“Of course, the hate spewed at Lil B reflects a real problem. I mean, death threats? Where hip-hop seems to bring a specific and sometimes disturbing flair to good-old American homophobia is in its expectations of an unbreakable masculinity grounded in ghetto-centric ideals of toughness. For too many, “getting punked” is the absolute antithesis of such manhood, such that homosexuality is not so much an identity as a specter that must be violently expelled from oneself, one’s neighborhood, one’s music, and one’s world.”

If you haven’t seen it already, Ann Powers’ conversation with Tavia Nyong’o on the state of homophobia in hip-hop is a must-read. I do agree with the article’s cautious optimism and am reminded of Wale’s flip-flopping around this time last year, when he pulled out of the D.C. Black Pride festival (allegedly, he “didn’t know Black Pride was a gay-related event when he agreed to appear”), was roundly criticized and then agreed to perform at the festival after all. The encouraging thing here is that, at least in the case of Wale, the LBGT community was able to bring an equal or greater amount of pressure to bear on the rapper, thereby overcoming the pull of hip-hop’s institutional homophobia. The most interesting part? Wale’s ultimate response suggested that the only reason he reneged was because his masculinity was called into question for not standing with the gay community (“I’m not scared nor do I have any hatred for ANYBODY”). Or, in other words, I ‘AINT NEVER SCARED.
  • NPR

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus

Notes

  1. mehan posted this