Coleman & Jackson Vrana are Elephant, a punk-infused hip-hop duo who make their home and music in a cozy house in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles. The gay identical twins share their pad with Coyote, a noisy, smelly pet pig whom they suspect is gay. Naturally.
But while their home life sounds fun, it’s the twins’ cutting-edge sound that’s getting noticed by music lovers looking for something different from bubblegum tracks by Gaga, Katy and Brit. Elephant’s song “Queer Nation” might need three parental advisory stickers on it—what with lines like, “Wrap your lips around my anal impaler”—but these boys aren’t offering any apologies. They’re turning hip-hop upside-down and having a blast pushing the envelope.
See the “Queer Nation” video below and listen to our chat with the guys below that. And, yup, it includes the dirty but inevitable question, “Do you guys ever get it on?” (Yeah, I went there, but asked it tongue-in-cheek.)
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Scott Wallis is the co-host of the Queerty/GayCities-sponsored Swish Edition comedy & interview talk show. He always, ALWAYS wanted a twin brother of his own but he can’t sing worth a damn.
Photos via Elephant
Allen D.
As odd as it sounds… Hearing “faggot” in this context makes me further understand why most African Americans don’t mind the ‘n’ word in rap music. It does make (this gay anyway) feel oddly empowered.
lambillio
awesome!
j
This is woeful. 🙁 I don’t care what anyone says, rap isn’t “rhythm and poetry” (poetry obviously has rhythm anyhow which shows just how much of it “rappers” read) and lines like “wrap your lips around my anal impaler” prove it. God fking forbid someone should “rap” about anything intelligent.
@Allen D.: No one should use that word, these two included. You can all take your “odd empowerment” and this song as far away from me as possible.
/bitterrant
Lit major
@j: Actually, since the early 1900’s, poetry has often lacked rhythm. Rap and *spoken* poetry share a lot of distinctive similarities. And there is obviously intelligent rap — any rap that isn’t intelligent is that way because it’s popular, not because it’s rap. I think you’d have to be racist to deny it.
Kaderade
I LOVE Elephant. I’ve been watching these guys for a while. Wish em luck. I’m a huge fan.
Slanty Kahn
This remind me of girl I know who had GAY bunny. She insisted it was GAY. But she only have one, how could she tell?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
T@Allen D.: You kinda sorta took the words right off my keyboard with the analogy to Blacks using the word “nigger” and we hearing “fag” in that context………
I always thought the idea of two twins getting it on was coloring waaaaaay outside the lines of my colorin’ book…….
A friend showed me a video from hamster of twins doin a whole lotta brotherly love and damm if it wasn’t so freaking hot……….
George412
Not a fan of their music or their look. They look unhealthy as if they are crack whores.
K
Your move, Tegan and Sara
Phil
Elephant needs a sammich!!
Aiden
Maybe not white, but there are plenty of gay rappers.
Aiden
And trannies? Really?
Wineheart
As someone with a gay brother only 2 years younger, please please stop asking us if we’ve ever had sex. No one asks straight siblings this question. It’s gross!
dk
I was fully prepared to not like this, most gay “singers” who make recordings are terrible. I say “who make recordings” because most of the singers who happen to be gay that are in the theatre are fantastic. Anyway, it’s not my style of music, but I liked it and would pay .99 for the single. I’m black and will split the difference in the “faggot” debate. To me, the “n” word is used in lieu of an actual vocabulary. It doesn’t empower, it just highlights the failings of our educational system. Just like, “ya know what I’m sayin?”
doug105
I hate to go just by looks , but they look a few meals from being guest zombies on the walking dead.
JedWard
I think I prefer the Jedward twins….
T
wow they’re hot. how old r they?
Jack
I think they look sexy and I love their look but I’m not really a fan of rap it’s kinda cringy? but I like this it’s cool
boomer
Tegan & Sara did it first, and did it better.
Bella
boomer – Tegan & Sara are my favorite hardcore gay rappers, too! WTF… they did WHAT first? became gay? became twins?
This is pretty fucken sick. love the song and camera work. hot
Mike in Asheville
@j: Just because you don’t get it does not mean they don’t get it.
Much of opera, and all of oratorio, is poetry set to music; and what of the beatniks?
As to rap, go to Youtube and checkout Sean Comb’s new “Piddy Dirty Money” act performed on Saturday Night Live in December 2010; also, Eminem’s SNL performance. Instead of trying to determine what you think, just listen to the words — it is poetry.
Per “Elephant” cheers to them, maybe not the first to break barriers but, barrier breakers nonetheless.
JosephJ
Hunh. Possibly the first thing that isn’t made better when gay people do it.
xtiaan
“punk infused”? what did they see a sex pistols poster once?, seriously who writes this.
WC
Their Gig at Austin Pride 2011 was hot. Too bad most of the queens were scaird. Good. They should be.