To say that hip-hop has enjoyed an uneasy relationship with homosexuality would be an understatement. Since time immemorial, from Chuck D ("From what I know/the parts don't fit") through Brand Nubian ("Don't understand their ways/And I ain't down with gays") to Eminem ("Hate fags? The answer's yes!"), some otherwise venerable artists have ideologically foot-faulted when it comes to gay people. All the while, the hip-hop world has been awash with rumours about which major artists (of whom there statistically must be some) swing that way, but still nobody has uncloseted themselves.
And yet, as 2011 heads into the final strait it seems rap is finally coming to terms with the notion that you can be hip-hop without being homophobic. The Game (who commented: "Who should run the world? Gays. They're everywhere and rightly so") and Fat Joe have unexpectedly advocated acceptance, the latter going further than simply throwing his arms wide open to show the love. "The hip-hop community is most likely owned by gays," he recently stated. "There's a gay mafia in hip-hop. Editorial presidents of magazines, the programme directors at radio stations, the people who give you awards at award shows. If you're gay, rep your set."
There is an obvious financial imperative to courting the pink pound in this way, but Berkeley rapper Lil' B raised the bar by naming his summer-released album I'm Gay in an avowed nod to the LGBT community.
At least one established hip-hop act seemed to struggle with Lil' B's concept, with DMX's considered response being: "Little B? Little Bitch? There's power in words but don't go over there!" Eventually the album got an added parenthesis of (I'm Happy) when the rapper started receiving death threats. Well, nobody ever said it was going to be easy. But 2011 still has cross-dressing artists such as Lil Wayne and Texas's lipstick-and-tights-wearing Dphillgood, or the UK's straight but outrageously camp battle MC Pamflit, muddying the gender waters agreeably.
Back in 2005, no less a man than Kanye West, one of whose cousins is gay, went on record as saying: "Everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gays. I want to tell my rappers, my friends, 'Yo, stop it.'" It has taken a while, but his message may be getting through.
