Eazy

• Addressing claims of homophobia, the rapper wrote on Instagram: “I didn’t write the line about gay people.
• … I got love for all people.” He continued: “To me [by] ‘queer’ I don’t mean someone who’s gay.
• As rap music approaches its 50th anniversary in August, I believe it is increasingly embracing challenges to – and debates about – homophobia.

The history of homophobia in rap music

• Indeed, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, high-profile rap groups such as N.W.A and artists like DMX similarly used pejorative language against members of the gay and lesbian community.
• Perhaps the most famous rapper using homophobic lyrics is Eminem.
• Throughout this controversy, there was only a muted response from the rap community itself.
• Indeed, researchers who studied the link between rap music and resistance among young men of color to coming out found that it influenced some gay men’s decision to conduct any same-sex practices on the “down low” to avoid revealing their sexuality.

The start of change in rap community

• For example, in 2005 Kanye West apologized for his past homophobia and even urged fellow artists to cease using lyrics that degrade the LGBTQ+ community.
• These individual actions did not end anti-gay expression in rap, but it does, I believe, show progress among those in the hip-hop community.
• However, many present-day male rappers wear tight-fitting clothes – a fashion choice once considered “gay” and therefore demeaned in the rap world.
• Moreover, such outfits are created by gay fashion designers, a point that Offset acknowledged while defending himself against claims of homophobia.

Out of the closet and onto the mics

• Even more telling, I believe, is the growing number of mainstream LGBTQ+ rappers.
• Over the past decade, there has been a rise in the number of successful gay and lesbian emcees.
• Albeit the music of openly gay Lil Nas X is more pop than rap, it has sold over 1 million copies.
• Even 50 Cent, no stranger to homophobic lyrics, praised her on Instagram: “Young M.A the hottest s*** out right now.

Still room for growth in rap music

• But it does show that hip-hop has evolved to a point at which self-reflection and conversations are taking place on past and present instances of homophobia.
• That’s not to say that anti-gay beliefs don’t persist in the music of some.
• And at least for now, rap artists are called on it – increasingly by members of their own community.