Musical rebels

Hi everyone !

So, I know, Mr Leah wanted us to write about a famous female singer in order to win a photo of this mysterious woman (what a man full of surprises). But I wanted to do this article for a while so, even thought it’s not what he asked for, here it is! (What can I say, I’m in OIB I think outside the box)

So, as you may have realized, hip hop isn’t culturally the most accepting genre of music out there. We could count all the racism, sexism and homophobia present in rap, but let’s be honest, we all know it and it will be quite long. However, things are changing, and I wanted to shed a light on artists who make a change by being proud of their sexuality despite not being straight in this not-quite-not-at-all-actually accepting world.

Here are five artists you may or may not know I want to talk about:

Angel Haze

Angel Haze is a pansexual, agender singer and rapper (uses they/their as pronouns). Haze explains they experiences love as being boundary-less and opens up about their sexuality and gender very freely, which is refreshing since those aren’t represented enough in society as a whole.

Bonus point to them for talking about rape culture, their own experience with sexual assault (check out “Cleaning Out My Closet” but be ready, it’s tough) and mental illness. And I don’t know about you, but it feels like a lot for one person and it’s pretty damn cool.

Tyler, The Creator

Ironically, the founder of Odd Future is banned from the UK and Australia for having allegedly homophobic lyrics. However, in his album Flower Boy released earlier this year (which is great, and if you haven’t, listen to the whole thing right now), the rapper revealed his attraction to men.

Never judge a book by its cover I guess?

Young Thug

You probably all know Young thug but when you first look at him, you might think he looks like your stereotypical rapper, talking about the drugs he doesn’t sell and wears with pride his gold teeth. Well, you’re very wrong my friend. Young thug is a part of a really interesting phenomenon of “feminisation” in hip hop. He dresses in woman’s clothes as well as nail polish and on the cover of his album Jeffrey he wears a beautiful dress, even Marie-Antoinette is probably jealous right now. On top of that, he also declared being asexual, pretty rare when a lot rappers brag about the many women they (allegedly) have sex with.

Kevin Abstract

Kevin describes himself as being “everything Donald Trump is against”, and honestly that’s something I can get behind . He is black and bisexual and in his album American Boyfriend : A Suburban Love story he expresses dealing with racism and homophobia. The most striking example are the music videos for “Empty” and “Miserable America” (watch. It. Now. How many times do I have to say this?). He once said that his own house felt like a conversion camp, which doesn’t sound really pleasant to me and with a chorus that says “Miserable America/assassinates my character”, you can’t be more straight forward. But Kevin himself says he realizes now he represents America and what it should stand for, and that’s #mypresident.

Frank Ocean

(I kinda cheated on that one, he isn’t a rapper, but he was a part of Odd Future, so it’s still relevant).

FFank ocean, who released the amazing album Channel Orange was quite mysterious about his sexuality, particularly on the song Forrest Gump. Frank, you’re not fooling anyone when you say “You run my mind boy”. But he did clear things up with a post on tumblr, saying he once fell in love with a man, ending with “I feel like a free man. If I listen closely.. I can hear the sky falling too.” Pretty good, right?

Listen to Channel Orange and Blonde, you won’t regret it.

By never putting himself in a box, Mr. Ocean made a strong statement: you don’t have to put labels on those things. Love and attractions happen, you don’t chose it so if you don’t want to, you don’t have to be defined by your sexuality. But remember ALWAYS. BE. PROUD (why should we care about what ignorants think?)