From the world of hip hop comes the news that Fat Joe is “dissing” 50 Cent & G Unit by portraying them as gay on the cover of a mix tape entitled Gay Unit Vol. 1.

Fat Joe and 50 Cent, top selling acts in the hip hop industry, are currently engaged in a feud. This latest incident involves Fat Joe's response to their feud.

Fat Joe Photoshopped the cover of a mix tape with an image of 50 Cent, Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks. In the photo, the rappers tightly hold each other while wearing smeared lipstick. To further the “joke,” Yayo displays an “I Miss Jail” tattoo on his shoulder, and Banks displays a tattoo of 50 Cent with “Delicious” written under it.

Hip Hop’s treatment of gay people is an issue that has been discussed previously by AfterElton.com and 50 Cent is an artist well known for his anti-gay rhetoric. Sadly, there is nothing shocking about Fat Boy's behavior either. It's a continuation of rappers repeating the same themes over and over again.

Fortunately, there are some slow changes occuring within the industry. There are straight artists who are accepting of gays like Kanye West and hip artists who are gay themselves like Deadlee.

Ultimately, the problem with this joke is the same as Jimmy Kimmel’s use of gay characters. Where’s the creativity? The joke begins and ends with defining a person or group as gay. Satire about the gay community can be fun. Certainly, shows like Rick and Steve and Drawn Together demonstrate that a good joke told in a fresh way never goes out of style. A good joke can be real. The problem here is that the joke is just old and tired.

Everything comes in cycles.

Especially trends in popular music.

Sometimes it's hard to tell what's driving it. On one level, an artist's work is a collage of their influences, colliding with new conditions of the present time in which they find themselves. Prince arrives in the late 1970's, and his brand of funk, rock and new wave certainly sounds of the period. But what would His Royal Badness sound like if there had never been a James Brown?

At the same time, market forces also drive our taste for nostalgia. A few years ago I started noticing laundry detergent and car commercials using songs I grew up on, or images that would "speak" to me. I had become, seemingly overnight, a market niche. In music, when one artist breaks the mold or a "trend" is spotted, labels run behind other labels, trying to find their next "so and so."

So the vicious cycle continues. In the pop world, we are in 1980s retro-mania. From Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado's synth new-wave sounds (courtesy of super producer Timbaland) to the studded belts and mo/fro-hawks and skinny jeans rocked by the post hip-hop youngsters (and some not-so youngsters).

But the 1980's were also heavily influenced by the 60's. And there are several artists that the gay boys have been fawning over with recent recordings available who embody an 80's/60's soul sound that is in part driven by their influences as much as by labels. This is the first in a series I am going to do about this new wave of 60's retro sounds in pop music.

The most famous artist in this retro-trend is Joss Stone, who today drops her third disc, ironically titled Introducing Joss Stone. Stone, the British-born blue-eyed soul singer has had industry buzz since the release of her first album, . On this new record, her vocals are more mature, and veteran producer Raphael Saadiq work on this album reflects in a much more restrained vocal attack. The result is actually more soulful than her first two efforts, which are riddled with over-used vibratto.

But unfortunately there are still many songs that are too retro for their own good. The first single, Tell Me Bout It, is a guitar-laced track reminiscent of James Brown and Etta James (More recently, it sounds a lot like Joi's Crave, from Star Kitty's Revenge--another Saadiq collaboration).

I realize there are many contenders for that title, but this song has to be in the running. Every year Europe holds something called The Eurovision Song Contest which has been going on since 1956. Each country in the European Broadcast Union picks a song to represent them and the finalists all compete in a live competition watched between 100 and 600 million viewers. After watching this song--Flying the Flag (for you) by Scooch--I have only one question: Exactly how has Europe managed to convince us how tasteful and sophisticated they are for all these years?

I'm joshing our European friends, of course. Judging from this clip, the Eurovision competition looks like a campy hoot. I mean a song about flight attendants? And those outfits? And what's not to love about lines of dialogue like these suggestively delivered by one of the guys:

Some salted nuts, Sir?

or

Would you like something to suck on for landing, Sir?

I did a little research and Scooch was formed in 1999 as one of those made-to-order type bands put together by a promoter who holds auditions. I couldn't actually find confirmation the two lads--David and Russ--are gay, but they do live together, and let's just say their profiles read "gay". Whether they are or not, they certainly don't mind camping it up and having fun. Here's to their "triumph" at the Eurovision finals!