LOVE TO HATE YOU

The Lauryn Hill Syndrome: We Rate The Antigay Lyrics Of Other Musicians

By GREG OWEN June 12, 2013 at 5:24pm

Lauryn-Hill

So Lauryn Hill is bankrupt and put out a lousy last minute effort to bring in cash that’s been panned and yeah it’s full of confusing lyrics that have to be decoded but not so much that lots of people think her rant comparing “girl men” to “serial criminals” is pretty much straight-up homophobic. She’s bending over backwards to explain herself out of the controversy, but at some point you’re just like “blah blah blah” and tune out, ‘cause who really gives a shit about your explanation. You broke it, you own it. Bitch, please. Anyway, that’s the predictable course for a lot of these offensive lyrics stories. Song drops, lyrics offend, artist explains. Just how offensive are they, though, on the face of it? On the following pages you can be the judge, serial criminal.
1. Katy Perry, “Ur So Gay,” 2007 “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf / While jacking off listening to Mozart / You bitch and moan about L.A. / Wishing you were in the rain reading Hemingway / You don’t eat meat / And drive electrical cars /You’re so indie rock it’s almost an art / You need SPF 45 just to stay alive / You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys.” She broke up with the guy she’s writing about and she was upset! 3/10 offensive.
2. Lil Wayne, “Georgia Bush,” 2006 “Got money out the ass / No homo but I’m rich.” This song was about dogging George Bush post-Katrina, so points for Wayne there. Plus, “no homo” is so politically incorrect that it’s funny, and the guy is way more scared of people thinking he’s gay (cause look at him) than he is actually hating on the gays. 4/10 offensive
3. Britney Spears “If U Seek Amy,” 2009 The title is supposed to phonetically spell out “Fuck Me” or alternately “If You See Gay Me.” This level of subtext for Spears was a revelation. 0/10 offensive, 10/10 delightful
4. Eminem “Elevator,” 2009 “Sorry Lance, Mr. Lambert, and Aiken / Ain’t gonna make it / They get so mad / When I call them both fake its.” Totally hilarious and 9/10 offensive.
5. Beenie Man, “Damn,” 2006 “Well I’m think of a new Jamaica, me come to execute all of the gays.” Nothing funny about this lyric or “murder music” in general. After many of his concerts were boycotted by LGBT activists, Beenie released a video statement (above) offer his attempt at an apology. 10/10 offensive.
6. Brad Paisley, “I’m Still a Guy,” 2008 “Well love makes a man do some things he ain’t proud of / And in a weak moment I might walk your sissy dog, hold your purse at the mall / But remember, I’m still a guy /…/ These days there’s dudes getting facials / Manicured, waxed and botoxed / With deep spray-on tans and creamy lotiony hands / You can’t grip a tacklebox / With all of these men lining up to get neutered / It’s hip now to be feminized / I don’t highlight my hair / I’ve still got a pair / Yeah honey, I’m still a guy” In this song Paisley is banging on metrosexuals, not homosexuals, and plenty of “no cologne” gays would prolly agree. 2/10 offensive
7. Bruce Springsteen, “Incident on 57th Street,” 1973 “…all them golden-heeled fairies in a real bitch fight.” Springsteen is a poet, and that’s a great line. 0/10 offensive.
8. Goodie MOB, “Fly Away,” 1998 “Ain’t no due process/For boys that become girls or verse vica/Field n—as control this/Pin the hollow point tip on this gay rights activist…” Straight-up, murderously homophobic. 10/10 offensive
9. Common, “Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For the World),” 2000 “You couldn’t hang if you was a poster/Posin like a bitch for exposure/It’s rumors of gay MC’s, just don’t come around me wit it/You still rockin’ hickies — don’t let me find out he did it …” Or what are you gonna do, Common? Whatever. 8/10 offensive
10. Immortal Technique, “Natural Beauty,” 2011 “And men who don’t even like women control the business / That’s why the women look like men and the men look like bitches …” Ignorant, but he might have a point. Unfortunately, that album art with the AR knocks him back up the scale. 7/10 offensive
11. Saigon, “Our Babies 2 (It’s a Crazy World),” 2012 “Look, the other day/I seen a girl acting like a boy/Then I seen a little boy acting like a girl / People try to tell me it’s just a way of the world!/It’s a crazy world!” True that. 2/10 offensive
12. Brand Nubian, “Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down,” 1992 “Oh yes, I’m the bad man, and the bad men wear black/And if it comes to droppin’ bombs, yo—I’m with that/Though I can freak, fly, flow, fuck up a faggot/Don’t understand their ways/I ain’t down with gays …” Asshole. 10/10 offensive

13. Mos Def and Talib Kweli, “RE: Definition,” 1998

“Cats who claimin’ they hard be mad fag/So I run through ‘em like flood water through sandbags…”

Not that it’s an excuse, but Mos Def was young when this came out, (before his solo breakthrough Black on Both Sides in 1999) and he’s done a lot of good work since and is socially active and all, and he can act! Using “fag” or “gay” this way in 2013 would just be tone-deaf and we don’t expect he would.

But still: 7/10 offensive

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17 Comments*

  • heybudletsparty

    Most of these offensive lyrics come from black “musicians”. Hmmm, wonder why….

  • Bonju

    Yo Black people – you got a lot of black gay people among you – open and in the closet. Th The peeps in the closet are called “men on the down low”. Your expression. Not mine.
    So here’s my thought – Lauren Hill is gay and always has been. Her career is in the
    toilet ’cause of her own making. I always thought she was hot but apparently she is
    also a stooge.

    Lastly, I’m sick of all these black musicians who are down on the gay community. They
    can kiss my white gay lesbian asshole after I eliminated.

  • Caleb in SC

    The article said it best: “Bitch, please!”

  • rcs831

    It’s really amazing how if you are a black musician (I use musician loosely) it’s totally okay to be homophobic and say whatever you want about anyone. Why is there such a double standard in that way. It seems if any community can relate to being oppressed it’s the black community yet the black are essentially responsible for the gay marriage ban in Ca. besides the mormans. How does anyone being gay hurt the blacks? Whats the issue?

  • cheshyre76

    There is pleanty of homophobia in the white music community too.
    Dire Straits “Money For Nothin”
    See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup/Yeah buddy thats his own hair
    That little faggot got his own jet airplane/That little faggot hes a millionaire

    Guns N’ Roses “One in a Million”
    Immigrants and faggots/They make no sense to me/They come to our country
    And think they’ll do as they please/Like start some mini Iran,/Or spread some fuckin’ disease.

    As well as guttermouth-“big pink dress” descendents-“hetero” bad brains-“don’t blow bubbles”

  • hamoboy

    The distinction is between singers and rappers, not white musicians and black musicians, but if that’s what you first noticed, it says more about the way you see the world than anything else. Eminem has said much more homophobic things, in fact, so have several other rappers. It seems like queerty only bothered to complain about rappers who aren’t every popular right now, they didn’t set their sight

  • hamoboy

    WTF is up with this site? The last line is supposed to read “It seems like queerty only bother to complain about rappers who aren’t even popular right now, they didn’t set their sights on any of the big boys and girls”.

  • zrocqs

    @heybudletsparty: @Bonju: & @rcs831: Your anger is misplaced. There are two reliable demographic predictors of anti-Gay bigotry: age and frequency of church attendance. Most old folks just can’t seem to adjust (bless their hearts). And most people who attend church weekly or more often worry about their immortal souls. They’ve been taught that they must be anti-Gay for fear of spending eternity away from God.
    Race is NOT a reliable predictor. A greater percentage of African-Americans are frequent church-goers vs white people, but if you re-weight the polling data sets to balance church attendance, support for equality also balances.
    So stop blaming “the blacks”.

  • hamoboy

    @zrocqs: I think also poverty and low education levels are additionally, good predictors of homophobic behaviour.

  • Tackle

    So Queert makes a Black women the face of antigay lyrics/music. And I would question why it’s even called the Lauryn Hill syndrome. Like she invented antigay lyrics/music. As I clicked through all 14, I noticed that many White musicians did antigay lyrics before Lauryn did. And given her mental state. And considering how unstable she is and have been, 15-yrs plus. I would question if she’s a good example to use and make as a poster child for antigay anything.Do we really know if she knows or understand what she’s doing?? And about her bending over backwards and trying to explane herself. Yes I seen that statment. I don’t believe she even wrote that statement. I believe management or someone else wrote that and are trying to smooth things over. She’s too far out there to be that detailed & concise.
    And @Bonju: what about all the White muscians who are down on the gay community. Do they also kiss your dirty asshole??

  • Carl

    @rcs831

    This gay urban legend that black people are responsible for Prop 8 is tired. Black people make up 6% of California’s population and the plurality of the jail population. Obama’s presidential campaign cannot change the demographics. The other 94% of the population is responsible for passing of Prop 8.

  • balehead

    Considering how many white gays treat blacks as nothing more that second class sex slaves…I’m not surprised they would be this upset…

  • balehead

    So white gays can’t be uneducated or live in poverty?…..

  • tdx3fan

    @Bonju: On the Down Low is not about gay closet cases. It has nothing to do with being gay at all. It has to do with perfectly heterosexual men that like to fuck, get fucked, suck and get sucked by other dudes. They are still straight and identify as such. They just like male on male sex. Since being gay has so extremely little to do with actual sex (and instead is about emotional attachment), these men are not gay.

  • Bee Gaga

    @Bonju: Girl get over it

  • Bee Gaga

    @rcs831: Yes 7% of the california population voting mostly in opposition to gay marriage is the SOLE reason that didn’t pass, girl please you sound ridiculous point the fingers at your own damn community those other 80+ percent of the population.

  • LadyL

    Last time I looked, country music–which is overwhelmingly white–wasn’t too gay-friendly, either.
    That said, yeah there is a LOT of homophobic attitude among black people; I deal with it every day. As some have pointed out, it is largely driven by poor education, poverty, and the Black Church’s dominance of everyday black life. I would add to that a further complexity: the understanding that to be Black is to embrace certain belief systems and attitudes as a measure of identity and community–“keeping it real.”
    THAT said, nuance matters.
    When I come out to black neighbors or coworkers, most of them react with surpise and curiosity. Some are hostile, but some are anything but. They soften their stance, apologize for any offense given, and ask a lot of questions, receptive to the possibility that their notions of gay are based in stereotypes and misogyny. Some acknowledge gay relatives or admit to sexual experimentation in their own lives, and are actually relieved to be able to explore the subject more freely and honestly.

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