jalwhite:

SPIN: Buzzing New York Rapper Le1f Responds to Homophobia

From Afrika Bambaataa to André 3000 to Danny Brown, rap has long been full of flamboyance, but no gifted MC has quite flaunted his originality in the manner of New York’s Le1f via the just-out video for his bounce-addled track, “Wut.” In one scene, wearing high purple daisy dukes, he slides across the floor, working his skinny legs like mechanical cranks edging him closer to the camera. In another, after a brag about “getting light in my loafers,” he straddles the knee of a buff male model, fast-rapping with flair.

Yes, Le1f is a gay man. His profile has been slowly growing since Greedhead (the label run by Das Racist’s Himanshu Suri) dropped the free Dark York mixtape back in April. With beats by left-fielders like Nguzunguzu and Matt Shadetek, it’s hardly the usual rap blog fare, but ever since the Fader debuted the “Wut” video on Thursday, the headlines have been accumulating, and some are downright shameful.

The worst comes courtesy of Bossip with the words, “See What Frank Ocean Started?” Meanwhile, the comment sections of the same blogs are on fire with the hate, homophobia and confusion that Ocean was seemingly spared (to some extent). In the Fader profile that ran yesterday, Le1f seems unshaken by the anger, and likens his swag to that of any other showy, sex-obsessed male in the business.

“I am gay, and I’m proud to be called a gay rapper, but it’s not gay rap. That’s not a genre. My goal is always to make songs that a gay dude or a straight dude can listen to and just think, This dude has swag. I get guys the way straight rappers get girls. I’m not preachy. The best thing a song can be called is good.” [Source]

People deserving of success: Le1f

(via thefistofartemis)

definition: Aya de Leon looks at the process of Bay area spoken word artist Aya de Leon, whose work is at all times political and certainly fresh. Whether dissecting images of women in hip hop, or exposing the constructs of gender and beauty, Aya de Leon makes you think, makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you listen. To learn more about the phenom’s work, check out the docu-bio, which explores the writer/poet/activist’s artistic process, and the lives she touches as she moves through the world.

* definition: Aya de Leon is Directed by Jennifer Ongiri Produced by Marla Renee Leech and Shalonda Ingram. via Purchase definition: Aya de Leon | Nursha Project

garconniere:

noaesthetic:

thesinglesjukebox:

AZEALIA BANKS - 212

Jonathan Bogart: She deserves better than to be championed by critics as a moral rebuke to Odd Future or Kreayshawn, especially when those rebukes carry overtones of East Coast snobbery and white people deciding who’s properly black. She also deserves better than to be championed by critics as an aesthetic rebuke to Nicki Minaj or M.I.A., especially when those rebukes carry overtones of anti-chart rockism and dudes deciding who’s properly feminist. But mainly, she deserves better than to be the subject of yet another Women Rapping (Too) profile, only to be forgotten by the time the next XX-chromosomed rap hype comes along. In the relatively brief space of this single song, she’s created not just a persona and a point of view — standard tools for any would-be musician, pop or indie or hip-hop or whatever — but a fully-formed aesthetic, dirty without sleaze, aggressive without sociopathy, gleeful without dumbness. There’s a reason the video focuses so much on her mouth whether rapping, stretching, or smiling: it’s both uncomfortably intimate and unvarnishedly truthful. There’s no escape. She’s here.
[10]

[Read and comment on The Singles Jukebox ]

attn: l

WHAT A FANTASTIC WAY OF WRITING ABOUT AZEALIA BANKS. I SECOND ALL OF THIS.

KillaQueenz - Pull Up A Chair by GrindinHardwax

No idea why these awesome ladies don’t get more attention. Incredible that people don’t even know ‘Into the Streets’ outside Sydney. Interview here.

jannalynne:

So there’s this group called The Lost Bois, a queer hip-hop group from DC, that you should definitely check out. Here’s one song, Cartoon Girl, created by B. Steady. Enjoy and make sure to check out some of their other work!

Poem in the beginning is by her partner, Taylor Johnson.

Lovely vid & words.

I go away for some time, I come back and Gender Across Borders has had multiple posts worth checking out.

Also, Kusama Pyjamas gained a spike in followers without even being here! Welcome, and hooray for the queer, feminist art love.

Erykah Badu (via imdpass)

Old but good.  Badu on the art of self promotion, for woman in music videos. Mentions ass implants.

As a young girl, Martha Diaz found feminism in hip-hop through artists like Queen Latfiah, Salt-n-Pepa, MC Lyte, Roxanne Shante and Mary J. Blige. More than a quarter-century later, she’s dedicated herself to pushing its shared values because it bridges the gender, religious, race and generation gaps.

The founder of at least four major organizations dedicated to promoting the principles of hip-hop culture, Diaz is also the creator of the Womanhood Learning Project, a network of women around the world who promote women’s leadership roles within hip-hop and the community.

“We want to provide funding and technical assistance to women who have ideas to solve problems in their community” and empower other women through social entrepreneurship, she says.

Diaz is also due to release, “Fresh, Bold, and So Def: Women In Hip-Hop Changing the Game” an educational resource book that profiles 365 international female artists, activists and entrepreneurs who are, in her words, “taking matters into their own hands and making a difference in society.”

via Young Feminists: 2010 - Seven Women Who Invent a Better Future

thegang:

“Randerson Romualdo Cordeiro (The World Stage; Brazil)” by Kehinde Wiley

I went out to get the mail today and peeped Mr. Wiley himself on the cover of Juxtapoz this month. I must say it’s about time because dude has been blowing up for a minute now doing portraits for the hip-hop honors, a clothing line, and a shoe collabo with Puma. However, I haven’t heard him discuss the connection/intersection between his sexuality and his artwork very often (which is shocking because his portraits, although not nude, evoke what seems to be very intentional erotic undertones).

Juxtapoz did ask, however. Here’s a piece of the interview:

Since you’re a gay man, which youth culture often finds hard to come to terms with, did the guys you cast care or know? Is there even a need to be upfront about that?

That’s a very important question. I think a lot of people prefer not to talk about that part of the work because so many other aspects of it satisfies even the most homophobic that they just deal with it.

Like the aspect of power?

Sure, but power and sexuality are so intricately laced for me I can’t separate them really. Yet there’s another part of the art-consuming public that’s fascinated by this because there has been very little space for a type of Black male sexuality to be expressed that isn’t hyper-sexualized. For me, I’ve been able to exist in the world of Black male representation because I’m in the art world and it’s almost expected that there be some weird shit in there. You know what I mean? It’s like art world street cred, “oh, and he’s gay too.”

Male beauty is a pursuit that’s a very fixed and specific vocabulary. We feel comfortable talking about the vocabulary surrounding beautiful women because women have been relegated that type of power. That’s the power they’re said to posses most strongly in the world. Men feel emasculated when associated with that type of power because they feel it’s superficial and they have “actual” power, material power. Any serious man, even if he possesses physical beauty as a type of power or currency within the world, would never discuss it as such because it’s considered effete. The fear of the illusive disarming strength of beauty, all that stuff, is a very potent and strong calculus with the black body, which is fun to play with. I’m really having a fun time pulling these strings and seeing what happens.

It’s interesting to hear his take on, and understanding of being kind of “exotified” in the art world by having all of these unique identities at work (unique to the art world canon at least). But he still didn’t speak to the dialogue that happens between him and the men who pose for him. That would also be interesting to hear.

I must say that the rest of the article is also quite interesting, as well as the beautiful images of his work. check it out if you have a chance…

sexismandthecity:

KRS ONE: “I am not just saying this because you [a woman] are asking the question, this is my real answer: More women. More women. Not just emcees or b-girls, but women taking control of hip-hop. Let me be culturally-specific- hip-hop’s women should teach hip-hop’s men how to speak to them. Because when we learn how to speak to you, we can learn how to speak to the whole business world. It’s not just about respecting you…it is…but it’s deeper than just respecting another human being. Everytime you degrade a person, you degrade yourself, because you are standing next to that person. You can’t diss a person, and not diss yourself…I should say ‘she’s a queen.’ And what does that make me? A king. So now at the end of the day, what’s missing in hip-hop? Knowledge of self, that should only come from women. I know that sounds feminist, but that’s real talk.