S. Samuel
West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg and rap veteran D.M.C. recently reacted to Frank Ocean raising eyebrows last month by announcing his bisexuality and co-signed the notion of hip-hop embracing the gay community.
Snoop acknowledged Ocean’s recent public revelation and how the times have changed since he came up.
“People are learning how to live and get along more, and accept people for who they are and not bash them or hurt them because they’re different,” Snoop Dogg said in a recent interview. “When I was growing up, you could never do that and announce that,” Snoop said of Ocean’s revelation. “There would be so much scrutiny and hate and negativity, and no one would step (forward) to support you because that’s what we were brainwashed and trained to know.” (Ocala)
D.M.C. said he expects an openly gay rapper to hit the hip-hop spotlight one day.
D.M.C. is skeptical about some of hip-hop’s recent support of Ocean, since he believes homophobia is still rampant in the culture. Still, he is sure a homosexual hip-hop act will emerge: “Of course there’s going to be a gay rapper.” He said that a rapper’s success would be determined not by his sexuality, but by the quality of his raps. (Ocala)
Earlier this month, West Coast rap newcomer Kreayshawn considered the likelihood of an openly gay emcee emerging as early as 2013.
“I could see it definitely within the next year. It could either be someone who’s already big coming out or somebody who was already out and just climbs to the top. Honestly, I don’t know if I could see the industry signing somebody who’s already openly gay because they’d be like, “I don’t know how to market that.” I have friends who are gay and trying to get into the industry and feel like [they can’t]. … I think there’s just gotta be more people in the industry who want to say what Frank Ocean said. He can’t be the only one. Hopefully just more people come out and it becomes more obvious that, look, this is just how it is.” (Salon)
Ocean recently revealed the truth behind releasing his open letter on Independence Day.
He said that his open letter was written in December 2011 with a view to include it in the album sleeve notes in order to pre-empt speculation that might arise from some of its songs addressing men. “I knew that I was writing in a way that people would ask questions,” he said. “I knew that my star was rising, and I knew that if I waited I would always have somebody that I respected be able to encourage me to wait longer, to not say it till who knows when.” The Odd Future member also downplayed the risk in his coming out. “People are just afraid of things too much … Sure, evil exists, extremism exists. Somebody could commit a hate crime and hurt me. But they could do the same just because I’m black. They could do the same just because I’m American.” (Guardian)
