Thug Lite: Jay Z Might Be Right On, But It's Not Like Rap's Gone Gay

Welp, I guess congratulations are in order to Jay-Z for backing his bro Obama up in the whole gay marriage furore. In an interview with CNN, he declared…

“What people do in their own homes is their business. You choose to love whoever you love. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination plain and simple.”

…So Jigga joins the other brave little soldiers in rap today making totally non-committal declarations on their stance on homophobia. Courageous statements in the vein of “gay is just great as long as it’s all kept indoors”. A$AP Rocky did something similar, coining it ‘sexual racism’, before going on to stress the importance of lesbianism…sexy, sexy lesbianism. True say, it’s nothing to sniff at; what would once have been career suicide, is now just another funzie pre-requisite of the modern, well-rounded MC… tolerance is OK now guyz!

Things have changed fo sho. Imagine if Jigga had made this maverick proclamation during the Nas vs Gay-Z feud era, back when Nas was teasing him for his “dick suckin’ lips” or for heading up “Cock-a-Fella records”. And even if Jay did once nod to queer-bashing, Buju-burn-all-gays-Banton in the track “Brooklyn Go Hard”, frankly, I think we can let that slide, such is the magnitude of his recent statement.

But, for every step forward in hip-hop there are about fifty steps back. So in honor of Jay’s realization, here are just a few of the most recent cringey homophobic face-palms in hip-hop… NO HOMO!

Ghostface Killah’s son

Step forward:
A fuzzy a camera phone video cropped up on WSHH (of course) of a young man introducing himself as Ghost’s son. He did an adorable but not entirely in tune rendition of Beyonce’s “1+1”. This was enough for the rap world to decide he was out and proud.

Step back:
So, unsurprisingly, this video was followed by a jillion blog posts basically screaming: “FAG SON DISGRACES WU-TANG GENIUS”. Sadly, for someone that has gone on page long Twitter essays about dental hygiene, Ghost stayed pretty schtum on the subject, eventually caving with a rant ending:  “If Ur Mother smoke crack that’s your mother I ain’t saying shit about her…That’s Ur business I ain’t gossiping bout UR shit Dats 4 Bitches”. But it smacked less of respecting his privacy and more like he had something to be ashamed about… way to support your son Ghostwaste.

Lil B / DMX

Step Forward:
Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether Lil B, Based God, the walking meme, is genuine in challenging rap’s status quo or if we’re all just in his Tumblr thrall. Nevertheless, B casually titling debut album I’m Gay (I’m Happy) sent some welcome shockwaves throughout the hip-hop community.

Step Back:
Despite being guilty of churning out the steadiest stream of unintentionally homo-erotic rap lyrics, DMX has remained one of hip-hop’s most celebrated homophobes. Asked for his two cents on Lil B’s title, after by the looks of it, smoking fifteen bowls, X’s reaction is pretty funny.

Syd Tha Kyd

Step Forward: 
Resident producer Syd Tha Kyd was a beacon of light when Odd Future were getting it in the neck for shouting “faggot” a lot, Syd was praised by queer-bloggers for putting real gay women into the mainstream music consciousness, rather than Katy Perry’s lipstick lesbianism world of super-hot girls lolling around on Hello Kitty bedsheets flicking each other’s beans.  

Step Back: 
After ten minutes of playing nicely, queer-bloggers turned on Syd, in particular editor Mindy Abovitz, who dropped an article on her for Tom Tom Magazine. She accused Syd of dragging gay-ladies back another decade after a video for Syd’s side-project The Internet depicted Syd shoveling coke in her face and kicking a jump-off out of a car (jeez, who hasn’t kicked a date out of a moving vehicle?), saying Syd was performing to the crowd “as a misogynistic dude”.

Rainbow Noise

Step forward:
Rainbow Noise – “Imma Homo“ IS A FUCKING CHOON. It’s also one of probably the only hip-hop tracks from out and proud rappers to sneak onto Bossip and Comlplex, if only for “WTF” value.

Step back: 
It went viral after being featured on World Star Hip Hop; not exactly a bastion of liberal consciousness.

So, it’s all ups and downs really. Shrug.

@FUERTESKNIGHT