I was trolling through the Internet the other night and stumbled upon an amazing web series called Yo! LGBT Raps (also known as YLR). If you were a child or young adult in the late 80s and early 90s you might remember the cable television show Yo! MTV Raps, which was crucial to the spread of rap and hip-hop culture around the world.
YLR, hosted by Kaos da Rapper and Free Lance, continues the legacy left by the MTV show with interviews, album reviews and quirky interludes between videos. The show has a throw back aesthetic and features talented queer rappers and great videos from across the pond to the dirty south.
If I may offer a criticism: the show is dominated by lesbian artists and although they represent a broad spectrum of genders within that identity, there is an obvious lack of GBTQ rappers. With a show called Yo! LGBT Raps, I expected to see more GBTQ artists.
With the visibility of other QPOC rap artists rising alongside the second wave of Paris is Burning fetishization, as seen in hipster publications like this Pitchfork article, this YouTube web series should also be on your queue to discover the new, new in queer hip hop and cultural production.
Check out an episode of Yo! LGBT Raps below:
REALLY…… When I see an LGBT Rapper win a grammy I’ll be convinced, until then……..HA
Sadly, this show is very binary. It does not highlight the diversity wide ragging identities from the entire LGBTQITGN communities in the United States and around the world at large. There should be more inclusion for gender variant and many more range of identities and experiences.
New Web TV Series Yo! LGBT Raps Features Queer Rap and Hip Hop MCs. Read more… http://t.co/OdvAaMUTrr