ROUGH DIAMOND COLLECTIVE

OK, I will give it to you that there are some changes to the tenor of hip-hop and homophobic remarks are out of style right now (see how I said right now?) and one will receive condemnation if spoken and then quickly “apologize.” Still, the evidence given doesn’t convince me, Fat Joe’s interview on Vlad TV, where he claimed, “In 2011 you gotta hide that you gay?” he asked. “Be real! ‘Yo, I’m gay. What the fuck!’ If you gay, you gay. That’s your preference. Fuck it if the people don’t like it,” and Game’s statement, “I don’t have no problem with gay people.” 

This is your evidence that things are shifting?

Um, let’s put this evidence into context, shall we? In basically the next sentence in each interview, Fat Joe and Game suggest that there is a “Gay Mafia,” or that “Gays are everywhere,” running shit. Not to mention that the Game goes on to say he’s got a problem with dudes pretending not to be gay but are really gay fooling people and giving people AIDS. Something to that effect (I’ve already talked about Game and his comments, here). So yeah, this “WTF, why can’t gays come out, do you” attitude is one thing that is bulls—-. But, to erroneously claim that these comments are somehow indicative of a larger support that rappers have for queer folks borders on irresponsible.  I’m not pointing fingers at any rappers in particular, nor do I assume that rapper = homophobic. I’m also not going to sit here and write that things haven’t “gotten better,” since, you know, 1930 or so. But, to suggest that these out of context/not really showing the bigger picture comments are somehow indicative of a significant shift in the experience of the queer hip-hop generation is false. 

And I love hip-hop. Have loved it since I was a teenager, particularly because of its Blackness in every fiber. But, there are few spaces for Black queerness in the genre. And while there are few spaces where queer Blackness exists in the mainstream (thank you for making Pariah, Dee Rees, need it!), the lack of queer spaces in hip-hop has been painful at times for those of us who identify with it. A space where queerness and Blackness meet has been carved out in gay bars, house parties, queer performativity, our own headphones, and in out, queer hip-hop. That’s made things better, even good. So, to suggest that the words of a few (presumably) straight male rappers makes rap more gay-friendly ignores the decades long efforts of those of us who have made this music, this culture our own.