Few current pop music styles elicit more diverse, emotional reactions from gay male music fans than the phenomena of rap. Many gay and bi guys love the groove, the attitude, the hyper-masculinity, the hot stars, the divas, the technology and the poetry; but many rightfully draw the line at hate-filled homophobic hip-hop lyrics by the likes of Eminem and Beenie Man.

In solving this dilemma, Art has done what Art has always done. It has divided itself--via some miraculous process of aesthetic mitosis--and moved forward. The once exclusively hetero art form of hip-hop has given birth to a movement of distinctly queer rappers, who in turn are grabbing it by the horns and making it their own.

Here's a survey of four equally different, yet equally fascinating, gay/bi male practitioners of “Homo-Hop.”

Award-winning, Chicago-based rapper Scott Free is a consummate songwriter and a master lyricist/poet. In a lifetime devoted to his art, he has triumphed not only through styles of hip-hop, but also punk, acoustic, folk, lounge, rock, electronica and more--emerging as a pop laureate of not just our queer culture, but of our whole modern age. Scott’s astounding new CD They Call Me Mr. Free includes numerous spitfire raps of terrifying intensity. Not only does he lash out at the straight world’s hatred of queers, but he also confronts hypocrisy within the gay establishment itself.

There are scathing condemnations found in tracks like “When Queers Become Rock Stars”:

When queers become rock stars they turn straight they spit in our face and we take it / their agents and managers say what they can and they can't do / they tell them their candor will hinder their chances they'll lose all their fans so they stand back and rake in the cash 'til they get caught in a bathroom

And this excerpt from “Disco Divas”:

Disco divas sing at Pridefest to remind us we're second class citizens / disco divas sing at Pridefest to remind us that straight is better / music should stay in the closet it shouldn't be honest or it will lose all its friends.

From Baltimore comes funk-pop sensation Saturn. Like the musical love-child of a Prince/James Brown/Janet Jackson 3-way, Saturn combines soulful, gospel-influenced singing with his own brand of sexy (if not downright licentious), whispered-in-your-ear seductive rap come-ons. To experience this handsome rising star croon, rap, dance, vogue, charm and effervesce his way through a live concert is to witness perhaps the hardest-working gay man in show biz. In addition to a voice this guy has some serious original moves.

Saturn's debut album, The Virgin Poet, received enthusiastic praise for its socially conscious and emotionally raw content. Check out this rap from the track “Angels in Flight”:

Walking the world with my rose colored glasses / Making a note of everything that passes / When all around me is destruction and sadness / Pushing us all 2 the edge of madness / I open my ears, I hear “nigger” and “faggot” / Shit, it's time 2 pull the trigger, I've had it / Open your eyes, punk, that's right I dropped u / What u gonna do now that a black mo' Got u? / Why don't u try these? My rose colored glasses / And maybe you'll see me in a different fashion

Saturn now turns up the heat with his new CD Deviant. This ultra-homoerotic album contains some of the most unashamedly promiscuous gay lyrics this listener has ever heard. From the title song, also called “Deviant”:

It's hard. Do U want it inside of U 2 groove until u feel the cosmos move? / U lookin' like I lost my mind. Well, I can see through your thin disguise. / I can feel your body calling me. Fuck the world, once you're inside my rings / I'm gonna make u shake and, baby, make u scream. / Have U open, boy, on your knees!

No other artist has raised awareness of the LGBT presence in hip-hop culture more than bi-coastal gay rap icon Dutchboy (formerly of Rainbow Flava, now with B.Q.E.). Dutchboy (a.k.a. “Judge” Muscat) is the also the founder and executive director of Phat Family Records, which he started in 1998 as a loose collective conduit for all his musical, organizational and promotional activities around “Homo-Hop.” Phat Family is made up of artists, writers and fans interested in exploring issues related to hip-hop music and culture; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identity. It produces musical events featuring independent LGBT hip-hop artists from throughout the U.S. and Europe. It also moderates an online mailing list for discussion of hip-hop and alternative sexual identities.

What is Homo-Hop? In Dutchboy’s own words: “Homo Hop is one of many terms coined to refer to the growing presence and collective identity of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people involved in hip-hop culture. It is not so much a sound or a “scene”, as it is a particular approach to music, business and community. By identifying as Homo Hop artists, we testify that our insights and shared experiences as LGBT people are unique, valuable and relevant to our expression in this highly personal art form. Homo Hop shrugs aside the labels “out,” “closeted,” “queer,” “DL” or “SGL” and validates the experience of those who love hip-hop and are sexually different, regardless of how they might choose to identify in the larger society.”

Dutchboy offered me my first real introduction to gay rap while I worked as sound engineer on his Rainbow Flava-Family Business (2001) CD. With an all-GLBT cast, this third album by the pioneering San Francisco-based group was the first hip-hop project to represent the entire queer community. It features MC performances by Dutchboy, N.I.Double-K.I. and PointFiveFag; guest appearances by D/DC, Miss Money, and Shante Smalls; and production work by Jeffrey “Dub” Mann, Archie Smooth, DJ Monkey and Tori Fixx.

By being on-hand in the recording studio during Dutchboy’s many vocal takes and overdubs, I got a chance not only to observe a great rapper at work, but also to digest his intricate word-maps and complex ideas. The man is wholeheartedly in love with hip-hop, inner-city and African American culture. Every nuance of speech, every turn of a phrase and pitch of a voice, every breath between words--all the things that make up the characters in his world are painstakingly rehearsed until perfect.

Dutchboy displays a phenomenal talent for vocal mimicry and impersonation. He’s able to create a different vocal personality to express each new tangent of thought he tackles, be it youth suicide, AIDS, repressive anti-gay laws, third world sexual politics, religion-based persecution of gays, bi-inclusiveness, co-gender inclusiveness, multiracial inclusiveness or society’s view of rap itself.

And now, fresh outta New York City via Seattle, WA, with the freshest face on the U.S. gay hip-hop scene today, is young soce (pronounced “so-say,” and always written in lower case).

soce (a.k.a. Andrew Singer) describes himself thus: “I am a rapper. My official title is Jewish, Gay White MC. I am the hip-hop Spellcaster…the Elemental Wizard. I am the male Lil Kim and the white Eminem. I make beats, I play violin, piano, I sing, I do it all, baby!!!”

And so he does. Soce can boast of two CDs, I’m in My Own World (2004) and Dream Da La Dream (2003), plus three film documentaries that feature him, and his own animated music video. He offers up hot, melodic sounds mixed with street sensibility and humor, plus a dash of something completely unexpected in rap--passionate homosexuality and a winning smile. Once they get over the shock, listeners grasp that he’s also layin’ down some seriously tight joints. Soce often works in partnership with female, Jewish, gay, white Wisconsin MC God-Des, and Brooklyn, NY-based bi porn electro rap star Houston Bernard.

My own first time at seeing and hearing soce was a stunner. At a show in NYC he swaggered out onstage and burst into a disarming, irresistible rendition of his infectious gay rap anthem “I Am So Gay.” This crowd-pleaser’s fun gimmick of alternating between lurid verses and a silly, no-brainer refrain had the audience of mostly white gay men & lesbians (not exactly your typical call-and-response gangsta crowd) chanting his hooks aloud with complete abandon.

I am a homo. That's what I do. / I'm feeling kind of hot. What's up with you? / You wanna suck my d**k? You wanna ass f**k? / But never sixty-nine. That number is bad luck. I REALLY AM SO GAY.. I REALLY AM… I REALLY AM… I REALLY AM SO GAY.

As with “I Am So Gay,” many of soce’s rap tunes feature simple, cute choruses. As he says, “It’s way more fun if everyone sings along.” Yet soce can also display a serious side to his easy rhymes, as in his song “Feels Good (Dirty)”

This goes out to those who player hate and / Make into debate the fate of those who date / The same sex, because the train wrecks the main set / So, stay in check. Player, respect the game deck.

With his charming goofiness, onstage charisma and uncanny aura of comfortableness – soce is poised to become the nasty good-will ambassador of gay white rappers to audiences everywhere.

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