In the Blog

Hip hop gets queered up

May 24th, 2006     by piKe krpan     Comments

Hi everyone! This is my first post! So cool to be a part of Shameless. My name’s piKe. Nice to meet you.

OK, I just got blown away by a film last weekend showing at Toronto’s Inside Out Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Festival, which runs until this coming Sunday. For those folks who still think that hip hop is just about 50 Cent and Eminem, you gotta get underground. The genre lends itself to some pretty homophobic stuff but make no mistake: hip hop has ALWAYS been a medium for raw, unapologetic emotion and truth from all sorts of people. Including queers. The film Pick up the Mic follows the stories of about a dozen queer hip hop artists in the US, of many backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and cultural backgrounds.

These artists are truly revolutionary and inspiring. If you can’t manage to see the film you can check out Gay Hip Hop.com where there are links to many of their sites with lots of music clips.

If you love the rhythm and style of hip hop but cringe every time you hear homophobic and sexist language in the lyrics, check these artists out!!!

Tags: activist report, arts, queeriosities, race and racism

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