The world of hip-hop isn't exactly known as the most welcoming place for the LGBTQ community.
The genre has a history of making queerness a punchline, but thankfully, the scene is
evolving.
Let's take a closer look at the stories of rappers who've come out as gay.
Frank Ocean
Odd Future has long been criticized for its homophobic lyrics, so much so that the band
was booted from Australia's massive Big Day Out festival in 2011, according to Billboard.
That made it all the more shocking when, the following year, Odd Future member Frank Ocean
publicly came out in a statement posted to his Tumblr account.
According to NPR, Ocean posted the message after a journalist who was at a listening
party for his then-upcoming album Channel Orange claimed that some of his songs involved
male love interests.
In Ocean's letter, which was originally meant to be included in the Channel Orange liner
notes, the rapper spoke about having his first gay romance at the age of 19.
It was unrequited love at its most heartbreaking.
He was ultimately rejected after their fling.
He wrote,
"Some things never are.
And we were.
I won't forget you.
I won't forget the summer.
I'll remember who I was when I met you...I feel like a free man.
If I listen closely...I can hear the sky falling too."
Syd
Since her tenure with Odd Future, Syd, previously known as Syd tha Kid, has received a Grammy
nomination and major praise from massive artists such as Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams, according
to The Guardian.
She also made the brave step of publicly coming out before her bandmate, Frank Ocean, released
his Tumblr letter.
According to LA Weekly, Syd came out through the video for "Cocaine."
She told LA Weekly,
"I decided to do it because I wish I had someone like that [an openly gay female artist] while
I was coming up.
People write on my Tumblr just thanking me for making the video, saying that I really
inspire them, and they want to be like me.
But I wasn't always this way, this comfortable with myself, and I remember what that was
like."
Nonetheless, the Odd Future DJ wasn't exactly accepted into the gay community, particularly
considering Odd Future's controversial history.
The group's tracks were so vulgar that, according to The Guardian, Syd's parents temporarily
kicked her out of the house when they first gave it a listen.
Though the backlash from the LGBTQ community hurt her feelings, she said it did make her
think more deeply about her art.
Syd has since left Odd Future in her past.
Big Freedia
Big Freedia was already making waves in her New Orleans hometown, collaborating with everyone
from RuPaul to Diplo and scoring her own Fuse show Big Freedia Bounces Back.
However, her notoriety skyrocketed to the next level when she got a life-changing call
from Beyoncé's publicist.
Big Freedia told Vice she, quote, "died in [her] own skin right then and there," so when
Beyonce called her personally, she likely died a second time.
Big Freedia lent her voice to Beyoncé's infamous spoken-word interlude on "Formation."
Big Freedia might be best known for her music and bombastic personality, but she's also
known for her unapologetically outspoken advocacy for LGBTQ rights.
She told the Advocate she considers herself a, quote, "voice for a lot of people who really
don't have a voice."
In 2018, she shared her touching coming out story in a "Backseat Heat" segment on The
Wendy Williams Show.
During one of her birthday parties with all of her friends around her to support her,
she decided to tell her mother she was gay.
"And when I told her, she said, 'Mama already know, baby.'"
"Okay."
"She already knew.
That was my backbone, baby."
Taylor Bennett
Chance the Rapper isn't the only talent in his bloodline.
The star's younger brother, Taylor Bennett, made waves in the hip hop world with his projects
Broad Shoulders and Restoration of an American Idol; his Billboard charting single "New World"
with EDM rockers Krewella; and his 2018 Young Thug collaboration "Better Than You Ever Been."
In 2017, the same year his Krewella hit climbed the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs charts, Bennett
came out as bisexual.
He opened up about his sexuality in a tweet, admitting to Rolling Stone that it was surprising
that some of his followers actually thought his account had been hacked.
This gave Bennett the chance to walk back on his comment, which he contemplated for
about 5 or 10 minutes before experiencing an outpouring of love from his fanbase that
prompted him to push forward.
He explained,
"I decided to come out before my 21st birthday because I felt like I was going to be a man
and not just a man, a grown-ass man.
I had felt like I wanted to say who I was and I was so tired of listening to everybody
else.
It's the one point of my life that I just decided to be myself."
Kevin Abstract
Brockhampton, the 15-member rap collective and self-described boy band, has taken the
internet by storm with its D.I.Y. ethics.
Its members are truly a product of the internet age and, according to Forbes, spawned from
the depths of a Kanye West message board.
Since then, they've reportedly landed a Viceland documentary, a Number 1 debut on the Billboard
200, and a multi-million record deal with RCA, which frontman Kevin Abstract claimed
was going to help them push their, quote, "gay agenda."
The star, whose real name is Ian Simpson, has been open about his sexuality to the group's
fervent fanbase, but that wasn't always the case.
In 2012, Abstract read Frank Ocean's famous coming-out letter on Tumblr.
He was just 16 years old and had recently had his first experience with a man.
Though the rapper wouldn't openly discuss his sexuality until a couple of years later,
the star told Fader that Ocean's letter "saved" him.
Today, he hopes to normalize his sexuality by singing about it.
He told ShortList,
"I'd see negative comments and forget [being gay] was a big deal to some people, that some
people hadn't heard it before.
My goal is just to normalize it.
Straight rappers talk about their sexual relationships without warning me.
And they are more explicit and violent.
I have to express myself and who I am."
iLoveMakonnen
Makonnen Sheran, known by the pseudonym iLoveMakonnen, rose to fame when his single "Tuesday" became
a Top 20 hit after Drake crafted an epic remix.
The Canadian rapper subsequently signed the up-and-comer to his O.V.O.
Sound label, but according to iHeartRadio, iLoveMakonnen didn't start out on top.
The rapper initially crafted his songs with a keyboard and a broken Gateway computer,
yet still managed to capture the attention of designer Alexander Wang, who put him in
the brand's spring/summer 2016 campaign.
Sheran has since parted ways with Drake, who helped him nab a Grammy nomination, but he
made an even bigger impact on his own when he came out as gay on Twitter in 2017.
According to i-D, iLoveMakonnen said in a since-deleted series of tweets:
"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."
"I was gonna go ahead and man up and be a pioneer for the kids, give them something
real to see instead of all this fakery and s---."
The star's tweets were mostly met with support from his fans and, of course, a couple of
jokes about why he didn't reveal the news on a Tuesday.
Azealia Banks
Azealia Banks is one controversial woman.
"Maybe there's rebelliousness in me.
No, you will not box me in, you will not quiet me, so I'll say even more crazy s---."
The rapper has had a feud with countless A-listers, from Lana Del Rey to Russell Crowe.
One could argue that the realization that Banks has been practicing witchcraft in a
blood-stained room for half a decade, according to People magazine, is far more newsworthy
than the fact that Banks doesn't consider herself straight.
Banks is an out and proud bisexual, and has been for years.
The star publicly addressed it in a 2012 interview with The New York Times, noting,
"[I'm] not trying to be, like, the bisexual lesbian rapper."
She discussed it again in a Rolling Stone interview later that year.
By 2015, the rapper felt like people still didn't get the hint and took to Twitter to
air her grievances following an onslaught of accusations claiming she was homophobic.
According to Billboard, she wrote,
"It's really tiring having explain myself to people I'm not even talking to.
Because of course I don't wanna piss off my fans...Just give the Azealia Banks is a homophobe
thing a rest because I'm not.
I have a transgender sibling.
My whole life is gay.
All of my friends are gay, I am bisexual…So please…Stop."
Zebra Katz
Zebra Katz, the alter ego of rapper Ojay Morgan, has become somewhat of a poster child for
the queer rap movement.
In 2012, he skyrocketed to fame when his song "Ima Read" was chosen for Rick Owens' Paris
fashion week show.
What most people don't know is that, according to The Guardian, the single was a tribute
to New York's ballroom scene, as depicted in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning,
and all the "voguing" and "drag culture" that came with it.
Morgan actually developed his Zebra Katz persona because he felt like rap needed a, quote,
"strong, black, other, queer male."
He told Independent,
"There are a lot of rappers who can't come out and say they are queer and are sleeping
with people of the same sex.
You don't have a large number of hip-hop artists who state they are queer and proud.
That's what is most jarring to me.
It's kind of sad that those few who do come out get so much attention because they are
gay, rather than because of their music."
Mykki Blanco
Mykki Blanco told Plus that his father knew he was gay since age 3, but when the artist
came out to the public in 2015, he also revealed that he was HIV positive.
According to Plus, Blanco is the, quote, "only living rapper who acknowledges having the
virus."
Blanco came out on Facebook during Pride Month.
He initially held back the information because he was worried it would ruin his rap career,
noting that he planned to come out when he was around 40 years old or after he had made
millions.
But something prompted Blanco to change his plans and come out sooner.
He told Plus,
"I did it on this whole emotional whim.
But I think afterwards, when Newsweek and Time magazine, who have never heard of me
before, are writing about it, I'm like, 'Oh, wait, maybe it's been a while since someone's
done this.'"
Lil Nas X
Lil Nas X won over everyone with "Old Town Road," the most streamed song of 2019 as of
July.
Then he hit fans in the feels again when he performed to a gymnasium of screaming elementary
school children, but he really tugged at heartstrings when he came out on the very last day of Pride
Month in 2019.
The rapper revealed the news in a tweet following weeks of online speculation, saying,
"Some of y'all already know, some of y'all don't care, some of y'all not gone [f--- with
me] no more, but before this month ends I want y'all to listen closely to c7osure."
"C7osure" is a track from his 7 EP, and while it doesn't confirm his sexuality, it does
hint at someone finally being true to their identity.
The rapper later clarified that he, quote, "thought [he] made it obvious" when he worked
a rainbow into his EP's cover art.
Unfortunately, Lil Nas X did get some backlash after coming out so publicly.
"I'm not angry or anything 'cause it's like I understand how they just want that reaction
but I'm just gonna joke back with them."
He admitted to BBC Breakfast that he didn't feel like homosexuality was accepted in either
the country or hip-hop communities, but he hoped his decision to come out would help
those fans who struggle with similar issues.
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