Also check out dream hampton and Nitsuh Abebe on the topic, if you missed them.
Wonderful video from JSmooth as always, folks. I encourage everyone to check it out!
One thing that does perplex is me is one of the initial reactions Smooth has to Ocean coming out; although I can understand the idea of being wary against the more nefarious ways artists self-promote, I can’t imagine anyone confusion coming out with self-promotion. Maybe it’s because I’m queer and therefore biased against the logic that being publicly queer in any space (not just hip-hop or rap, despite whatever the media would have you believe)—but as dream hampton pointed out in her letter on Jay-Z’s blog, plenty of artists have seen the downfall of their careers right over the shoulder of their coming out stories. Had Ocean really been looking for a way to promote his upcoming album, coming out would not be the way to do it.
On the night Ocean came out, I wrote a post that clearly showed how I was all up in my queer feelings, and someone reblogged it with the same sentiments Smooth showed above—except the person in mind wasn’t really wary so much as cynical. There was an obvious difference of wanting to protect one’s self as a consumer (what I feel like Smooth was doing here) and writing off the artist completely (what the aforementioned was doing there.) It’s really shocking to me that people still view sexuality as a publicity stunt—not because sexuality isn’t important but because it it is too personal to be anything as open and as demanding as publicity stunt.
As far as the Nicki Minaj affair goes: I really want people to realize that I am probably always going to give her the benefit of the doubt. I’m not condoning or demonizing her transition from bisexual to straight, because sexuality is pretty fluid and people do tend to fuck up sometimes. I’ve fucked up plenty of times on my way to being what I am now, and things can get confusing. I’m not totally comfortable with likening Minaj’s transition to a publicity stunt. Is there a probability of it? Of course, but that’s pretty much only for Minaj to know at this point.
