PrintAzealia Banks got me through finals last semester. I listened to the deft, delightfully inappropriate verses of “212” on repeat while drudging through the memorization of 18th-century painting slides. By now, thanks to Pitchfork and virtually every other media outlet, the name Azealia Banks—and her unapologetic use of a certain C-word—is fairly well known. Three weeks ago, she announced that she had officially signed with Universal Music on Twitter with the comment, “Wow I just wanna drink a million bottles of champagne and do a million bell kicks right now.”
Banks is only the latest addition to a court of badass, unapologetic female MCs, over which Nicki Minaj is still arguably the reigning queen. Everyone from Jezebel to the New York Times has noticed the swift emergence of scrappy, brazen female rappers like Kreayshawn, Rye Rye, and
Dominique Young Unique.
These female MCs represent a bold affront to the virile world of hip-hop by consistently and consciously breaking the rules of the boys’ club. In an interview with the Times last week, Banks talked about her bisexuality, and a handful of other female MCs, including Syd the Kyd and Lady Sovereign, have also come out in the media.
Yet to date, there hasn’t been a single openly gay male hip-hop artist signed to a major label. In this week’s lead, Zoe Camp looks at the efforts of a
group of men who are trying to make it in the hip-hop industry—and are also openly gay. Harlem native Loco Ninja graces the cover, but waves of resistance to the overtly macho medium are being made by Big Freedia in New Orleans, Deadlee in LA, and Cazwell in Boston.
Hip hop is changing: The genre is slowly making room for new voices and new perspectives—and maybe a little azz shakin’.