.g. Do Me Baby, Adore, International Lover, The Beautiful Ones, Purple Rain) We gave Prince a ghetto-pass for being himself and never apologizing for his eccentricities.
Prince is one of the musical great ones!
Now look at you Kanye West-stuck in a genre of music (rap) that doesn’t take kindly to gayness. You’re desperately trying to straddle the fence between uber-macho maleness and eclectic/experimentational… musical impresario with a lemon twist of conscious gay rights advocacy. Two juxtaposing worlds! You admit that you get your fashion sensibilities from gay dudes (shhhhh!), but you’re quick to let the world know that you’re not gay! (Okay, wink, wink) That’s how heads are looking at you!
So you wanna be left alone so you can be “great?” Well you’re going about it all wrong! Why do you feel the need to answer to us mere mortals? Let’s see…you’ve got millions of dollars, famous as a motherfucker, got hella women on your jock, on top of the rap game, doing Louis Vuitton shoe deals and stuff, but you’re worried and upset over people writing false shyt about you and your sexuality? You’re upset that 50 Cent continues to diss you? Musically speaking, 50 Cent has already “Before I Self-Destructed,” so count his opinion amongst the haters of your work. (Ever seen the Titanic? GGGG-UNIT!)
You’re starting to look mighty gay bro.! (As straight heads like to say!)
Why do you think you’re getting so much attention? Because you’re the shyt! That’s why! Remember what Steve Harvey recently said (as it relates to Katt Williams calling him out); “A stray dog don’t bark at parked cars!” If you weren’t ’bout it, ’bout it’ no one would be checking for you! You’d be some D-List entertainer on a reality show trying to make a comeback! But this is what the price of fame at its height brings-unwarranted, unsolicited attention-email hackers and Internet geeks whose sole purpose in life is to live vicariously through you! Go read the book Sula, by Toni Morrison. There are people out here that would absolutely shrivel up and die if they had no one to talk about, degrade, castigate, diss and hate on. (Like Byron Crawford/Bol and some of those XXL bloggers) This is the reason for their existence and you, Kanye, are their “Elixir of Life!” (Medical cure-all)
And some of these hip-hop sites and bloggers would like to make you a rapping pariah (outcast) because they don’t like your music. Shamelessly, some bloggers are trying to direct hip-hop and shape public opinion as to what is and isn’t hip-hop.
It would mean the world to them to say, “We at Hateration.com ended Kanye West’s career… hate, hate, hate!”
Enjoy the fame and all that comes with fame while you can, because there’s a graveyard filled with the bones of has-been rappers who think they have a second chance at rap supremacy (Can you say Jaz-O?)
Like me, you’ve opened the floodgates of doubt by acknowledging your gay-niceties. Like me, you want the world to know that you’re straight as an arrow. But unlike me, you haven’t found out that it really doesn’t matter. Hip-hop heads are hell-bent on believing what they want! The more you protest your straightness, the more heads are apt to believe that you have some gay tendencies!
So I’m gonna tell you what your mama would’ve told you (your mama and my mama are in heaven, looking down on their sons)-“Do you and forget the haters! Do you and stop trying to prove that you’re not gay! Do you and let people speculate all they want!” Word to our mothers!
The “great” ones don’t answer to the masses! The great ones are above public ridicule! Go read the “Prince Manual on Royalty” and get a clue! Mofos wanna believe you’re into bi-sexual porn-great! I know you’ve got your own website/blog, but dispelling idiotic rumors is best left up to your public relations people. Stop stooping to answer the ignorance of the peasantry! Take a page out of the “Rick Ross Book of Silence” and let the peasantry have their say. Be about greatness! Stop stooping to answer the ignorance of the peasantry! Be about greatness! Stop letting that pesky gay question fuck with you!
In your recent Vibe interview you said, “I don’t believe in a religion that has something against gay people. …I was taught to hate gays. And I don’t really believe in any of that. …I break every rule and mentality of hip-hop, of black culture, of American culture.” (February 2009 Issue) That’s very progressive of you to not believe in religious bigotry and homophobia. Have you been reading my book? (“Hip-Hop Homophobes…”)
This is what I teach and I beat all hell out of the idea that a “god” has anything to do with man’s condemnation of homosexuals. I don’t give a damn if it is in your Bible! A “god” DID NOT write the Bible! Ignorant, homophobic, and misogynistic men wrong the Bible and forged God’s signature. This is what the laity (common folk) doesn’t know or understand. They read the Bible and believe every word to be God’s hand writing! Evidentially, you, Kanye have read up on Bible compilation and history. For how can one, after all of our religious brainwashing against homosexuality, come to that conclusion, if not by study and inquiry?
Kanye! You say you are here to “break every rule and mentality of hip-hop, of black culture, of American culture.” Do you wanna really shake up hip-hop? Do you wanna do something super-progressive? Are you willing to put what others think of your sexuality aside? Would you like to introduce the world to a genre of rap that has been lurking on the periphery of the mainstream rap world? Wanna do the most innovative thing for rap since the advent of gangsta rap?
Here’s a “rule and mentality” that hasn’t been broken: Sign the first outwardly gay or lesbian rapper to your label! (G.O.O.D.) (I can hear a rat pissin’ on cotton!) They ain’t lookin’ for a seven-figure signing bonus (although nobody’s turning down money!). They are looking to be heard!
You don’t know any gay or lesbian rappers? Well let me help you! There’s a gay rapper from the “Middle East” (North Carolina) named TwiZza who’s a beast on the mic! There’s a gay cat out of Los Angeles-Last Offence, with the lyrical dexterity of your favorite rapper. How about FELONi?-One of the realest lesbian MC’s reppin’ Detroit. Or my lil man Nano, reppin’ the Bay area or a young gay rapper named Bry’NT from New York or my niggas .. and Sonny Lewis, two of the grimiest wordsmiths reppin’ Brooklyn. Not to mention the “Face of Gay Hip-Hop,” my dog Deadlee! (I can name 100 other gay/lesbian rappers!)
So what it do Kanye? Signing a gay rapper is a win-win for hip-hop and humanity! It’s time to move from rhetoric to action! You are the biggest voice in hip-hop that advocates against homophobia. Why not “put your money where your mouth is?” God has equipped you with the knowledge, strength, and foresight to kick in the door of the last bastion of human ignorance-homophobia! If hip-hop heads wanna say you’re gay, then answer back with Redman’s words-“I’ll be dat!” Are you ready to be eternally etched into hip-hop history?
“I’m not gay although I wish I were to piss off homophobes.”
Kurt Cobain-Dead Grunge Rock Star.
Author Khalil Amani describes himself as spiritual adviser to Gay Hip Hop and Kanye West