In fact, the most surprising thing about his comments were that they felt resurrected from decades ago. He, in turn, is spreading long-debunked theories about gay people. Be damned to those that aren’t on board.ĭaBaby appears to not be on board. He’s not apologizing for who he is and, in fact, touts it defiantly as a signal to his listeners to do the same. What Lil Nas X is doing with his body of work is normalizing queerness as an identity that exists without bounds. In an evolving world that looks to understand different lived experiences, hip hop’s homophobia problem is becoming more and more obtuse, leaving many artists clinging to homophobia as a means to posture their masculinity - yet not understanding that one does not equal the other. And Eminem has never stopped using gay slurs since the beginning of his career. Lil Boosie has shared homophobic and transphobic thoughts on social media often in one instance going after Dwyane Wade’s daughter Zaya. Soon after in an interview with Rolling Stone, Quavo of the Migos publicly questioned the credibility of his music that was initially about trapping and selling drugs, suggesting that being gay didn’t equate to iLoveMakonnen’s lyrical content. After coming out in 2017, rapper iLoveMakonnen was supported online. In a genre that was often based in “streetwise hypermasculinity,” men that are openly gay are frequently seen as an unwelcome anomaly.
Queer culture in music is no new phenomenon, but it is still a largely taboo and misunderstood in hip hop. did mention Lil Nas X in his defense of the homophobic rant.) Even if the rant had nothing to do with Lil Nas X, hip hop is often a misogynistic and homophobic sport and Lil Nas X is not playing by the rules - and that is ruffling feathers.Įvery time Lil Nas X drops new music or visuals, he spends the following week defending himself against homophobes. (DaBaby never mentioned Lil Nas X, but the timing is interesting. His presence has made countless hoteps angry, offended conservatives, and seemingly in DaBaby's case, made rappers really uncomfortable. Currently at 40 million views, the video is another notch in Lil Nas X's belt of boldly revolutionary queer artistry never before seen in hip hop.
The “BOP” rapper’s rant comes less than a week after Lil Nas X's "Industry Baby" video dropped, in which gay incarcerated men plan an escape from his fictional Montero State Prison. The more intriguing issue here is what may have prompted DaBaby’s unsolicited vitriol. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.īut there's a lot to unpack here, so we'll just skate past things that can be explained by doing a basic search on the CDC's website.