fruit fly
by angelica osborne
There’s been some chatter in the hip-hop world about 50 Cent and Kanye West over the song “Play This On
The Radio” in which 50 raps “First they say, ‘That faggot is hot.’ “ is allegedly targeted at Kanye. In an interview
on MTV, “Fiddy” did little to rebuke the rumor, talking more about a pic of Kanye and his crew at Fashion
Week in Paris, as one of his posse is wearing leopard spandex tights, a Robin Hood looking hat and a bright
green jacket with black cowboy boots. 50 Cent says, “Where I come from, you only see (those clothes) on gay
people.” Kanye could have called him out right there on his ignorance. Instead he comes back with, “There’s
a lot of gay people who don’t dress good at all. There are a lot of gay people that I dress way better than.” Oh
no, you didn’t...Look, I love Kanye, but as he sports that 1980s fade hairdo, bright red tennis shoes and the
Michael Jackson jacket, I think he should refrain from asking people to put him up against just about any
gay man in a fashion war.
The problem here is definitely deeper-rooted than clothing. The
problem is that hip-hop artists still are using homophobic slurs to
put down another artist’s manhood. The F-word has to be for them
what the N-word is for everyone else. If you are a black rapper you can
say the N word, if you’re not, you can’t. If you are gay, you can use the
F-word, if not, you can’t. Same dif. This has been going on forever, but
Oh NO
just when you think it’s about to die down, it rears its ugly head again.
Is the only way some of these guys are going to pay attention and get
They
the message is when it pains their wallet? There are several examples
of this; In September 2007, rapper Ja Rule declared gays were “f@#king
DiDN’T!
up America,” a comment that was quickly met by vicious backlash. The
rapper later retracted his statement, claiming his words were “taken
NO
out of context” and adding, “I have relatives that are homosexuals
and, you know, they come over for Christmas, hang out.” Not exactly
as progressive as we might hope for, but hey…he lets homos in his
RappeR’s
house on the holidays. We are getting closer with this one. Right now,
Lil’ Wayne is on all the hot tracks being played on the radio, his song
DelighT
with Lloyd, “All the Girls All Around the World” is my personal fave. I
love that song! However, I learned from these two kids out of N.Y. who
have an online blog,”The Lesman Show” that his song “Go DJ” has a
line, “You homo niggas getting AIDS in the ass.” Sigh.
Humiliating lyrics aside, technically, HIV cells are in the blood so you
can’t really get AIDS in the ass, per se... just saying. So as gay men, the
guys are discussing how they should boycott his music. Yet they still
like his other songs, so they are conflicted. I’m conflicted myself. Is it
better for Lil’ Wayne to just think backward thoughts, but not be able
to say it out loud because I don’t agree with him? Or is it better for him
to say it so he can hear our responses to it? What if you don’t pay for it,
so you aren’t “supporting” him but you still sing along to his other track
while driving in the car? Does that still count? It warrants discussion.
It’s a line we all have to draw for ourselves.
One thing we can do is support the openly gay rappers. (Yes, they
do exist!) Just type it in on Google, you’ll be surprised how many come
up. Check out gay U.K. hip-hop artist Qboy, he is a cutie, first off. More
importantly, however, he’s involved with Excellence Centre Wales, “an
organization that gathers and shares excellence, information and good practice on equality and human
rights as well as for LGBT people” to raise awareness and help prevent bullying in schools. Give his music
a listen, join his fan page, even just for support, if you don’t dig the tunes. I mean, haven’t we all bought a
friends’ bands CD just to be nice? So why not do it for someone who is fighting for the things we believe in?
One day, there will be a huge openly gay hip-hop artist, it’s inevitable. Let’s all just hope it’s not Joaquin
Pheonix, geez Louise, have you seen him rapping on YouTube? That could hold back the movement for
years... Until then, do we swear off all hip-hop music? Of course not. What we can do is pay attention, talk
about it, blog about it, read this article to your co-workers, support openly gay artists and by all means if you
are a gay rapper, come on with it! We are anxiously awaiting your arrival!
fruitfly@ragemonthly.com
32 RAGE monthly | MARCH 2009
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