Part 2
Because of the lyrical content in my most recent songs “The Coolness” and “Supersonic (Chucky Cheese)” I’ve been receiving a lot of correspondence from fans. Below is one of the letters I received, and I’d like for you to share your opinions:Fest,I love your stuff. Absolutely love it. “Blue Collar” was and is one of my all-time favorites and when it comes to Chicago it’s you, Common, Kanye and Lupe. That song you did with Samantha Ronson, “Wanted”? Gave me chills. Your music is usually socially-conscious – “Devil’s Pie,” “Stolen,” you name it. And I’ve loved it. But I’ll never understand the homophobia built into your rap.I understand the need to toss around “gay” every now and again, sometimes it just plain fits. But when you put out a track (even a diss track) where every other word is “gay,” “fag,” “faggot,” “homo,” and every other pseudonym you can find for a homosexual, it makes me question the fact that I even listen to you in the first place. I feel like Lupe in “Hurt Me Soul” – like a hypocrite I continue to play your music (most of it is just so damn good) even though every part of me cringes when I hear those words come out of your mouth. Half of your album resides in my “iTunes 25 most played” even though my record collection is over 9,000 songs.And then I heard the Hamilton diss track. Don’t get me wrong, it seems like your “beef” (my guess is you wouldn’t even call it that, because that would imply a disagreement between two full-grown men) is well-founded. And some of those lines were hot. Alright, fine, most of them. But really? All you can do is call him a faggot over and over again?I’m not gay – I can’t go a day without smiling at a cute girl – but my little brother is. And I preach my music taste to him all day long and the kid has absorbed some of my fantastic music taste. But how do I explain how talented a rapper you are, how revolutionary your rap really is, when you’re throwing out words like that?Maybe you aren’t really homophobic (being from inner-city Chicago though, it seems easy enough to imagine you grew up surrounded by homophobia), and maybe it’s just the easiest thing to throw in a diss-track. I hope you’ve got more talent than that though, I know you do.You aren’t the only rapper with homophobic lyrics. The problem is that most of those other rappers like to talk about degrading women, doing drugs, making money, and killing people who piss them off. You, on the other hand, tend to talk politics (with an occasional nod to the material world and cheatin’ on a girl). How can a guy so forward-thinking and progressive in many ways be so closed-minded and conventional in others? I expect it from the rest of the rap world – it makes sense coming out of the mouths of Dipset and T.I. – but it confuses me every time I hear it come out of your mouth.Apologies for the long letter, chances are you’ll never even read this yourself. But I hope you do, and if I feel resourceful enough maybe I’ll give Allido a call and see if they’ll give me an email address you’ll actually read. I’m curious what your perspective is on this, and as much as I’d like to say I’ll never listen to your stuff again, I know that isn’t true. I’ll be the first one pirating a copy of “El Che” when it leaks and buying it when it finally gets released on iTunes. However, I’m certainly having a harder time recommending your music, and that’s a terrible thing. Sincerely,
Ezra M.
Leave a Comment