The hip hop industry
has never been known as a welcoming place for members of the LGBT community,
but it looks like things are starting to change.
Kanye West was the first artist to really speak out publicly against homophobia in rap,
telling fellow rappers and audiences, “just stop it, fam. Seriously,
that’s really discrimination.”
The rise of queer hip hop and several artists coming out in the last few years
has made the rap community more accepting of those who identify as LGBT.
So just which rappers have come out as gay?
Let’s have a look!
Frank Ocean
On July 4, 2012, rapper Frank Ocean published an open letter on Tumblr,
talking about his first love when he was 19 years old.
Fans were surprised to read that the target of his love was another young man.
At the end of the letter, he said,
“I don’t know what happens now, and that’s alright.
I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore…I feel like a free man.”
He’s come a long way from when he first realized he was gay as a child.
He said in an essay in 2016 that he first experienced homophobia from his father.
That statement got him in some hot water when his dad sued him for defamation a year later,
seeking millions of dollars as payback.
The “channel ORANGE” artist didn’t let that bring him down, though.
He won the suit and has continued to put out new music.
In April of 2019, he even admitted that he has been in a long-term relationship.
Le1f
Le1f started out as a producer in Brooklyn
but eventually got into rapping when he released his debut mixtape Dark York in 2012.
Growing up in New York, he was exposed to unique music, fashion, and people,
and he studied ballet at the Dance Theater of Harlem.
He luckily grew up surrounded by communities that were welcoming to him
when he came out as gay.
After his debut tape was released, he kept putting out music consistently
and was even featured on songs with other LGBT artists like Mykki Blanco.
But the rapper really started making headlines
when there was some beef between him and fellow artist Macklemore.
Not only did he claim that Macklemore ripped off the beat from “Wut,”
but he also accused him of being a fake ally to the LGBT community.
Le1f called Macklemore’s song “Same Love,”
inappropriate exploitation of LGBT issues for his financial gain.
He spoke out, saying, “gay people don’t care about your video about gay people.”
And Le1f knows what he’s talking about –
he’s one of the most commercially successful gay rappers to hit the studio.
Taylor Bennett
Taylor Bennett may have started off being known as Chance the Rapper’s little brother,
but at age 24, he’s already starting to make a name for himself.
He took inspiration from artists like Twista, Nas, and Kendrick Lamar
and worked hard to build his own fanbase
and not relying on his older brother for the promotion of his work.
He surprised fans a bit on January 18, 2017, when he tweeted about his sexuality.
Just days before his 21st birthday, he said:
“Moving into next year,
I’d like to be more open about myself to help others that struggle with the same issues…
I would like to openly come out to my fans.
I do recognize myself as a bisexual male
and do and have always openly supported the gay community
and will keep doing so in 2017.”
Chance showed nothing but support for his brother, announcing,
“He’s got God and me behind him, he cannot fail.”
ILoveMakonnen
The 31-year-old Atlanta-based rapper
rose to fame when his song “Tuesday” was remixed by hip-hop powerhouse Drake.
His entrance to the industry was a strange series of events:
the rapper starting put his songs onto MySpace, met Adele there,
interviewed Soulja Boy, got out on house arrest,
and enrolled in cosmetology school before getting with a producer to start putting out serious music.
ILoveMakkonnen was already a star in the business when he came out as gay
on his official Twitter account on January 20, 2017,
just two days after Taylor Bennett.
The tweet read: “As a fashion icon,
I can’t tell u about everybody else’s closet,
I can only tell u about mine,
and it’s time I’ve come out.
And since y’all love breaking news,
here’s some old news to break.
I’m gay. And now I’ve told u about my life,
maybe u can go [live] yours.”
Zebra Katz
Like ballet-dancing rapper Le1f,
Zebra Katz was also influenced by the underground LGBT scene in New York,
especially Harlem ball culture.
As part of the first real wave of queer hip hop in the 2010s,
Zebra Katz’s presence in the underground scene
launched his music to take a stand in fashion, too.
Designer Rick Owens used the song “Ima Read”
as the soundtrack to his 2012 Paris Fashion Week show.
But before he was Zebra Katz, the voguing rapper,
he was Ojay Morgan, catering manager.
He developed the character of Zebra Katz in 2007
as part of a senior project at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts.
There was no real surprising “coming out” moment for this rapper
since he entered the industry as an androgynous gay man to begin with.
Syd the Kyd
This former member of the hip-hop collective Odd Future
has received praise from successful artists in the industry, like Beyonce and Pharrell Williams,
and has even opened for Eminem.
Her first solo single, “All About Me,” was a big hit in 2017.
Her coming out, though, happened a lot earlier,
back when she was with the band, The Internet.
In 2011, they released a video for the song “Cocaine”
that featured Syd on a carnival date with a girl.
This was the first time she had gone public with her sexuality and said,
“I decided to do it because I wish I had someone like that while I was coming up.”
She does make it clear that while she’s accepted herself,
she doesn’t want her sexuality to define her career and even hates to use the word lesbian.
Mykki Blanco
Mykki Blanco has been one of the premier rappers in the industry for years.
Born Michael David Quattlebaum, Jr,
she identifies as transgender and disagrees with those that call her a drag artist.
She’s resisted the term “gay rapper”
but has also said that it’s likely the best term for her place in queer hip hop.
It wasn’t the revelation that she was part of the LGBT community that shocked fans,
but rather her 2015 announcement that she was HIV positive.
She worried it would hurt her career but says, “I did it for myself. At a certain point,
my real life has to be more important than this career.”
Because she thought fans would hate her after the announcement,
she had made plans to become an investigative journalist to encourage
discussion around LGBT issues.
When it looked like her audience was standing with her, and she had support in the industry,
she stuck with making music.
Lil Nas X
One of the latest rappers to come out as gay,
Lil Nas X also seemed to face a bit of pushback from his coming out.
The “Old Town Road” singer is known for being a nice guy in hip hop
and gained a lot of wholesome attention when he performed his breakout 2019 hit
in front of a gym full of elementary school kids.
On the last day of pride month in 2019,
Nas tweeted out an announcement addressing the speculation about his sexuality.
He said: “Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care…
but before this month ends, I want y’all to listen closely to c7osure.”
He even pointed out the subtle rainbow in the cover art from his 7 EP.
Fans weren’t too happy,
but Nas hoped they would feel more comfortable as time went on.
In the last year, he’s been enjoying fashion and modeling,
so it’s safe to say that he doesn’t care about anyone’s homophobic comments.
Tyler the Creator
For a long time,
Tyler The Creator was well-known for his anti-gay lyrics.
He’s long been a fan of the LGBT-hating-f-word
and uses it hundreds of times in a single album.
He stood by his lyrical choice and didn’t care if people were offended.
It was surprising for many fans to see a ton of hints that Tyler was actually gay himself.
In 2014, Larry King asked if he thought there would ever be a gay rap artist
(which, sorry Larry, there had already been several by 2014!),
and Tyler hit back with “why does that matter? Why do we care?”
A year later, he tweeted, “I tried to come out the damn closet like four days ago,
and no one cared!”
In 2016, he shut down a rumor that he and Kendall Jenner were dating, saying
“not possible, we’re both gay.”
That summer,
he posted a drawing he made that shows a rainbow- -colored person peeking out of a closet, thinking,
“Is it safe?”
He even rapped in 2017’s “I Ain’t Got Time” that he’s been “kissing white boys since 2004.”
Leaders in the industry hope that Tyler’s fans will come around to being more accepting
since he’s dropped the homophobic lyrics from his songs.
Well, that’s all for today!
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