Homosexuality in Hip-Hop :dame: was Tyler the first to come out on record? Is this a new beginning or the end?

the elastic

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I was gonna make a string of thought provoking historical hip hop threads. But it's once again clear that the majority of The Booth is either too dense or don't care for deep discussion

The reaction towards homosexuality discussion in here is a microcosm of the very reason why the future of hip hop is potentially in limbo. This point will continue to be lost. So there's no point in even expanding on it
You def should, but you already know how a forum that has a smilie SOLELY DEDICATED to expressing disdain for homosexual activity would react to this topic :francis: :mjlol:

Gotta roll with the punches :birdman:
 

CrimsonTider

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I don’t think it needs a discussion or topic. Gays are everywhere and Hip Hop has and had a lot. The assumption that gays want to listen to gay rap openly is wrong because these brehs and gals might like regular rap as it is.
There has not been a gay rapper embraced by rap culture.

Lil Nas x isn’t embraced. He’s a pop star

Tyler isn’t embraced. He really doesn’t exist in the culture
 

the elastic

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Hell no

Tyler doesn’t exist in the realms that Drake, lil baby, lil Durk, Meek mill etc live in

He’s damn near alt rap
He IS alt rap but he is embraced by the upper echelons of hip-hop. And that's off raw talent + hard work and consistency. He isn't being co-signed for the sake of being co-signed.
 

Edub

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This is a mature discussion
:dame:



Hip Hop has recently celebrated its 50th birthday. There has been alot of growth in the culture, for better and for worse. Homosexuality has been a subject of the genre since the beginning. Flamboyant clothing, shyt like that

Diss songs would come out with attacks on other rappers' sexuality. I would say since the early 2010s, the prevalence of gay culture in rap has been very noticeable. Even more than the fashion. In 2011 Lil B made a mixtape called I'm Gay (I'm Happy). His goal was to destigmatize homosexuality in hip hop as a straight man. That goal was not reached. Or was it?

See before Lil Nas X (who isn't even hip hop), there was a rapper who came out the closet on record. In his music. And this nikka did it in probably the most artistic, strategic, thought-out way possible

Tyler, The Creator dropped an album in 2017 called Flower Boy. All you have to do is look up what that word means to understand where I'm going with this. 2 songs are where he basically moonwalks silently out of the closet while no one pays attention or notices he left

First song, I Aint Got Time. He said "next line will have em like woah/ I been kissing white boys since 2004" :dame:

Since it's Tyler, pretty much everyone wrote it off as trolling. But songs later he had a deeper song called Garden Shed on the same album. A much deeper serious song about his hidden sexuality and his shame. The "Garden Shed" is a metaphor for the closet

Ever since this album he has fully embraced his identity. IGOR was about his romance and falling out with a gay lover. Dude freestyles and has features with non-harlem subject matter. His recent song SORRY NOT SORRY he says "sorry to the guys i had to hide, sorry to the girls i lied to who didnt know I was by (bi) the lakes switching sides too, anyway I dont wanna talk"

Tyler is a known aficionado of Lil B. So are many artists who rose to prominence in the late 2000s early 2010s. Only reason I started listening to B is because of Lupe's support of how ambitious his "Im Happy" mixtape was. But that brings me to this, is the openness of homosexuality in the music a sign of Hip Hops evolution or a sign of its nearing end?

There has definitely been an increase in LGBT+ awareness for years now. Especially in black culture. It started to be evident more than ever since the Caitlyn Jenner shyt. Now it's mainstream. Even overly homophobic rappers could be in question. Like Tyler in his early career dropping the word fakkit every 5 bars, Eminem did the same. And dude has been hinting at liking other men his whole career. But just like Tyler, it can be perceived as "trolling". But that's a topic for another discussion

I feel like we're in the last days anyway with this country increasingly looking like Babylon. Will this change influence artists and audiences to abandon the genre? Will this have an effect to an even greater degree than the eras of Gangsta Rap and Autotune? Is this growing sense of vulnerability with sexual identity the sign of hip-hop's evolution or it's impending death?



Tyler don’t move a needle in hip hop, he not a temp gauge or barometer, he just an attention hungry rapper
 
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