I think Nelson George actually hit the nail on the head regarding hip-hop homophobia — more than the black church influence, it’s simply the fact that such a ridiculous percentage of urban black men are incarcerated at some point, and we all know that homosexuality in prison is an expression of violent power rather than affection or love. So being gay means your someone’s bitch, and there’s nothing cool or acceptable about that. It’s kind of an unpleasant thing to think about, but when you imagine that most MCs from the hood either know someone who was violently abused or were violently abused themselves in prison, the gay bashing in hip-hop starts to look very different sort of thing.

Not that this excuses a lot of the shit talking (in general, I like to give Ghost and Cube a pass for the occasional f-bomb, whereas Busta and 50 are just assholes), but it’s worth thinking about.

As for the article — I’d really like to support a lot of these guys for political reasons, but frankly a lot of them just aren’t any good. Like, I respect Deadlee for being so outspoken and everything, which takes a lot of balls, but he’s just not a good rapper.

And as for the hyper-macho thing — dude, those badass Old West cowboys lived in an environment where men outnumbered women like 10 to 1…and most of them would ride out into the prairie together and not see a woman for months. Think about it.

@ Camilo and Jere: Thanks for the kind words. As Camilo alluded to in his comment (and something I wasn’t aware of at the time of the article’s publication), I believe the preferred nomenclature is “out hip-hop.” Which sounds much much better.

But yes, this article (and sexual freedom/openness in hip-hop) get a high thumbs up from me. Calling “homo-hop” an “unfortunate moniker” also gets a thumbs up. I read this article from work and kept thinking there must be a better name out there. One that doesn’t sound like it was coined by someone deriding them.

Anyway, the homophobia in hip hop has always been a sticking point that makes me wince when it comes up in lyrics or interviews (::cough:: Busta ::cough::cough::). It’s a mentality that, frankly, creates the opposite effect. Is there anything more homoerotic than the cover art for the first 2 Fiddy albums? Or LL Cool J’s music videos? The hyper-macho mentality winds up making some - certainly not most, but some - rappers look like neanderthals.

Props to Yeezy, though he manages to make himself look stupid in other ways (sometimes… ok, nearly once a month).

also, REPORTERS NEVER WRITE HEADLIINES - this should be known to all by now. Kinda like the separation of church and state, just more important.

There are over 100+ LGBT hip hop artists, if you could believe that, and links to all of them at OutHipHop.com for anyone interested in this.

Thanks again.