You know what being gay has done for me? It’s given me a renewed relationship with hip hop. Underground hip hop: I’d heard of it and heard it recommended by people around me who didn’t like mainstream rap. However I was never moved enough to explore it. I was happy to not expand and just play my old shit over and over. Due to exposure in certain circles, I’m loving female (lesbian) rappers right now. Some of them are hot foreal and you wonder why the world is so messed up that they don’t have record deals but Soulja Boy does? Not that I can talk about people with nonsensical lyrics, since I’m interested in the scene of Sissy Rap, a sub genre of Bounce.

As unlikely as it may sound, there are a lot of openly gay, overtly camp, cross-dressing male rappers in bounce who are part of a phenomenon affectionately known as “sissy rap”..
The pioneering sissy rapper is Katey Red, a former transsexual prostitute, who signed to the very well-respected Take Fo’ label in the late 90s. Since then, loads more sissy rappers including SWA (Sissies With Attitude), Big Freedia and Sissy Nobby have appeared. They all have a dedicated following and play out most weekends at clubs and block parties – regularly in drag. Scene and heard

I just learned that some of the music on Houston radio I grew up listening to was called “Bounce”, didn’t know that the rap from New Orleans had a specific name…but looking back at some songs that I used to play, I was in love with it. Bounce, and by extension Sissy Rap, usually has either 1) nonsensical or 2) sexually explicit lyrics. Really it’s not about the lyrics, it’s about the beat. Though they can be talking about stupid, degrading shit sometimes (and I say this as a person who holds sexy sexually explicit songs in a special place in her heart); I haven’t 100% uncritically embraced “Back that {Ass}Thang Up”(Juvenile not DJ Jubilee) since I was 13. What’s also an interesting characteristic of Bounce (and Sissy Rap) is that women drive the market for it.

What I’m interested in is the fact that there’s (as I’ve found out) much ‘to do’ about “gay rappers” of course if you do a search on google for “gay rappers” you come back mainly with somebody named “Caushun” (pronounced: caution), who ended up being the Milli Vanilli of the gay rap world. The real gay rappers? Ya gotta search for them. They’re not in New York or L.A.; they don’t have major outlets blasting them. The bigger ones I’ve found: JenRo, God-des & She (The L Word season 3, “Lick it”), Feloni…eh. I’m not crazy about the sounds: JenRo should NEVER attempt to sing again…stick to rapping, thank you; Feloni, “Pussi Can” is good but repetitive, though I did like her ‘Coming Out Stories’ episode on Logo online. Who do I like?

Just recently, SIYA!! Songs is hotness, fire. Really creative beats and clever and raw lyrics. I would buy her album.

…most rappers of the homo-hop variety are content with staying underground and speaking to their own communities, but Siya isn’t. Her goal is to be accepted as the first openly gay female rapper in history to be fully accepted into the mainstream. Given her skills, accessible flow, and general swagger, this wouldn’t be that difficult to accomplish…but she’s not content with us forgetting she’s a lesbian, mentioning it in nearly every song she performs. While America may be ready to accept a lesbian MC, I don’t know if they’re ready to hear a lesbian MC continually referring to herself as a “dyke”. Beyond that, Siya isn’t a typical sexy femme porno lesbian that some heterosexual men would drop their tongues out for. She’s an AG, or aggressive … In short, Siya could probably throw on a skirt, rap about her vagina, and get a contract after a little bit of hustling her demo around. But I don’t think she’s going to do that any time soon. She’s going to have to deal with close-minded labels who assume she’ll only appeal to a small demographic, and I can only hope that her skills will help her overcome this hurdle. siya: even heterosexuals bump her shit.

Also, FLIPONDECK is just getting started, meaning she needs better equipment to record on, but the potential is there; I love it. Fiona Simone is another artist, love the beats.

All of these artists are underground because the majors refuse to play out-LGBT artists. Sure they can hide their sexuality (we’re looking at you ‘Brat), but they refuse to. I think it’s important that they keep this new stance. I was soo moved when I first heard a rolling beat with a woman rhyming on how much she loves her girlfriend. I was like, “This is beautiful,” personal and cultural validation come full circle.

Resources:
Sissy Bounce
Pickupthemic.com

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