YES AND/OR NO HOMO

Lil B, Un-Gay Rapper, Releases CD Titled I’m Gay Thinks You’re Just Swell, Receives Death Threats, Shrugs Them Off.

West Coast rapper Lil B has a new record. It’s called I’m Gay (I’m Happy). And no, he’s not gay. He just wants to prove, as he said recently at Coachella, that “words don’t mean shit.”

Of course, they do too mean shit. But he just masterfully pulled a vintage punk rock stunt and confused the conversation about cheeky marketing ploys versus having a real agenda for change. And ultimately the correct answer to the confusion is most likely “all of the above” because now he gets to cause trouble and make you learn his name and sell that product all at once. And he’s doing so not by the same old hip hop means of getting arrested for carrying a concealed weapon or calling another rapper a faggot, but by bucking hip hop convention. This, as you might imagine, annoys some of his more literal-minded fans.

Not that the man cares.

“I’m not gonna stop and I’m not scared of anybody on earth,” he was quoted as saying to MTV News. “That’s why I [titled the album I’m Gay] and nobody gonna stop me.”

More:

“I’m very gay, but I love women. I’m not attracted to men in any way. I’ve never been attracted to a man in my life. But yes I am gay, I’m so happy,” he said. “I’m a gay, heterosexual male.”

“I got major love for the gay and lesbian community, and I just want to push less separation and that’s why I’m doing it.”

“A lot of my supporters have turned on me. It’s been a few supporters that’s saying, ‘I’m not gonna rock with you anymore. That’s fine, because you know what? They didn’t love me for real anyway.”

“One-hundred years later, people gonna thank me, because people are going to be free. And that’s the main thing. Even if it’s one percent of the people that listen to me and are gonna be free, that’s better than none. That’s better than not speaking up at all … and I spoke up and I did it.”

Now let’s see Lil B really go for it and take a nonconformist, gender-rebellious “Sissy Bounce” (the New Orleans-based version of freaky gay hip hop) artist like  Big Freedia on tour as an opening act. Or any number of other queer MCs like Last Offence (one of a handful mentioned here). That would be excellent.

Meanwhile, representing the East Coast, hip-hop legend Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. is on his own anti-homophobia crusade and has just participated in a video shoot for the NO H8 Campaign.

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