Tayler Thornton
WGST 202
T/TH 9:30-10:45
Professor Currans
Blog Topic: Masculinity and Hip Hop
Article Review #3
Marc
Lamont Hill (2009) Scared Straight: Hip-Hop, Outing, and the Pedagogy of
Queerness, Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 31:1, 29-54,
DOI: 10.1080/10714410802629235
A common and treasured African
American rapper named Big Daddy Kane reported that he was dying of AIDS. In the
rap game if you have AIDS that means that you’re gay. Though this rumor was
proved to be false, Big Daddy Kane, still felt the need to make sure that the
world knew that he was not gay. He stated in one of his raps, “Like with that HIV rumor they tried to
toss, But I'm so good with the women that if I ever caught AIDS, A woman
doctor'd find a cure just so she could get laid, So never fear my dear, just
come on over here, I practice safe sex, with girls I lay next, In other words,
the J-hat's on the head, Cause I'm too sexy for AIDS like Right Said Fred”. In
the article, “Scared Straight: Hip Hop, Outing, and the Pedagogy of Queerness”,
written by Marc Lamont Hill, he “examines the politics of outing with hip-hop’s
public sphere”. He also observes how rappers keep their hegemonic conceptions
by outing in their lyrics and how outing in lyrics sustains masculinity. To sum
it up, the author views rappers lyrics and how they talk about their
heterosexuality.
Outing is “the act of exposing people who were “in the closet”, or
secretly engaging in gay, lesbian, bisexual, or otherwise non- heterosexual
lifestyles”. Hill supports his article by first examining the politics of
outing. In ancient Rome and Greece, outing was used to expose people who went
against society’s sexual preference. After talking about the foreign times
about outing, he then moved to talk about America and outing reached in World
War II. They labeled gay and lesbian people as threats and perverts, which lead
to firing hundreds of people because they were skeptical. In his article he
stated that Rock Hudson died of HIV/AIDS. Although he was married to Phyllis
Gates, and was a masculine heterosexual he could have been hiding his true
identity. Later in the 20th century Ted Haggard, an antigay
minister, had been outed by a gay prostitute, stating they had a 3-year sexual
relationship. The gay man spoke to the public and said he felt like he was
doing the right thing and that he had to expose him for preaching one thing and
doing another. What is being said in this part of the article is that even
political leaders get caught doing things they fight against.
Hill then talks about rappers’ lyrical outing, stating that rappers
are also policing sexuality by outing other known rappers. Being in the rap
industry it is better to be known straight then gay matter what. Jay-Z and Nas
had a rap battle where rapper Nas attacked Jay-Z about his sexuality. Nas
talked about his name saying “Gay-Z” and also talked about his brand saying its
called, “Cock-a-Fella” instead of Rock-a-Fella”. The rapper later stated, “Put
it together, I rock hoes, y’all rock fellas, Rockefeller died of AIDS that was
the end of his chapter, And that the dude you chose to name your company
after”? Jay-Z then retaliated by stating, “And since you infatuated with sayin’
that gay shit, I guess you was kissin’ my dick when you was kissin’ that
bitch”. Although these rappers were stating venomous words back and fourth with
one another, neither rapper believed that the other was actually gay. They both
also stated that it was just rap war purpose and that it was to humiliate the other
and humor people.
Hill also explores another battle between rappers but this one wasn’t
just for fun it was also done to raise questions about ones sexuality. Rapper
Eazy E made rumors about Dr. Dre, saying that he wore lipstick during 1982
while in a group called the World Class Wrecking Crew. Eazy E stated, “All of a
sudden Dr. Dre is a G thang, But on his old album covers, he was a she thang”. In
the video he flashed pictures of Dr. Dre wearing makeup and women clothing. But
Eazy E wasn’t the only one who dissed Dr. Dre and his sexuality, passed rapper
Tupac also did so by stating, California Love part motherfuckin’ 2, Without gay
ass Dre”, and “We shook Dre punk ass, Now he out the closet”. But not only were
those the others rappers but Ja Rule also stated lyrics talking about Dre’s
sexuality. But soon after Dre died of AIDS related illnesses, which raised a
lot of questions about the rappers he was around. But there will always be a
rapper rapping about someone else’s sexuality and insulting them, whether its
for fun or for real you cant stop a rapper from rapping about you, because
after all that was said about Dr. Dre, Hill did not put that Dr. Dre ever
responded or retaliated. So it goes to show you he wasn’t worried about his
sexuality because he knew who he was.
In Hills’ concluding paragraph , he
questions all rappers’ sexuality. It seems that all rappers are homophobic and
don’t like anything about being gay but show signs of gayness within their
crew. He states that rappers all male rappers hang around a lot of men, that
they give each other half hugs and handshakes, and they use the term “niggas
over bitches”, meaning that they are obsessed with male relationships. Hill
also states that rappers have some from of homoerotic tendencies when they “run
trains” on women, which is a group of men having sex with only one woman in the
room. Although the focus is on the one woman, men are still together
naked. It was quite entertaining for
Hill to bring up that rappers do all this so called manly things, but when you
look at it, is it really that manly? He gave his personal view on the issue by
stating that, “Though its outing practices, the hip-hop community, is able to
continuously ignore its own complex sexual ethic by keeping the focus on
individual, anonymous, and, in the case of the homothug, aggregate queer
bodies”. Meaning rappers tend to ignore their gay ways by putting someone else
in the front of them to hide what they are doing.
Hills article promotes very good information about my topic, which is
Masculinity and Hip Hop. He displays how rappers talk about one another’s sexuality
when it’s really their sexuality that needs to be in question. It also talks
about that some rappers will or will not retaliate when someone try’s to talk
about them in a disrespectful manner. But it also shows that rappers are really
scared to be gay in the industry. They try so hard to look masculine and act
like a man that it is probably exposing them in real life. Hill also talks
about politics in this article, which really doesn’t go with my topic, but it
is good to know the history of outing and where it came from. It was good to
know that men in politics also have these homo problems, no matter who they
are. You would think that a man in politic would never be gay or support it but
in this article you see that that isn’t true. Hill gives background
information, rapper quotes and battles, and talks about deaths from HIV/AIDS
that raised questions about many men. I think that this article ties in with
our class because we talked about rappers and their masculinity and how they
hide really what’s inside.
