User:Aseiler561/sandbox

Along with misogyny, the hip hop community has been criticized for its blatant, notorious homophobia and transphobia. This has been demonstrated in lyrics that contain offensive, homophobic slurs (most popularly, the word "faggot") and sometimes violent threats towards queer people, such as the lyrics in rapper DMX's "Where the Hood At," rapper Eazy-E's "Nobody Move," rap group Brand Nubian' s "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down" and many others. Until recently, hip hop has quite often excluded the LGBT community and its members, and even so, many rappers and hip hop artists have been very straight forward and public about their homophobia and/or transphobia concerning the genre. These artists include Ja Rule, who in an interview claimed,"We need to go step to MTV and Viacom, and let's talk about all these f---ing shows that they have on MTV that is promoting homosexuality, that my kids can’t watch this s---," and rap artist Erick Sermon, who has said publicly,"[Hip hop] will never accept transgender rappers."

This has perpetuated a culture that has promoted the message of being prejudiced towards queer people, making it a tough culture for queer artists to participate in. Despite this, many queer/genderqueer rappers and hip hop artists have become very successful and popular within recent years. One of the more notable members of the LGBT community to arise in the genre of hip hop is Frank Ocean, who came out in 2012 and has released critically acclaimed albums and won 2 Grammys. Other successful queer hip hop/rap artists include female bisexual rapper, Azealia Banks, pansexual androgynous rapper and singer, Angel Haze, lesbian rapper Siya, and genderqueer rapper Mykki Blanco. These artists, along with many others, not only write songs about their struggles with identifying with the queer identity, but also participate in activism that pushes for the lives and visibility of queer people. This has added new colors and more representation in the genre and will likely encourage many more queer people to pursue the art.