"I hold hip-hop in such a high regard and expect so much of it because it is music that has very revolutionary roots." This is what artist Akenya Seymour said when asked about the LGBTQ community's possible growing alliance with the hip-hop community.
Akenya Seymour is a 23-year-old music artist from Chicago who identifies as queer and has been a musician since she was a child. "People tell me I sang myself to sleep as a baby," Seymour said. Like her, 22-year-old Chicago rapper Linzy has also been passionate about music since she was younger and identifies as queer. The two Chicago artists can often be found performing at different open mics around the city.
Being a part of the hip-hop community and the LGBTQ community sometimes go hand and hand for the artists.
I asked the two if they ever feel the need to rap about their sexual identities. The two answers were similar, yet different. When Linzy raps, she usually strays away from the typical heterosexual topics that are so often seen in the hip-hop community. However, she told Windy City Times she doesn't feel the pressure to talk about her sexual identification much because it is something that just comes naturally.
However, as natural as Linzy's raps come to her, so does her anxiety. She said that this is because she never knows how her audience is going to perceive her raps—as well as her as an artist. Linzy said that if she doesn't know her crowd, she doesn't know how people will accept the content she performs, which usually has a lot to do with the LGBTQ community.
"It's a make-or-break thing for me. With some people it can make them feel very uncomfortable," Linzy said. However, she said this hasn't stopped her from receiving a lot of positive reviews.
Seymour—who raps and sings mostly about love, peace and spirituality—said she doesn't feel the pressure to rap about her identity at all. "There are more intrinsic pieces to me," Seymour said.
Both artists believe that not only does the hip-hop community seem to be more accepting of the LGBTQ community, but people in general. Seymour said she believes that this is because it is "inevitable." She added, "Our generation having access to the internet and different forms of communication has caused a lot of people to speak up and speak out."
Even though acceptance in hip-hop is becoming easier to come by, Seymour said the community is still a "boys' club." According to Linzy, female rappers still have to be aggressive, yet sexy. Seymour added she believes the hypersexualization may also be the reason the hip-hop community is lacking gay, male rappers.
"Every form of oppression feeds off of each other. You can't have homophobia without patriarchy. You can't have any of those things without sexism. Oppression is profitable," Seymour said.
Both Linzy and Seymour said that it hurts when some of their favorite rappers use homophobic slurs in their raps.
"America has a long history of homophobia. A lot of that is steeped in the patriarchy," Seymour said. Linzy said this is the reason we don't usually see LGBTQ rappers in mainstream hip-hop.
"Same way you get bullied in high school, you can get bullied in the industry," said Linzy regarding the LGBTQ community's marginalization in the hip-hop community.
Linzy said that the ingrained homophobia is disappointing because "These are the people I idolize and they have something negative to say about the person I am."
Even with all of this being said, according to Linzy, "People are becoming more [aware]." She said that hip-hop has a lot of growing to do and that she would like to see rappers being held accountable in the future for homophobic slurs ( even if it is internalized ).
Regarding the future of the hip-hop and LGBT community's intersectionality, Seymour said that the optimist in her hopes our society "is moving toward a more unified connected state. The potential is there. The more people become aware and talk about their experiences publicly, the better I think it's going to get."
