In an interview with The Guardian, Snoop Lion, previously known as Snoop Dogg, expressed his opinions on homosexuality in hip-hop stating, “In the rap world I don’t know if it will ever be acceptable because rap is so masculine. It’s like a football team. You can’t be in a locker room full of motherf–king tough-a– dudes, then all of a sudden say, ‘Hey, man, I like you.’ You know, that’s going to be tough.” Snoop Lion has voiced his approval for gay marriage in the past, however, in his interview with The Guardian, it’s apparent that he does not believe the rap industry is ready for gay rappers.
In some ways, I can see where he is coming from. The words “f—-t” and “gay” are tossed around in many rap lyrics with a negative connotation. In an extremely misogynist genre where women are frequently objectified, it’s tough to picture how a gay, male rapper would fit into all of this.
Christian Reich, a student at UT as well as president of the GLTSBA club commented, “As such a straight, male-dominated industry, perhaps Snoop thinks it would be hard for rap listeners to relate to a gay rapper. While that may be the case for some or many listeners who cannot relate to a man romancing another man, he seems to be assuming every lyric produced by a gay rapper will include some sort of reference to his sexuality. I think this is the fault in his thinking. Just because someone is gay does not mean every word they say or action they take has a reference to their sexuality.” It’s true that pronouns can be used in songs to hint at who the message is meant for, but many mainstream songs do not include them which makes it more relatable to both sexes.
With more and more support for gays being expressed by leaders in the industry, it seems that the acceptance of homosexuality in hip hop music isn’t too far off. When popular R&B singer Frank Ocean came out as being bisexual last year, Jay Z posted a letter on his Life and Times website titled, “Thank You, Frank Ocean” where he voiced his support for Ocean and commended him for his courage in coming out. Rap mogul Russell Simmons released a statement after Ocean’s coming out saying, “Today is a big day for hip-hop. It is a day that will define who we really are. How compassionate will we be? How loving can we be? How inclusive are we?” Gay rights is the biggest social issue of our generation and is no longer being swept under the rug. Ocean coming out was a huge deal since few rappers are gay or bisexual, or at least few are open about it. It’s causing those in the industry and fans who support it to talk about these issues.
I believe it’s cowardly for Snoop Lion to say that rap and hip-hop are not ready for gay rappers. If he can generalize the whole genre as homophobic then he deserves to have that label as well. When more leaders in the industry are outwardly supportive, it might pressure other artists to accept it too. Homophobic slurs are not being taken lightly anymore as we saw in the case of Rutgers’ head men’s basketball coach, Mike Rice. An assistant coach recorded Rice chucking basketballs at his players and yelling at them, calling them “f—-ts.” It created an uproar once the video was released and as a result, Rice has been fired.
“Thrift Shop” artist Macklemore talks about the use of these harmful words in his song, “Same Love” by saying, “If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me. Have you read the YouTube comments lately? ‘Man, that’s gay’ gets dropped on the daily. We become so numb to what we’re saying.” Though many rappers are showing support for gay rights, there are still others that continue to be offensive in their music. Eminem is known to frequently use the word “f—-t” in his rap, as well as Tyler The Creator, a close friend to Ocean. Still, with the “Same Love” music video reaching over 32 million views on YouTube, I’d say that’s a pretty good sign that mainstream rap is growing in acceptance.
In scandinavia people think jews have a very strange face, especially the nose is very bad-looking,kinda scythe-like they say, . They call it ” Ful nasa”. the word “ful” is pronounced like the english word “fuel”. i kind of feel sorry for them, but maybe its the testosterone.. i´ve heard it increases the tissues inside the nose, especially bone mass.
It´s intresting to note that the hebrew work “nasa” can mean both “to marry” and “to lift” and “to desire” among many other verbs..
In north europe people think jews have a very strange face, especially the nose is very bad-looking,kinda scythe-like they say, . They call it ” Ful nasa”. the word “ful” is pronounced like the english word “fuel”. i kind of feel sorry for them, but maybe its the testosterone.. i´ve heard it increases the tissues inside the nose, especially bone mass.
It´s intresting to note that the hebrew work “nasa” can mean both “to marry” and “to lift” and “to desire” among many other verbs..
In scandinavia people think jews have a very strange face, especially the nose is very bad-looking,kinda scythe-like they say, . They call it ” Ful nasa”. the word “ful” is pronounced like the english word “fuel”. i kind of feel sorry for them, but maybe its the testosterone.. i´ve heard it increases the tissues inside the nose, especially bone mass.
It´s intresting to note that the hebrew work “nasa” can mean both “to marry” and “to lift” and “to desire” among many other verbs..
In scandinavia people think jews have a very strange face, especially the nose is very bad-looking,kinda scythe-like they say, . They call it ” Ful nasa”. the word “ful” is pronounced like the english word “fuel”. i kind of feel sorry for them, but maybe its the testosterone.. i´ve heard it increases the tissues inside the nose, especially bone mass.
It´s intresting to note that the hebrew work “nasa” can mean both “to marry” and “to lift” and “to desire” among many other verbs..
I agree with Snoop right now because I think at the moment the rap world would not accept openly “gay” rappers. But in the future I think it will become a trend.