Homohop music

In the late 1990s, I ended my "queercore" label Outpunk to focus on hip hop and electronic music. I spent a year producing what I hoped to be the first openly lesbian rap CD by LA's Cyryus. Come 1998, that dream was realized, but few cared. We moved on to other things.

However, for those few that did care, an online community mobilized around this CD, made of LGBT hip hop heads seeking out others to do more. That culminated in the 2000 PeaceOUT festival in Oakland. Finding that there were others - many others - out there participating in hip hop's major tenets - rapping, breaking, DJing, and graf - the PeaceOUT festival began as a yearly survey of all sides of the LGBT rap scene. 

Out of that scene a dozen or two albums were produced. The core audience was small. I worked with several artists. I recall rushing a CD into production in time for 2003 PeaceOUT NYC, thinking I'd need to satisfy an eager crowd. I sold one copy. 

The music industry was changing, as CD production was within reach of almost anyone, and many people had switched to peer-to-peer filesharing as the preferred method of music consumption. Despite critical success, "homohop" was doomed to be little more than a media soundbite. It never broke out of its tiny clubhouse. At least it was represented in the very competent and thoughtful "Pick Up The Mic" documentary, which gained wide exposure and is still viewable today. 

Years later, it's hard to say what impact "homohop" had on music or culture. Big Freedia existed on the fringes of the scene, and was arguably the most successful to emerge from this time. Later successes of Frank Ocean and Lil Nas X are almost unrelated to this scene, but they embody the dream of all of us - an openly LGBT rapper in the spotlight at the top of their game. 

Releases:

N. I. Double K. I. "Giftstylez" 12" single (Supreme Entertainment, 1996) conscious rap from SF, produced by Kut Masta Kurt (Kool Keith, Planet Asia). 

Cyryus "The Lyricist" CD (Queercorps, 1998) featuring N. I. Double K. I.

Tori Fixx "The Mochasutra" CD (Soulectric, 2000) Criminally underrated, a homohop founding father and innovator, producer to many and a gifted vocal performer of his own making. One-time DJ for Prince and smooth rapper influenced by Q-Tip and Missy Elliott, among many. 

Tori Fixx "Marry Me" CD (ACRONYM, 2004) An album that should have been huge but failed largely because of my own inept marketing and the very possibility that something can exist long before its time. Contains the title track anthem directed at GW Bush Jr. ("mother fuck Mr. President") as a rallying cry for marriage equality, which would eventually become obsolete by 2015. 

Deadlee "Assault with a Deadlee Weapon" CD (ACRONYM, 2004) Rage Against the Machine-inspired metallic gangsta rap, the gun is actually a dick.

God-Des "Reality" CD (Self-released, 2004) Butch dyke take on (then) modern rap/R&B - a lesbian Eminem but far friendlier.