Kanye West revisits his comments against homophobia

Last year, we took a look at homophobia in hip-hop, an issue that took a turn in 2005 when Kanye West spoke out against homophobic lyrics. Recently, West spoke with music magazine NME about the reaction to his comments and his thoughts since then.

The backlash West saw after speaking out against homophobia is, sadly, entirely unsurprising:

"Speaking out against hip-hop homophobia, some people were like 'Oh, Kanye must be gay! Look at the way he's dressing! And why would he speak about it? He's a gay rapper'," he notes. "And my whole point is, I wouldn't have spoke on that if I was gay or if I was in the closet. I would have stayed so far away from it."

West notes that working with gay people in the music industry contributed to his journey in dealing with his homophobia:

"It's being in the entertainment world, I meet so many different gay people who are actually nice people. Where I came from, Chicago, being black and being a hip-hop artist, we used to really disrespect gay people. And the thing is, we can't get close to them with a 10-foot pole. And I realised, 'Wow, how ignorant has this been?'"

Sadly, you can see the attitude West speaks of in instances like Busta Rhymes' attack of a gay fan, which happened last March. While the best hope probably does lie in supporting gay hip-hop artists (coarse lyrics are quoted in the article), allies like West are helping challenge the homophobic status quo.