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Identity

Meet the Cholo Rap Artists Behind 'Homo-Hop'

Deadlee and Baby Boi Slim make unapologetic music about being gay and Latino.

Hip-hop has a long history of homophobia. The culture has slowly started to shift, but to this day, rappers are still using homophobic slurs in their lyrics. Enter "Homo-Hop," a growing genre that uses the sound and style of hard-core rap, but also embraces the LGBTQ community. In the latest episode of Broadly and VICE's LATIN-X, host Paola Ramos interviews two rappers in the Homo-Hop scene: Deadlee, who pioneered the genre, and Baby Boi Slim, who follows in his footsteps.

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Broadly caught up with Deadlee and Slim to talk about lyrics, pride, and how they've inspired each other.

BROADLY: Deadlee, how did you decide to start rapping about being gay?
DEADLEE: Initially, I didn't set out to do that. But my producer, Goo, he kinda pushed me and helped me realize that hip-hop started out being about people's true experience—you know, on the street, and who they really are. So he said, when I'm writing my lyrics, that I need to be true to myself. I even told him, I said, "Well, you know, I'm gay. So I write about that?" He's like, "Write about whatever, whoever you are." So that's what I did. When my music came out, it was just true to who I was. I wasn't hiding anything. It was just me.

BROADLY: Slim, how did you get into hip-hop?
BABY BOI SLIM: I first got into hip-hop around 2004. I was pretty much just listening to what was on the radio. Then, I stumbled upon Deadlee through a friend, who had his first album. I really liked his music because his music was way different then what I was listening to on the radio. I noticed that it was more raw, definitely a little bit more visceral. At first, I didn't even know Deadlee was gay. That was around the same time I was coming out of the closet and coming to terms with my sexuality. So when I found out that he was gay, that's what kind of inspired me to, not even like rap in the beginning, but I did wanna start looking into poetry. Once I got into high school and I started listening to more Chicano rap, that's when I wanted to pursue that career as well and just become the first openly gay Chicano rapper. I considered Deadlee to be the first gay rapper that basically started a movement; I'm just following in his footsteps.

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BROADLY: How did you feel when you found out Deadlee was gay?
BABY BOI SLIM: It was definitely different, but at the same time, more than anything, I felt empowered. I felt influenced that someone like me was representing a lifestyle that, at the time, I was living. I was never a gang banger, I never repped a hood, or a color, or a side, or anything like that. But I did have friends that were affiliated with it, so growing up in the whole hip-hop culture and the rap culture, that's something that I've always been around. To hear a gay rapper definitely just boosted my morale and boosted my confidence in being able to say, yes this is something I can do.

To hear a gay rapper definitely just boosted my morale and boosted my confidence in being able to say, yes this is something I can do.

BROADLY: Deadlee, did you intend your music to have that impact on young, LGBTQ listeners?
DEADLEE: I was working with homeless gays at the same time that I was working on my first album, so they inspired me, too. These young kids, they're like 12, 13, and they're going to school, getting bullied. At the same time, they didn't really have music, they listened to hip-hop. There was this one kid, Chris, who loved Eminem. Eminem had this song where he was like, "I hate fags." He kept saying it to the other gay kids in the group home and I was like, "Dude, you need to stop that, man."

So, I was kinda reppin' these gay kids. I felt like, if they could be out in the streets and they're getting kicked out by their parents, by family members, into the street, but they're wearing gay on their sleeve and dealing with so much more at such a young age, why can't I be out in my lyrics?

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BROADLY: That's really brave. Thinking back, is there a lyric that has been particularly scary for you to include in a song in the past?
DEADLEE: I did a song called "Gay Pac." I just felt like, you know, if Pac was gay, I think he would be out with this stuff. He'd be this bold. It wasn't a joke, but a idea. I wasn't trying to make fun of him or gay gangsters even, but it was just like, if Pac was gay, I think he'd be bold and he'd be an activist. So that song was kinda like, wow, I wonder how people are going to react to it.

BABY BOI SLIM: Deadlee was the one who inspired me to rap in the beginning, but I take a lot of my influences from major Chicano rappers, in particular Ms Krazie, Miss Lady Pinks, Carolyn Rodriguez, King Lil G, and all these other big time rappers. And luckily for me, I've had guidance from some of these artists that I've actually looked up to…. Thankfully, I have that guidance because, as visceral as I want to be with my music, they remind that I'm still a very controversial image in Chicano rap.

It's crazy because I've actually performed with them. Never in a thousand years did I ever believe that a promoter who promotes Chicano rap artists would even allow me to perform at these shows…There's times when I've had to hold back some of my lyrics because they didn't want me to draw that much attention. They didn't want me to incite, basically, the wrong crowd, which is true. Even as a artist, sometimes you do have to hold back a little bit and just be careful not to put yourself in a position of danger because some people are not gonna agree with what you rap about or what you even represent.

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BROADLY: In the documentary, you both mention being turned down for performing at Pride events. Why do you think that is?
DEADLEE: I think that gay pride in general, the people who run those events, their idea of what the gay community likes is either old divas, or dance music. … I think early on, it was just that they thought hip-hop would bring a bad element to the festivals. They didn't understand that gays doing hip-hop might actually bring a different kind of element, be saying different things. It's kinda funny, you can't even pick your fans I use to try to market more to the gay community and I realized I had to keep an open mind too because my fans ended up being sometimes straight punk rockers. … Sometimes the gay community isn't even as open as other people might be.

BABY BOI SLIM: I have to agree with Deadlee. I knew that I would have fans who are straight, but the majority of my fan base are heterosexual. Little by little, I'm seeing LGBT Chicano fans that are slowly discovering my music—even though they won't publicly share it.

A couple of months ago, I had this guy message me on my Instagram. He said that he found my music through his girlfriend. He basically just went on a rant saying that he's actually bisexual and she doesn't know about it. He heard one of my songs and he said that he just broke down, because he knows exactly what I'm feeling, but because of the lifestyle he lives, he has to live in secret. It just kinda opened up my eyes that maybe, just maybe, I am doing a little something.

Like I said before, thankfully I have help from three of the leading ladies in Chicano rap—Ms. Krazie, Miss Lady Pinks, and Carolyn Rodriguez—that not only guide me and help me improve with my rap flows but they also promote me. I also owe thanks to Deadlee, and to David and Daphne Salas from the Salas Studio, where I'm recording my upcoming album. Much love to the Rainbow Mafia. The movement will never stop.

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DEADLEE: I've been out of the scene for awhile and concentrating more on my acting and writing and stuff. But when we did this [LATIN-X] piece and Slim wanted to work with me, he kinda inspired me to get back in the studio. That's a big thing that came out of this whole project: I got back in the studio with this straight rapper named Red Eye, who executive produced the whole CD [that I'm coming out with on May 31] and we're about done. It's called The Most Deadlee Faggot in America. Yesterday, I finally asked Slim to be on one of the tracks. So, this all came back around full circle. I inspired him, but he inspired me to get back in and do another CD and get more music out.

BABY BOI SLIM: I'm more excited than anybody.