California rapper Lil B, "The Based God", has been an internet hype for several years now. He has gained notoriety for his eccentric take on popular hip-hop, which can be heard on his ridiculously long discography, currently over 35 free full-length mix-tapes in just over two years. On these tapes, absurd songs like "Look Like Jesus", "I'm Bill Clinton" and "I Got AIDS" can be found. As proven by these song names, Lil B is not taking himself too seriously, but that hasn't stopped him from lecturing at NYU and trying out for the Wolverines basketball team.
While performing at 2011's music festival Coachella, Lil B announced the title of his next release, I'm Gay. Reception was mixed, mostly because Lil B is a straight man. Backlash arrose not only from the LGBT community, but from those who were once fans of Based God. Death threats began to surface, "I'm gonna bash your head in," "you faggot," and 'I'm gonna kill you." were several cyber threats directed towards B. Openly gay BET blogger Gyant Dinwiddie responded to B's title with "I don't want to take anything away from what I think he's trying to do...I really do feel that it is less about social evolution, and it's more about making a name for yourself and selling your project." Check out DMX's response to hearing about I'm Gay.
In an interview with CNN regarding the record, Lil B defended the album with this:
CNN: What were you thinking when you named the album "I'm Gay?"
Lil B: It was something that was going through my mind for a while. I feel like I'm man of the people: meeting people, respecting people and accepting people. I hope that I can turn some of my fans that might be homophobic or supporters that might be homophobic and say, "You know what, we're all one people. This is love." It's just respect, and I did that to bring people together and bring more love and to spark the minds of people and not let words and judgments and stereotypes stop you from loving.
How do you feel about Lil B's bold album name? Does it mock the LGBT or is it genuine and progressive?
The
term outing arose in the 20th century to describe the uncovering of
people who were “in the closet” or non-heterosexual. In ancient Rome
outing was also used when people violated societies sexual codes and
would result in social stigmas about the persons unmanliness. During the
blacklisting era of McCarthyism government workers that were suspected
of being gay were fired from their jobs and many others left quietly to
avoid being outed weather it was true or not. The government saw them as
perverts and a threat to national security.
Lyrical
outing is when hip hop artist out other MC’s by calling their sexuality
into question. This is not necessarily to prove they are gay but to get
an upper hand on them and to put their realness into question. Having a
secret life of sexual intercourse on the down low would call their
realness into question as would simply feminizing them by calling them
gay. Heterosexuality is a form of realness to many hip hop artists and
claiming that an MC is gay is questioning their realness.
From the reading, Tim'm says, "hip hop heteros rely heavily on the
inappropriate faggot in order to even exist. In a really twisted sort of
way, they rely on the verbal bashing of fags in order to substantiate
their manhood." Basically, in order to assert their masculinity and
heterosexuality, rappers feel the need to bring other rapper’s sexuality
into question, through bashing them with their verses and rhymes.
Jay
Z and Nas have had a history of attempting to out each other. In Nas’s
song “Ether” he calls Jay Z Gay Z and references aspects of Jay Z’s
business to slander his sexuality saying that it’s named after a man
that died of Aids which was and in some cases still looked at as a gay
disease. Jay Z retorted with more gay slurs about Nas’s sexuality
shortly after. However the outing of gay rappers by other MC’s is not
something of the 21st century.
Activist’s
rappers like Easy E and Tupac tried outing Dr. Dre. Calling him gay in
multiple songs. Easy E and Dre have a long history of working together
in NWA where they produced multiple political critiques and
inspirational songs. However when the group split apart there were hard
feelings and the once partners now had a lot of animosity towards each
other. The video below is shows Easy E publicly insulting Dre and
attacking his sexual preference of them were accused at some point for
being gay, Tupac for possibly getting raped in prison and his feminine
childhood, Easy E for contracting the aids virus, and Dr.Dre for a rumor
about him having sexual relations with a young man during his marriage.
One
of the more current outings was that of J Rule and DMX. Rather than
calling J Rule gay DMX tried to use specific stories to legitimize his
claim. As a result J Rule lost nearly all of his fan base and was
completely ousted from the hip hop community and for the most part never
recovered. In the movie that we watched in class artists said that they
insulted each other and spoke poorly of women because all that record
companies wanted to hear were these homophobic battles between MC’s.
This probably made record companies a lot of money and divided the hip
hop community from straight rappers attacking each other to excluding
gay rappers from any contribution to the genre.
“Homo Thuggin’ It”
“Unlike
lyrical outings or gay rapper witch hunts,” homothugs are queer men who
identify with the hyper masculine complex of hip-hop culture. The term
“thug” implies violence and drugs, none of which a homothug must
participate in to gain the title of a thug. A homothug receives his name
just by physically looking like a stereotypical “thug” i.e. wearing
“baggy jeans, doo-rags, throwback basketball jerseys, gaudy jewelry, and
other such indices of hip hop authenticity.” (Hill, 393) The only thing
separating a homothug from a heterosexual hip-hopper is his attraction
to the same sex. By giving a queer rapper or hip-hopper a name to
identify under, this further isolates queerness from hip-hop. It says
that one can’t be part of hip-hop culture and happen to be gay, but if
they’re going to be a queer hip-hopper then they must be a homothug. The
name in itself is a form of “outing,” as if a person’s sexual
preference is the only way they can define themselves. It can be argued
that the term “homothug” is just a nicer way to say “faggot,” although
“faggot” implies effeminate qualities whereas homothug implies masculine
qualities. The term homothug was “coined by antigay former Hot 97 shock
jock DJ Star” as an initial joke, because the term homo and thug were
so contradictory to one another that it was laughable and something to
be mocked. Either way, both terms are rooted from a place of judgment
and disapproval, as a way to group together selective members and
outcast them as the Other.
Homothug
and being on the down-low quickly became synonymous with one another.
Being on the DL meant participating in “any secret activity”, but its
definition warped from being inclusive to implying only homosexual acts
among heterosexual men.
Through the definition of being on the DL, homothugs were further classified into two types of people: the trickster and the psychopath.
Firstly, the trickster uses psychological mind games to lure men and
women into his bedroom. The trickster seems to have bisexual tendencies,
which is viewed as deviant and greedy behavior instead of a personal
sexual preference. Tricksters are viewed as insatiable since they have
sex with more than one gender. Secondly, the psychopath hides under the
guise of a homothug, instead of making a concrete decision about his
sexuality. The psychopath is in denial about oneself, which “ultimately
places his partners in emotional and physical peril.” In reality,
heteronormative society is unable to deal with the concept of sexuality
as being fluid and ever changing. Therefore it creates certain names for
those who choose to not fit in society’s rigid and small box of
possible sexual identities.
Although
this video doesn’t relate to homothugs or gay bashing, it represents a
new era in hip hop. The entire message of the video is pro equality and
gay marriage. It’s a far step from rappers trying to out each other in
rap battles and emasculating one another. Othering Your Own Community Masculinity
in hip hop thrives off the mindset that to be masculine, you must make
other men less than you, which more often than not means comparing them
demeaningly to a woman (bitch, pussy, sissy) or a queer person (faggot,
punk). This system sets straight, black men as the official voice of
hip hop, while simultaneously degrading, dehumanizing, and quite often
perpetuating violence against these more intersectionally oppressed
members of the black community. The
interesting thing about the intense othering of women and queer folk in
hip-hop culture is that it is entirely counterintuitive to any genuine
subculture because it denies the active roles women and queer folk have
occupied and continue to occupy in hip-hop. Black queer people
participate, consume, and contribute to all the aspects of hip-hop
culture, be it DJing, emceeing, graffiti or b-boying. Since
homosexuality has been co-opted and is majorly represented as this white
middle-class lifestyle, it is assumed by straight black men that their
identity as a queer person is intrinsically tied to that lifestyle, not
acknowledging or understanding ways that identities like “queer”,
“black”, and “woman” can all intersect in very complex ways.
Hip hop
culture, while meant as something to give a voice to the oppressed,
still very much works through a hierarchy. Homophobia and sexism are
very prominent in hip hop because homophobia and sexism are very
prominent in society at large. Hip hop does not exist within a bubble,
so while prominent male rappers can have very insightful commentary
about race, most won’t speak up on issues of misogyny or heterosexism.
