How Queer Rap Artists are Changing the Game

Written by Elizabeth Braaten

Photo courtesy of Dazed

As a scared, closeted teen, I found solace in rap music. I know this may seem odd. I mean, I don’t exactly fit the part; I’m barely five feet tall, white as a sheet, and can’t rhyme to save my life. However, I noticed something early on about this genre that was unique from all others: it gave a voice to marginalized people who would not otherwise have a platform to speak out about the struggles and inequalities that they face. Despite this, one thing always seemed missing from the music of my adolescence: There weren’t any prominent gay artists.

Throughout the past two years, I’ve noticed something happening in the hip-hop genre the likes of which I’ve never seen before: Rap music is beginning to give a platform to a vibrant queer community previously invisible to the public eye. With artists like Brockhampton, Kodie Shane, and Syd, the game is changing — and the only way to go is up.

The self-proclaimed boy band Brockhampton, founded by Texas native Kevin Abstract, are redefining what it means to be a rap collective in the digital age. Made up of members that bare their souls to discuss their diverse racial backgrounds and sexualities, these artists don’t shy away from controversial topics, alternating from braggadocious affirmations like Abstract’s “I just gave my n---- head,” on Saturation’s “STAR” to gut-wrenching confessions like, “I told my mom I was gay, why the f--- she ain’t listen?” on Saturation II’s “JUNKY.” Brockhampton, unlike any other boy band before them, are game-changers simply by being unapologetically queer. And with three singles out this summer alone and an album currently in the works, these guys aren’t slowing down anytime soon.

Brockhampton aren’t the only ones, though. Female artists like Kodie Shane and Syd are also beginning to make waves simply through a willingness to open up about their sexualities. 19-year-old Shane is still new to the scene, but with her stint opening for Syd this past fall, she’s beginning to pop up everywhere. Her music, which follows an upbeat trap style eerily reminiscent of Lil Uzi, is unique in the carefree way that she discusses her personal life. On her 2017 album Back from the Future, Shane raps about sexuality and her woes with girls as openly as any straight man in the genre, breaking barriers and destroying stereotypes of what it means to be a woman in hip-hop.

Photo courtesy of BBC

Meanwhile, Syd is a seasoned veteran of the game if there ever was one. A past member of early 2010s rap collective Odd Future, which produced hip-hop giants like Tyler, the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, and Frank Ocean, Syd became the lead vocalist of trip hop band The Internet, which released Hive Mind this past July to rave reviews, before deciding to also pursue a solo career. Her 2017 debut album Fin was a 37 minute soulful triumph, as much an ode to girls as it was a confessional about her troubles with them. Syd croons about drowning in it as sweetly and skillfully as any soul artist, further affirming her arrival on the world’s stage.

When I think about what hip-hop has become, I can’t begin to describe how much it would have meant to me to listen to one artist I felt shared my experiences as a gay person when I was a teen terrified of being who they are. Now, it seems like there’s a new representative of the queer community making their way into hip-hop’s spotlight every other week. Abstract rhetorically asks why he always raps about being gay towards the end of his verse on “Junky,” before answering, simply: because not enough gay people rap. Thankfully, that’s beginning to change.