The One With The Pro #LGBT Hip Hop Artist

So I was trying to come up with an idea for a theme as it relates to this month's podcast.  I mostly just put music I like together that I want to share with others, and hopefully they feel something towards it like I do.  Every now and then I try to have some type of theme for the month.  One month it was 90's Hip Hop & R&B which is a favorite era and genre for me, another month it was all D'angelo, another Jamiroquai, and a few months back it was all Indie artists.

This month I had the idea to do an entire podcast of pro LGBT music.  Positive music either by LGBT artists or straight artists that spoke on the issues affecting many of our LGBT brothers and sisters.  A lot of the songs I was thinking of those, aren't what I usually post, musically.  I post a lot of different genres, but I don't really post much rock and the first two songs I thought of was Elton John's "All the Girls love Alice" and Rod Stewart's brilliant and tragic "The Killing of Georgie" which remains one of my all time favorite songs.

Then I stumbled across this track by an artist named Adair Lion who is from Texas, and was just blown away.  Here we have a straight hip hop artist speaking out in support of gays and lesbians, and calling out his hip hop contemporaries to do the same.  The song is called "Ben" and samples the classic Michael Jackson track of the same name.  I'm surprised I'm just now hearing this, but it was really good.  I'd never heard Adair before, but will definitely look at checking his music out now.  I wish I had heard this before when I did the Indie podcast, but I guarantee you, no matter what theme I have this month on the podcast, this song will definitely be on there.

MORE AFTER THE BREAK:

Listening to it, there were so many emotions going through me.  I've long spoken out against the bigotry and violence that has befallen those in the LGBT community.  I'm not gay, but I have many close friends who are, and my very best friend back east is a lesbian.  And so I take shit like that personally, and I sometimes get a little crazy when I see things like gay teens killing themselves, or ignorant assholes in various parts of the country tormenting and bullying other kids just because they love differently then someone else.

This kind of thing bothers me to my core, and one of the things that I've constantly gone up against is the Christian bigotry when it comes to those in the LGBT community.  As a Christian I take immense offense at that, and push back against it whenever I can, either on here or on Twitter and Facebook.  I don't kid myself into thinking I'm making a huge difference, but if I can at least convince one or two other people out there that these ignorant people who are spouting off alleged Christian beliefs and are viciously attacking someone based on their sexual identity are not speaking on behalf of all Christians, and that there are those who are vehemently opposed to that rhetoric, then I'll feel like it's not all a waste.

And nowhere is that needed more, it seems, then in hip hop.  Frank Ocean, an R&B singer came out as having loved a man in the past, and while there was some applause from a lot of big names in the industry, there was also just as much vitriol and hatred coming from the fans of those big name artists.  

There was an article recently asking whether or not Hip Hop had come to terms with their anti-gay bigotry and homophobic history.   I felt that it wasn't a matter of hip hop, it was a matter of hip hop's fans.  I don't think that the majority of hip hop artists truly have a problem with someone being gay, but it's the fear that their fans won't like it, and thus won't like them if they support it or seemingly condone it.

So therefore you have artists like 50 Cent trying to, forgive the pun, play both sides of the fence with it.  On one hand, he's spoken in the past about his mother who was a lesbian, and he has spoken out in support of Frank Ocean.  However he's also said some pretty hateful and derogatory things about homosexuals in interviews and his lyrics.  So he's trying to come off as tolerant enough so that perhaps gay friendly hip hop fans will still support, but those who hate gay people will still support him as well.

At least that's how I see it, anyway.

All I know is that Adair Lion is a breath of fresh air in hip hop and we need more of that.  As he said in the song, "where you at Wayne?  Where you at, Ye?"

Something tells me we'll be waiting an awfully long time before either of those two speak out in a meaningful way, from the heart, on a consistent basis.

FOLLOW ADAIR LION ON TWITTER

CHECK OUT ADAIR'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE

BONUS VIDEO:  Adair Lion: BAMF

This is a pretty cool video here.  I especially thought it was pretty damn cool what they did with the women's lips.  I really dug this.   I gotta say, I'm really looking forward to his mixtape "Michael & Me" which is a tribute to Michael Jackson.  While his previous track "Ben" sampled the MJ song of the same name, "BAMF" has samples or interpolations of "Smooth Criminal".

Very cool effort by Mr. Lion all around.  The camera work in this was very nice.