“Ask them why Pose never got a nod from BET,” said culture writer Steven Underwood, referencing the multiple Emmy Award-winning show that centered on 1980s and ’90s drag culture in New York City.
Lil Nas X, infamous for flashy outfits and for being upfront about his sexuality, had a slew of Twitter followers join his BET roast. But let either one of them rap about having sex with men and see where the conversation goes.” “Folks can point to Lil Nas X and Tyler the Creator and go ‘See, there is progress,’ which is true. “Rap struggles profoundly because it is a genre that centers cishet male gaze,” he said. In an email to The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Kennedy said queer sexuality is still treated as a taboo or a punchline-“and culture promotes, and encourages it.” “ove frank and tyler to death,” he tweeted, “but can we admit queer men are more respected when they do less feminine things or am i making that up?” “ Tyler, the Creator and Frank have been nominated idk,” a Twitter user commented under Nas’ thread, referencing two Black LGBTQ+ hip hop artists who have portrayed themselves as more masculine.īut Nas had an immediate rebuttal.
“In fact, an entire lexicon dedicated to pointing out discomfort with gay men has permeated rap lyrics.”Īpparently, Lil Nas X feels that sentiment has not waned. “Rap culture has always been powered by unbridled machismo, and one would be hard pressed to not find a gay slur embedded in the lyrics of any of the genre’s most famous architects,” Kennedy wrote. Writing for the Los Angeles Times in 2019, music critic and author Gerrick Kennedy said hip hop’s “refusal to embrace anything queer has been a blemish on the genre for as long as it’s been around.”