UPDATE:
Le1f has posted the following response to Lord Jamar’s insult on his Facebook page:
Dear Lord Jamar,
Choose your battles. If the whitening of rap is a concern to you, please leave my name out of it. If you think being gay is the same as being white, you are as ignorant as your enemies. I’m darker than you. I’m african. I’m a black man and I experience all the same racism you do, if not more, on top of homophobia, including from black men just like you. Are you proud of being a hateful member of a majority? Rap started out as a creative response to oppression, and no matter my outfit, I know oppressions you will never understand.
All respect,
Le1f
We previously reported:
Faded 45-year-old rapper Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian is experiencing newfound internet fame as a “hip-hop conservative,” and his newest target is openly gay rapper Le1f and the “feminizing” of the genre.
How about we take this to the next level?
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In a profile in The New Yorker (!), Lord Jamar rails on everything from his stalled career to the exploding popularity of white rappers, but he saves most of his hate for any rappers who don’t fit in with the tightly constructed idea of masculinity that he sees as “real” hip hop.
In an instagram post titled “half a fag,” he criticized a male model walking the runway during fashion week in a skirt, then released a track criticizing Kanye West as “the pioneer of this queer shit.” The profile then references an earlier interview where he went even further with his masc/fem critiques:
“To the average white person, a strong black man is scary. So what do we do? Let’s feminize him, emasculate him, sissify him, to make us feel more comfortable.”
Jamar’s final words on openly gay hip-hopper Le1f? After a video of his recent breakthrough performance on David Letterman was sent to Lord Jamar via twitter from a fan (or provocateur), he responded without missing a beat, tweeting “THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.”
The beginning of what? Openly gay rappers bold enough to be themselves? Men in hip-hop (and elsewhere) feeling free to break from the constraints of traditional masculinity and express themselves in different ways? We sure hope so.
Otherwise what we’ll be left with is a bunch of 45-year-old rappers walking around in fitted caps, throwing peace signs and partying like it’s 1992.
Besides, if it weren’t for gay rappers, we wouldn’t have our 2014 spring anthem.
Cam
Oh yes, because a genre where the top performers are constantly out seen getting manicures and sipping champagne through a straw was SO masculin before.
Secondly, just why is this guy so afraid? Sounds like somebody has something to hide.
Scribe38
@Cam: No he is pissed that he doesn’t have album sales. He is just screaming look at me! Why won’t you look at me!?!
B Damion
Thats ok Lord Jamar. We have the same masculine vs. femm gay issues within the lgbt community.
So who are we to judge how you feel regarding the evolution of Hip-Hop.
RomanHans
@B Damion: “We have the same masculine vs. femm gay issues within the lgbt community.” No, we don’t. Anybody who says fem is bad is an idiot, including “Lord Jamar.” You’re an idiot for another reason.
B Damion
@RomanHans …bitch! it’s the truth.
So are you mad? or nah?
Stefano
I love Le1F response to Lord Jamar.
B Damion
I think that a lot of masculine gays view the femme gays as “making gay people look bad”. Of course, that’s just insecurity (and ignorance) on the part of the masculine gays. The irony is that a lot of so-called “masculine” gays are actually more effeminate than they’d like to admit to their own selves.
I’m just saying…this is the same issue we struggle with within the community as a whole. It’s the truth. I’m not necessarily siding with lord jamar, I’m just saying lets not judge him too harshly.
Stefano
@B Damion : honnn what a nice thing to do. That is so Christian. LOL
B Damion
Hhhhhh..forget it.
manonyme
WHO IS HE, AGAIN? Lord Jafar, Jamiroquai’s cousin twice removed?? If he were able to ponder the logic, he would know that if he calls himself a H H conservative (WTF is that anyway?), then there are liberals, too. That is the very definition of d i v e r s i t y. (numbnuts)
A) he can’t possibly speak for an E N T I R E category of music…
B) These inane proclamations made in the name of his art highlight his lack of intellect – Music is an entity that changes and evolves…but whatever existed prior to this perceived “feminizing of the genre” – actually still exists! And it can be enjoyed in perpetuity…
Le1f’s music is U N A P O L O G E T I C! (and that’s by design) I love that when one sees his act,it’s undeniable that he’s living H I S life and truth. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t give two F***S about Mr. Jabarri or whatever.
I’m all for discourse on an issue, but he’s no intellectual from whom any wisdom could be gleaned. . .
Kangol
Lord Jamar is desperate for attention because no one is paying attention to him.
He went after Omar Epps for wearing “French” pants, the kind with the skirt-like front, and said he was “feminizing” black men.
He’s now going after Le1f, who’s music is fresh and appealing, but Le1f read thing for points.
Lord Jamar needs to crawl back under the rock of anonymity he came out from. Oops, he hasn’t come out yet. But all that gay panic points to real fears about anything challenging his warped, fearful notion of “masculinity.”
(And he was running around nude on “Oz,” one of the gayest shows ever on TV. The screen clips are out there, with a little searching.)
manonyme
@Kangol: OH MY GOD, Becky…You say he was on O Z?? That was a bona-fide sausage fest…running around naked all the time! Well, that gives him a modicum of relevance . . .if it were the mid-90s, of course. Thought he was a washed-up Hype-Man for Wu-Tang or smthng.
Plus, has he ever been to Southeast Asia? Sorry, but it’s called a Sari – not a skirt. Then there’s the Scots…Mmmm and their kilts!
I wondered what gave/gives him the feeling he’s an official spokesperson or Oracle for blacks and Rap. I’ve been a fan of Rap since Sugar Hill on Soul Train and never heard of Hakuna-Matata or Jabarri – Whoever!
Will this segment of ‘my people’ ever see that they are perpetuating the same behavior they despise in their nemesis? Of course not, their angst and frustration stems from the pain in their bloody knuckles dragging the ground…They haven’t yet stood up and evolved with the rest of civilization. Maybe let’s not ‘pass him the mic’ next time.
Cam
I think also, that when the butch v. Fem arguments spring up on here are people REALLY going after “Fem” or are they going after “Obnoxious”?
There is a HUGE difference between a nice guy who happens to be stereotypically feminine, and somebody like that attention starved narcissist on “Drag Race” Laganga Estranga.
A feminine guy who is funny, smart, a good kisser good in bed etc…. Hey, sounds good to me.
Whereas needy and obnoxious screaming “Look At Me” whether it is from a pumped up pseudo masculine attention whore, or a screaming drama queen is irritating no matter who it is.
Drew2U
Yes, Lord Jamar–I will have fries with my order.
B Damion
@cam…Those are excellent points.