LGBTQ Hip Hop Artists
Hip Hop gets a bad rap as a homophobic music genre but there are more and more high profile Out hip hop artists well known to the public: gay Frank Ocean and bisexual Fergie (also lead vocalist for the Black Eyed Peas} spring to mind. Several artists of this genre have been out and proud for some time.
Hip Hop itself rose to prominence in the 1990s and gay Shorty Roc is considered a pioneer of the hip hop scene since he appeared in New York City at that time.
Many of the prominent gay hip hop artists are huge underground phenomena. Consider New Orlean's Big Freedia's YouTube videos with over 1 million hits, lesbian Brooke Candy with 1.5 million hits, pansexual Angel Haze with 1.7 million hits, or lesbian Azealia Banks with over 2.5 million hits.
LGBTQ hip hop artists are also LGBTQ activists. Recently, Solomon cancelled his Russian tours in protest of that country's homophobic laws. He describes himself as an out and proud gay entertainer and actively encourages other gay hip hop artists to come out of the closet.
One notable characteristic of the LGBTQ hip hop scene - almost all of these gay entertainers are American.
Read about the artists below for more fascinating biographies, including links to videos and interviews:
- Angel Haze, United States
- Azealia Banks, United States
- Big Freedia, United States
- Brooke Candy, United States
- Bry'nt, United States
- Frank Ocean, United States
- Fergie, United States
- Freddie Ross, United States
- Kaoz, United States
- Kin4life, United States
- LE1F, United States
- Lucy Spraggan, Great Britain
- Shaun T, United States
- Shorty Roc, United States
- Soce, United States
- Solomon, United States
- Will Sheridan, United States
- Zebra Katz, United States
