Hip-Hop Is Finally Embracing Queer Representation

 The genre has become more inclusive of LGBTQ+ artists and the community as a whole.

Earlier this year, rapper Tyler, The Creator appeared on the premiere of HBO’s Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show. Carmichael, who’s openly gay, spends the entire episode trying to ask Tyler—his friend-turned-crush—to the Emmys, and Tyler responds in his usual unserious way.

Tyler eventually declines via text (“Dammmm, I shoot all day. Thanks, tho, that is lit.”), but not before making the situation incredibly awkward. However, the significance of this moment is watching an A-list rapper—one who’s seemingly come out through lyrics, interviews, and social media posts, though he’s never publicly defined his sexuality—appear on TV as a queer love interest.

In recent years, as hip-hop has continued gaining popularity around the world, the genre has become more inclusive of LGBTQ+ artists and the community as a whole. According to Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, chair of the Department of African & African American Studies at Duke University, where he’s taught courses on the history of hip-hop, the rap industry has always had queer influences. But there was an era where hypermasculinity took over.

“With those earliest days, where hip-hop was on the same platform as disco music, it’s Black, gay, queer, Latino folks, all in the same spaces, listening to the same 12-inch records,” Dr. Neal tells Genius. “1979 to 2009 is a bit of a fiction, because it’s not actually acknowledging what the clear influence is.”

It’s not just that the influence wasn’t acknowledged. In some cases, it was flat-out disrespected, as hip-hop artists throughout the ’80s and ’90s dropped blatantly homophobic bars. Later on, Eminem came under fire for using anti-gay slurs—though he’s insisted he’s not homophobic, a claim his friend Elton John supports—and so did Tyler, The Creator, a complicated figure to say the least.

But things are changing. Examples of modern queer male rappers include Lil Nas X, Saucy Santana, Isaiah Rashad (who’s labeled himself “sexually fluid”), and Kidd Kenn. Lil Nas X and Saucy Santana in particular have succeeded in pushing the envelope for queer male rappers with their mainstream success.

Lil Nas X has featured male love interests in his music videos for songs like “THAT’S WHAT I WANT.” Saucy Santana, a more femme-presenting rapper, has used social media to grow his presence and has scored viral hits such as “Material Girl” and “Walk Em Like a Dog.” In addition, both artists do incredibly well sharing their own stories, and that’s helped them gain huge fan bases.

JaCarlos Harris, a former marketing director at Quality Control and Warner Records who’s on the queer spectrum, says that what holds a lot of artists back is their inability to tell their story and be comfortable doing so.

“We want to know the story that we’re telling because of publicity, playlisting, club [appearances], promotions, and we have to know what your demographic is,” Harris tells Genius. “You can always be mainstream and also be queer. It has been done.”

Female rappers have done a great job with being inclusive as well. Artists like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Lil’ Kim, and Megan Thee Stallion, for example, have massive gay fan bases. Writer and educator Dr. A.D. Carson doesn’t find it surprising that queer people identify so heavily with these women.

“The ways that women’s engagement, history, successes, contributions have been systematically excluded from the record of what we call hip-hop history is something that’s not just experienced by women,” Dr. Carson says. “It’s experienced by lots of people who are minoritized and marginalized.”

There are also a lot of openly queer female rappers that are both masculine and feminine presenting. Baby Tate, who began identifying as pansexual in 2023, discusses her sexuality on her EP Baby Tate Presents – Sexploration: The Musical. On the track “Luv Everybody,” she lays it all out.

I just wanted to out loud give transgender women their flowers,” the rapper told Genius last year. “The make-up ideas and how hard they go for their beauty, I love it.”

For JT to give props to an extremely marginalized part of the community is a testament to a genre that’s changing for the better. 

JAY-Z also showcased his allyship to the LGBTQ+ commmunity with his song “Smile,” from his 2017 album 4:44. Based around a sample of Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s In Need of Love Today,” “Smile” is a love letter to Jay’s mother, who comes out as lesbian in the song, and it was an unprecedented way for a rapper of Jay’s status to share his own experience with queerness.