America needed a gay, black country-rap star like Lil Nas X
Having worked throughout my teen and adult life, I empathize with minimum-wage earners and supporters who are advocating to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Adults who work hard to support themselves and their families deserve to make a living wage, meaning a wage with which they can live a decent life. The federal and state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is not enough to live decently.
This is not conjecture or assumption. It is fact. The politicians, business-owners and other potential change-makers living rich lives know this.
They now should acknowledge this fact and do something about it. Yes, businesses must keep expenses in check to survive and succeed, but it does not have to be done at the expense of the people who give them a hard day’s work. They too must feed, clothe and house themselves and their families.
If we the United States of America are indeed the biggest, the mightiest and the best nation in the world, then we must act accordingly. Setting a good example for the world would be great, but more important is doing right by our people.
We must pay citizens a living wage, as well as provide adequate health care and affordable housing. These simple remedies for a few of our society’s ills will not threaten the wealthy and those who own and control businesses; yet, these corrective steps will improve the lives of so many.
Music and popular culture plays a major role in shaping and reinforcing the status quo as well as the lens in which we view racial, sexual and gender identity.
As a black adolescent hip-hop listener, I can attribute to hip-hop much of my identity; from the clothes I wear, the vernacular I speak, to the way I view myself in society.
Unfortunately, since we live in a society where culture and the status quo are organized around identity, hip-hop, a genre created by young, poor blacks in the Bronx, has felt the impact of black, poor and youth demonization and stereotypes.
Although other popular music genres also reinforce misogyny, rape culture, violence, drug usage and homophobia, the popularity and co-opting of hip-hop allows it to be the scapegoat for societal issues.
Since hip-hop is viewed as “black music,” this narrative not only discourages black kids like me from branching out but also puts us in a position of suffering a similar fate to Jordan Davis,17, and most recently Elijah Al-amin, 17, who were both young boys of color killed for listening to rap music.
Jordan Davis, murdered in 2014, was shot three times in his car by 45-yearold white Michael Dunn who was annoyed by his “thug” music.
A couple of days ago, on the 4th of July, 27-year-old Michael Paul Adams slit Elijah Al-amin’s throat stating that “anyone who listens to rap music is a threat to the whole community.”
Lil Nas X, the gay, 20-year-old, black, cowboy-hat-wearing rapping rock star with the hottest song in the world, is important because he’s changing that narrative.
The massive impact that his extremely successful hit “Old Town Road” has on popular culture is undeniable. The song is catchy enough to rile up an entire school of elementary kids and even inspire a mostly nonverbal autistic child to sing the lyrics.
Not only has his music and internet personality captivated millions of people across the country, his recent coming-out has also sparked much needed conversations around race, music and identity.
Before his sexuality made headlines, Lil Nas X attracted national attention when Billboard decided to remove “Old Town Road” from its country charts as it was rising to the top.
The folks at Billboard determined that the country trap song, a sub-genre of country rap, wasn’t country enough. Yet, the song which can be argued to not
even be a rap song remained on their R&b/hip-hop charts, where it has dominated for the last 17 weeks.
The controversy surrounding the decision led to conversations examining the relationship between race and music genres.
Of course Billboard said the decision had nothing to do with race — maybe because they have black friends — but should we not look into how Billboard and the music industry have historically contributed to racial barriers in music genres that Lil Nas X is seemingly breaking down?
Barriers and stereotypical charts, like “Race Records” and its successor “Hot R&B/HIP Hop,” have historically restricted black artists and listeners to a box and reinforced the racist idea that black music was made for and by black people, and white music was made for and by white people.
So when a young, black musician from Atlanta, a city known for its hiphop scene, has a highly successful country hit, it rightfully deserves our attention. However, let’s note that he is far from the first to break out of the box, in fact he credits another Atlanta artist, Young Thug, for pioneering the country trap genre.
Outside of his music, Young Thug is a respected hip-hop artist known for his appreciation (or appropriation) of queer culture, despite the idea that hip-hop and the black community uniquely have a homophobia problem.
Actual black openly gay artists, specifically successful black cis-men, like
ANDREW NELLES/USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE
Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator, and now Lil Nas X, have seen the increasing support for their sexuality within the black music community, however the backlash and violence still exist.
For simply existing as a highly influential queer artist in heterosexist society, mutually reinforced by its music industry, is a much-needed threat to the status quo. However, Lil Nas X is a human being. Even if it seems like he’s taking it in a lighthearted, humorous fashion, the oppressive and violent backlash that he has received is not normal.
The heterosexist and homophobic comments that he’s receiving should give us an idea of the everyday violence that LGBTQ+ people experience from people fighting to maintain a heteronormative culture from which they benefit.
As a straight cis-male who grew up in the popular cultural that reinforced the heterosexist idea that my sexuality is superior, I cannot speak through the lens of LGBTQ+ people. However, I believe that Lil Nas X, rather intentionally or not, is opening doors for people to fully express their identities.
As Americans, and as a society, we should all reflect on our own identities and how they’ve been shaped and orchestrated in relation to a hierarchy of power and oppression. If you feel threatened by Lil Nas X’s sexuality or blackness, you’re probably insecure about your own identity. If you are, that’s OK, we just can’t allow that insecurity to turn into violence. Let’s learn and grow together.
Quintez Brown is an opinion writer at the Courier Journal. He can be reached at 502-582-4187 or qbrown @courierjournal.com. Follow him at @quintez.brown on Instagram and @quintez_brown on Twitter.