After explaining the fundamentals of reading, Zebra Katz is now trying to learn why he does what he does.

In his latest video, the openly queer MC rhymes over a spacy and dubby beat, with his wonderfully gravelly voice and smooth delivery.

You can check out more of Katz's videos at his YouTube channel. In the meantime, check out his latest video.

 

If you thought 2012 was a good year for bounce MC Big Freedia, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

After a big North American tour, including stops in Toronto and Montreal (but no Halifax, womp womp), Freedia was recently featured in a documentary on Pitchfork called The Queen Diva, and bounce music was recently featured in a great piece in The Atlantic. The mini-documentary discusses the large queer bent found in bounce.

After pulling out tracks like "Excuse" and "Y'all Get Back Now," Freedia is back with "Feelin' Myself," a barrage on the dancefloor.

Take a gander.

A few months back, a hairy cub with big glasses and a penchant for Disney samples (how much did that cost? - sample clearance ed.) dropped "Drip Drop" onto the world, and a collective "WTF" was heard online.

We listened, we got hooked on the sample, some of us liked it, some of us didn't. But we began to see more and more of Mr Dipper. He has appeared in Out magazine, The Huff Po and more. 

The Big D is back with a new video, this time for "Meat Quotient," a NSFW queer hip-hop anthem to all things phallic and juicy.

In a recent posting on The Huffington Post, emcee Brother Ali tackles a topic that has been gaining momentum in both queer and mainstream press: homophobia (and, by extension, hatred) in hip hop.

The piece, titled "The Intersection of Homophobia and Hip Hop: Where Tyler Met Frank," is an honest confession of Ali's former ignorance in the usage of the term "faggot" in his lyrics, as well as in his private life. In the opening paragraphs, Ali discusses his own usage of the term:

 

Ali goes on to describe a situation in which a fan overhears (and subsequently contacts him about it) him trying to educate a colleague about the colleague's own homophobia. This is where the piece gets interesting. Ali admits his fault in using "faggot" and more so, acknowledges the fact that even though he is now apologizing for it, his words and music will always be out there.

My use of the f-word more than a decade ago in the song "Dorian" off Shadows On The Sun continued to echo in a space in which I no longer dwelled. That word and that mind-set would continue to be perpetuated through me, a man who had grown to understand more, but whose actions had left an indelible print that could not be erased.[...]My world was pretty small and bleak when I wrote that album. Since then I've been fortunate enough to tour the world, read James Baldwin and develop deep friendships with musicians whom I love and respect and who are openly gay.

In short, the world gave me another chance. But those words are there forever.

Ali goes on to discuss how denigration is used as a way to prove manhood in hip hop and in culture in general. Men are faggots because they don't stand up to culturally or socially appropriate measures of masculinity or heterosexuality. Not because they are gay. And therein lies the explanation around the usage of "faggot" and "gay" by pop culture in general. The argument that when someone says, “That’s gay,” they don’t mean “that’s homosexual in character,” they mean “that’s dumb/stupid/forgettable/ridiculous.” Like when Tyler the Creator reportedly used the term faggot more than 200 times on his album Goblin. I have never made any effort to listen to Tyler’s music. Why? Because I read in the gay press that he used the term all the time. He didn’t lose a fan. He just didn’t gain one.

However, I was (and am) willing to give Tyler the benefit of the doubt, because of his very vocal support for his friend Frank Ocean, who recently came out. Ali, however, is there to remind his readers not to let him off that easy.

When addressing the criticism in an interview with NME, Tyler absolves himself of any responsibility by claiming that he's not aiming the word at gay people in particular, but just using it as a synonym of weakness and stupidity. "I'm not homophobic. I just think 'f****t' hits and hurts people. It hits. And 'gay' just means you're stupid. I don't know, we don't think about it, we're just kids. We don't think about that s--t. But I don't hate gay people. I don't want anyone to think I'm homophobic."

Congratulations, Tyler. You still are homophobic. You may be friends with Frank and defend him and applaud him in the press, but your lyrics and your statement are still homophobic. Because you "don’t think about that shit" is not an excuse. It just makes you intellectually lazy.

It reminds me of that scene in Louis CK's show Louie where he and his friends ask their lone gay comedian buddy about the use of the term faggot. No one wants to stop anyone from expressing their opinions and their ideas. Even when we don't agree with them. Just know what those words mean.

So yeah. Tyler, you didn’t lose a fan, you just lost the opportunity to gain one.

But Ali? You most certainly gained a fan. A vocal one.

The best way to keep a buzz going is to know how to feed it: steadily, with good intentions, always leaving 'em wanting more.

Azealia Banks knows how to do this. The woman behind "212" has over the last month released two videos from her 1991 EP. Her upcoming album, Broke with Expensive Taste, has been pushed back until next year, so in a bid to keep us all chomping at the bit, she released "Van Vogue" a few weeks ago. Rapidfire lyrical delivery, smart production and a great video help cement Banks's reputation as a smart and sophisticated emcee.

On Sunday, Banks released the second video from 1991, and in less than a day garnered almost 100,000 views. Not bad for releasing something on a Sunday during a long weekend. The video pays homage to the year of her birth, with dancers dropping moves that look like they came straight out of videos made during the titular year.

After the recent coming out of R&B and hip-hop wunderkind Frank Ocean, it's good to see a recent video by Murs features the emcee portraying Roderick, the conflicted love interest of Jonathan, a young man who is on his way to college. Their love goes awry because of Roderick's internalized homophobia. A great video, a heartfelt story and a smart move toward erasing homophobia in the world of hip hop and R&B.

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Someone out there in the wonderful world of the internet has put out a fan video of Azealia Banks's "Fierce" - a track that sends love to the New York ballroom scene - and mixes in snippets of "Paris Is Burning." It is a wonderful example of post-modern genius. Listen and watch now.

You may not know him, but you know his work. Frank Ocean has written songs with Beyoncé and John Legend, worked with Jay-Z and Kanye, and now he has his first solo effort hitting stores.

But if you read the news, you'll know that Ocean decided to take to Tumblr to talk about his first love:

4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I'd see him, and his smile. I'd hear his conversation and his silence ... until it was time to sleep. Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless...

I sat there and told my friend how I felt. I wept as the words left my mouth. I grieved for them, knowing I could never take them back for myself. He patted my back. He said kind things. He did his best, but he wouldn't admit the same. He had to go back inside soon. It was late and his girlfriend was waiting for him upstairs. He wouldn't tell me the truth about his feelings for me for another 3 years. I felt like I'd only imagined reciprocity for years. Now imagine being thrown from a cliff. No, I wasn't on a cliff, I was still in my car telling myself it was gonna be fine and to take deep breaths. I took the breaths and carried on. I kept up a peculiar friendship with him because I couldn't imagine keeping up my life without him. I struggled to master myself and my emotions. I wasn't always successful.

Here is Frank Ocean's soulful "Pyramids."

You may not know his music, but if you follow queer news, then you have probably heard about Lil B. Why? Because the San Francisco rapper released an album called I’m Gay this summer. Subtitled I’m Happy, the rapper doesn’t identify as queer but does believe in fostering discussions about sexuality and identity within hip hop. Unfortunately, most of the dialogue around the album was focused on how Lil B received death threats because of its title.

Now, Lil B is focusing on another area that he wants people to talk about. This time it’s HIV and AIDS. He has released a new single called “I Got AIDS,” which calls to its audience to get tested. 

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This Wednesday there will be a discussion held at the Halifax infirmary discussing the results of a recent survey on gambling in the queer community. The event is put on by Out Alive. The information was culled from an online survey that took place between May 22 and August 31, as well as through in-person surveys done at Pride events in Halifax and Sydney.

You can find more information on the Facebook event page.

The relationship between hip hop and homosexuality is problematic at best. Yes, there are openly queer MCs, male, female and transgender. But it’s a lot easier to find MCs dissing “faggots.” Beefs have been had between artists who accuse each other of being queer. And let’s not even talk about certain artists who live their lives in open closets.

So it was interesting to see noted MC Fat Joe talking about gays in hip hop in a recent interview. (Although the video is listed as “Fat Joe Thinks the Gay Mafia Controls Hip Hop,” I think that’s a reductionist view of this interview.)

Joe puts it out simply by stating, “I’m pretty sure I’ve done songs with gay rappers.” He goes on to say, “Niggas is gay. There's millions of gay people in the world. Girls too . . . I'm a fan of 'Yo, I'm gay. The fuck.' Like, 2011 you gotta hide that you're gay? Like, you know what I'm saying, like, be real, like 'Yo I'm gay, what the fuck.' If you gay you gay. Like that's your preference, you know? Fuck it if the people don't like it."

Gawker posted this very quote on its website, declaring in the headline, “With One Interview, Fat Joe Makes Hip Hop Safe for Gays.” I don’t know about that, but this is definitely a step in a very interesting and enlightening direction.