- I am queer AF.
- I'm queer AF
(record scratch)
- AF, Right?
That's what you said.
- For real?
I would never say AF in my life!
- I was ready to curse like...
(record scratch)
- Yo, I'm Angel Haze.
- My name is Mickey Bronco.
- I'm Saucy Santana.
- My name is Fly Young Red.
- It's me, Kidd Ken.
- This is your boy, Cakes Da Killer.
- [Everyone Together] And I'm queer AF.
- And I'm queer as fuck.
- Bottoms taking over the world for the 2022.
Yo, do not use that sound!
(laughing)
(rap music)
(rap music continues)
Queer culture, has always been impactful,
always been present in Hip Hop.
There's always been an influence of queer energy in Hip Hop.
The same way there's been influence in queer people
in your own families.
- Cardi B. Hair dresser is trans.
Young Miami stylist is apart of the LGBT community.
JT stylist is are part of the LGBT communities.
We already have so much influence.
And now that we getting time to shine.
- Queer Hip Hop artists,
I feel like we're not just ending in a box.
We're like, everywhere.
- We're building a platform, we're all pioneers.
So I believe by us being more visible,
we're letting more people in and showing people that,
we here, we ain't going no where.
- We're gonna perform at the hip hop awards.
♪ Call me by your name. ♪
(crowd cheering)
- [Angel Haze] Look at Lil Nas.
- Watching this boy just troll everyone
is the most hilarious shit you could ever see.
- He's making it okay To be bold.
for him to just be out there, kissing a boy,
and dancing on one or whatever.
Like, Hey, get used to it.
(paparazzi talking)
- Nas is a, is a global, black, brown skin pop star.
I think that everyone could agree with,
there's just a certain frequency that artists
like Young MA and Nas, you know,
have kind of like, like breached.
I almost feel like I'm in like a time warp.
(Sci-fi music)
Things that felt so taboo when I was doing,
Are so readily, you know, accepted.
Bottom line, it's cool.
What is a Nas X had already existed
when I began making music?
How cool would it would it, would it have been for me.
(slow hip hop music)
- After Like, if there was no Frank Ocean,
there'd be no Lil Nas X.
And Frank ocean was probably
one of the first real times a man in hip hop said,
I like other men.
- I couldn't have had these conversations
without the artists that came before me,
whether we're talking about the Sylvesters
or the Ruth Pauls, you know, these very visible,
gay black men maneuvering through media.
Not just in Hip Hop, just media in general.
Lil Nas X won't be the last, it's a constant conversation.
And I think what's happening now,
and this landscape couldn't have happened
when I was coming out,
but I'm happy that I'm able to have seen it
in my own lifetime.
- These are things that haven't been done before.
(rewind noise)
(hip hop music)
(hip hop music continues)
- I first fell in love with hip hop,
I can't even give you a date.
You know, I'm black, it's kind of ingrained in us. You know?
whether you go on to your auntie's house,
she's listening to the new DMX,
or you're going to your friend's house,
which you hear on the street.
It's just kind of, just, in our culture.
- I started getting into hip hop
When I was around in sixth grade.
The first time I really got into hip hop
was when I was starting listening to Nicki Minaj.
Like, Nicki Minaj really made it do
what it do for me.
I'm like, I'm finna just like,
go home and run around.
And I went home where the rap.
And I just like rapping since then.
- I first fell in love with hip hop
when we were in high school
and my brother used to freestyle.
So my brother came home one day and he was getting on me.
He was getting on my tail.
So I went upstairs and I just started write.
And I just wrote so much. I wrote everything about him.
I talked about all kinds of stuff.
And when I rap the rap about him, it was like,
everybody was like, Yo! you can really rap.
- I first fell in love with hip hop,
I think I was in fourth grade,
when the Fuji's first came out
with their rendition of Killing Me Softly.
we're also in a heal period.
Because I remember I was in Atlanta, Georgia, at six flags,
and I'll still, I remember being in the car and that lyric,
♪ It's funny how money changes situations, ♪
♪ miscommunication leads to complications. ♪
But yeah, those two moments
were really the first kind of like,
you know, aha! hip-hop moments for me.
- My favorite rapper is Gucci Mane.
(angelic harp plays)
Once I moved to Florida, that's when I got into like
the Trina's, the Gucci Mane.
That's when I fell in love with the hip hop that's
my sound and what I can relate to today.
- I first fell in love with hip hop, I was 11,
I moved to New Jersey.
And there was this kid who lived downstairs from me
in this duplex and he burned me a CD.
And on the CD, there was Eminem,
there was like, all of D12. There was 50 Cent.
What I love the most about hip hop
is that you can say the most.
I feel like it's a, it's a hidden poetry.
And we were the only ones who found it.
And I love that about hip hop.
- Come into my own as a queer person in the 90's,
I would never write off an entire genre of music,
and say this is a homophobic genre of music.
Cause you know, there's,
there's homophobia in rock and roll,
there's homophobia in jazz.
You know, these are genres made up of people.
And people are not perfect.
- When I think when I first started making music,
and this is in 2012,
when I entered into the world of hip hop at this time,
every genre of music
(laughing)
was homo and trans phobic.
- It's only a problem when
a queer artist is making money,
or queer artists is on billboards.
Because there's so many queer artists out here
that nobody says anything about,
but when somebody steps into their territory,
or somebody gets the billboards,
if somebody is making money,
I feel like , then they feel like
that's taking money out of their pockets.
So they have to attack that person.
- Remember how people were talking crazy
about Frank ocean, like crazy.
Like, you can't listen to this.
Feels like you're doing gay stuff in my ears.
And I'm like, bro,
you loved her two months ago. Like this is current.
This is nuts.
(creepy violin plays)
- Y'all ain't gotta do that.
We in our own lane, talking to people who want to hear us.
I don't even, it's not even the same thing.
So just let all that go, man.
Let it go.
(cheering crowd)
- When I started making music,
it also was a blossoming of my transgender identity.
I was presenting fully as them.
And so, you know,
I remember doing a song by Southwest,
and I remember performing and you know,
when I got off stage,
people were almost afraid to congratulate.
- I just maneuver in the rooms where I'm accepted,
and where people are going to respect me,
and not have me get out of my pocket. You know.
- We all have this stick together.
in hip hop.
Queer, black, blue, purple.
So even though we're queer, we're a part of hip hop too.
And we all have to be treated equal
and get the same opportunities to kill the stages,
get the same opportunities to get number ones,
get the same opportunities to receive these awards.
- What I would want to say to, you know,
the whole hip hop community,
piece and love, keep up the good work.
And also we're here.
Y'all just got to get used to it, and we love y'all.
We love y'all, so love us.
You love y'all. So, reciprocate.
- The reason I choose not to let the state of hip hop
bother me is I have
(Sound cutting out)
most of the men I know.
- A lot of hip hop, like a lot of other genres and music,
is, you know,
it's kind of rooted in patriarchal thinking.
And homophobia, and transphobia, come out of patriarchy.
- A lot of people can't get past
the blocks in their minds and their biases that they were,
you know, conditioned with.
- There are types being a queer artist,
I think, in a harmful community is that we're, too,
overwhelming and over the top. That it can't be stomached.
- Have I ever been told to tone it down?
I'm sure I have,
but I've always identified as a rapper
who happens to be gay.
My sexuality, just like my race,
I can't expunge that. Like it's very visible.
But that doesn't the eclipse or negate my talent.
- When I put on the hair, its an attention grabber.
And once I grabbed your attention,
and listen to my music,
for me its a way to invite you in.
It's not something that I'm doing to drop jaws.
At the end of the day,
somebody's going to respect it when you have talent.
- So all you can do is listen to our story.
And if you like it, you like it.
And if you don't, you don't.
But, we're past that coming off stage.
- I think it's a privilege
to be able to speak for people
who don't feel like they have a voice,
and it doesn't scare me
because my identity isn't anything I fear.
Like I said, it does not matter to me.
And I move on.
- And I mean,
how many times have you come home from college
and you had to deal with a homophobic uncle?
You pull they asses together
and then you continue to eat your Turkey leg.
That's kind of what hip hop is.
It's like, nobody's perfect.
You have the conversation, have a dialogue.
Either you want to fuck with that person or not.
Life goes on.
- I made a phone call today.
I put A Good Day,
every morning when I wake up in the morning.
♪ I walk around with my confidence on a million. ♪
♪ Don't let it bother me ♪
♪ When the people be trippin'. ♪
♪ Imma have a good day. ♪
I just listen, and I just think.
And like literally as I'm listening to the song,
my whole life just flash before my eyes.
I'm just thinking about the future,
and what how's its probably going to affect me,
and what it probably do for other people.
- And you feel as if the world is trying to take
opportunities away from you,
you do everything in your power to make sure
that you create your own opportunities for yourself.
- For me to be a queer artist that maneuvers through hip hop
and has been labeled as a pioneer,
I think it's great.
It makes me feel like I did something with my life
and with my voice.
- Coming from a boy from Chicago,
trying to be something, I wake up and I really be like,
dang this is really happening.
I'm really doing this.
Because I remember at a time,
where I wished to be in the shoe that I'm in now.
- It's important that like, I have a platform,
and use it.
- [Paparazzi] Angel, Angel.
- We are as, LGBT culture, queer hip hop,
I believe that we're letting people in
because we're more visible.
- No body was going to take away the opportunity
for financial security, for prosperity and,
and for visibility.
- Kidd Kenn is coming,
me kickin', Kenn double n,
and nobody stoppin' him.
- It's an experience
because there's never been anyone like me in hip hop before.
There's never been anyone with the courage to say
the things that bother them.
To, to call out the things,
even speak to the places that I speak to.
- I think that's what kind of helps me trail blaze through.
Is that people see that with me, It's not a gimmick.
I'm just being me. I always tell people, do you.
Somebody's gonna like you. If somebody's gonna fuck with it.
- In 20 years, I believe it's not even going to be an issue.
I believe that it's going to be about just music.
I don't think that, you know,
your sexuality, I don't think that's gonna be a problem.
- We're like the chosen ones in the sun, kind of way,
because we're just so different.
In this time of day anyone, can uh, stand.
But queer artist is going for hip hop game right now.
Like, still unbelievable,
But I got to believe it because I'm living in.
But it's something that I always dreamed about doing
and now I'm doing.
So it feels really, it feels good.
- And we're no longer confined by that prototype
of the 90's, of like, this is what a man is supposed to be
or this is what a woman is supposed to be,
or this is what a they them,
or however you identify as supposed to be.
I think people are just expressing themselves,
which I think is great.
You're only on the planet once.
So do what it is you want to do. You know.
- I feel like we're just stamping the culture.
We're literally everywhere,
we're in t.v.'s, we in movies, we in commercials.
We're here on queer AF.
Like we not going no where.
(outro music)