Hip Hop's Queer Pioneers

existentialistmumbojumbo:

Oh, this fag can rap?’ Yeah, they saying that, they listening.”
The lyrics are from the Harlem-based MC Mykki Blanco. But the sentiment expressed in her after-hours party anthem “Wavvy” is shared by other pioneering rappers who bristle at being defined by their sexual orientation—even as it helps bring attention to their work.

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The seven artists in this portfolio are wildly diverse, but they’re all about as far from the down-low as possible. In the “Wavvy” video, Blanco evolves from a male street tough in a backwards Raiders cap to a vamping glamazon in stilettos. When the rap duo House of Ladosha played New York City in July, Dosha Devastation accentuated her beard with a leopard-print sarong, gold hoop earrings, and a waist-length wig; Cunty Crawford Ladosha, all six feet eleven of him, rocked In Living Color Fly Girl-style biker shorts; and the group closed with their calling card, “B.M.F.,” short for “black model famous,” a paean to being as fabulous as Naomi Campbell. Artists such as these—once confined to gay clubs and art-world openings—are inching toward the mainstream.

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kvetchlandia:

Frank Stefanko     ”Daydream” Patti Smith, New York City     1973
“Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacket,
Taped to his chest there’s the answer,
You got pen knives and jack knives and
Switchblades preferred, switchblades preferred
Then he cries, then he screams, saying
Life is full of pain, I’m cruisin’ through my brain
And I fill my nose with snow and go Rimbaud,
Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud,
And go Johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi…”  Patti Smith, “Land”  1975

kvetchlandia:

Frank Stefanko     ”Daydream” Patti Smith, New York City     1973

“Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacket,

Taped to his chest there’s the answer,

You got pen knives and jack knives and

Switchblades preferred, switchblades preferred

Then he cries, then he screams, saying

Life is full of pain, I’m cruisin’ through my brain

And I fill my nose with snow and go Rimbaud,

Go Rimbaud, go Rimbaud,

And go Johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi…”  Patti Smith, “Land”  1975

(via rawpleasures)

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