Lil Nas X and the history of gay hip-hop

+1000 points for Big Freedia! While I don’t generally listen to hip hop, I really admire the artistry. And I’m very glad to hear about lgbtq artists gaining more visibility and acceptance. <3

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just getting to this now, sorry. the video is about more current rappers that I don’t know. I mostly dropped out of the scene in like 2009 or ten. apparently Mickey Avalon had hustled men for his drug habit, but all his lyrics I ever heard (admittedly not many) were hetero. there were always rumors that many of the female rappers were gay, e.g. MC Lyte (who has married but then divorced a man, rumors still persist) and Bahamadia (who has a son that I believe is from a husband.) both are super dope rappers in any event. the skateboard deck behind Murs (who is also super dope) has graphics of the first Pharcyde album in which Fatlip raps about his new girlfriend wouldn’t let him feel up her breasts, and it turned out she was trans. in a later interview I saw, he admitted it was a true story. that was a milestone in a way, a pretty well-known rapper , albeit unwittingly, had a gay experience and he just kinda chalked it up to the game; he didn’t, like, execute her or anything an insecure rapper would put in the verse to “save face” or anything like that.

my homie Sol said that he saw a couple shows in the pre-internet-as-we-know-it where some big names outed themselves to Atlanta audiences. maybe the A being such a huge gay scene made it a safe space? anyway, he said Eric Sermon of both EPMD and later Def Squad (with Redman and Keith Murray) came out onstage. apparently Sermon has denied rumors that he is gay to the press (and of course, I’m getting it second-hand but my homie is legit, fwiw) however in looking it up just now apparently Keith Murray came out publicly like a decade ago, and he is a pretty incredible rapper.

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LOVE. HER.

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