"Your dress don't give away whether or not you like a man," Kanye West explained this week, prompting a discussion of homosexuality and fashion.
The rapper was replying to those who have criticised his dress sense – hip-hop loudmouths who have tried to "label" him as gay, including a recent homophobic diss by 50 Cent. West shrugged off the comments, saying that he was "authentic", "natural" and "confident with [his] manhood", and criticised some of his peers for being uncomfortable with gay people.
"People are so gay-conscious now," he told MTV, referring to those who are "scared" of gay people, or of being perceived as gay. "That's like the whole thing like with the internet – every day [is like], 'Oh I can tell he gay now!' But back in the day, people used to have songs like Get In That Ass or something like that. Someone would never make a song like that [today] because they'd be like 'Whoa! I can't make no song like that! People gonna call me gay!'"
Though West's comments are refreshing – it is rare to hear a hip-hop star discussing homosexuality so openly – his ideas about gay stereotypes are perhaps a little misguided at times.
"Because stereotypically gay people got such good [style] ... they were smart enough to take a fresh-ass logo like the rainbow and say that it's gonna be theirs," he said, celebrating the beauty of the red-and-yellow-and-pink-and-blue. "I've been collecting all of the freshest stuff that's rainbows – Denver Nuggets jerseys, BAPE shoes, Nikes with rainbows on 'em – and saying, 'Man, I think as straight men we need to take the rainbow back because it's fresh.'"
"I mean how is that a gay thing? Colours? Having a lot of colours is gay?"
West used to be scared of gay people, he said, but now, "authentic" and "secure in [his] manhood", he can "go to Paris [and] have conversations with people who are blatantly gay".
Not only that, but West regrets having once said that "gays really know how to dress".
"That's when I was ignorant to gays," he said in this week's interview. "Because there's a lot of gay people who don't dress good at all. There's a lot of gay people that I dress way better than."
