Kanye On All Things "Gay"

Never one to back away from a sound bite, Kanye West continues his flirtation with all things gay by declaring that calling something "gay" should be considered the ultimate compliment.

To which I say, um...thank you? I mean, Kanye is the arbiter of cool, at least according to him. And his new interview with Details magazine illustrates in almost awkward detail how comfortable West is embracing his inner diva: at one point he gets a wild hair that he must have flowers delivered pronto, and they must adhere to his rigid design aesthetic; we also learn of his near-obsession with getting an internship at a top design house.

But it's his musings on how "gay" can be used as an adjective that really stand out. Here's his riff on it: "Titles are very important. I like to embody titles, y'know, or words that have negative connotations, and explain why that's good. Take the word gay—like, in hip-hop, that's a negative thing, right? But in the past two, three years, all the gay people I've encountered have been, like, really, really, extremely dope. Y'know, I haven't, like, gone to a gay bar, nor do I ever plan to. But where I would talk to a gay person—the conversation would be mostly around, like, art or design—it'd be really dope. From a design standpoint, kids'll say, 'Dude, those pants are gay.' But if it's, like, good, good, good fashion-level, design-level stuff, where it's on a higher level than the average commercial design stuff, it's, like, gay people that do that. I think that should be said as a compliment. Like, 'Dude, that's so good it's almost . . . gay.'"

Ok...so much to digest here. First, why the resistance in going to a gay bar? He's made a point of saying how the rap community needs to cure itself of homophobia - cure thyself then, brotha. And he's never talked to a gay person about anything other than design or art. Really? Are we that one-dimensional?

But I get what he's getting at, and it's actually an interesting point. What if the use of the word "gay" as a Class-B epithet could be inverted to be a compliment? Who would own the word? Could only gays use it amongst themselves, or could it ever be successfully "mainstreamed"?

West goes on to provide additional examples: "'Dude, that's so good it's almost gay!' 'Dude, you pay real attention to detail—that's almost, like, gay!' 'You had a whole conversation with that girl without bringing up sex? That was, like, gay!'"

Even as the examples devolve into jokes, one thing is clear about West: he doesn't say anything he doesn't mean, and while I think we can all agree that we are light years away from hearing "you're so gay" as a compliment (thanks for nothing, Katy Perry), you gotta love the guy for taking on topics and expressing points-of-view that are still largely considered taboo in rap circles. Kanye keeps things interesting for sure, and if he thinks that "that's so gay" should be a catchphrase for all that is cool and sophisticated, far be it from me to stop him. 

(Image courtesy of Getty)

Comments

[Drivellove]

I haven't been so optimistic about something said by a hip hop star in regards to all things gay since, well..,never. I know Kanye is a little nuts right now, but I think what he's saying make perfect sense. Perfect sense to me, anyway.

Love it.

[rappingnymofo]

I love the idea of calling something gay to be the biggest compliment ever. For god's sake, we deserve it. But if you think about it, dont most people know by this point how gay people are so much less fucked up than straights?

[Rick]

Kanye is full odf crap. Why would a site dedicated to Gay people even remotely support this garbage?

[whocares]

I think rappers and hip hoppers should be called idiots. No I mean that as a compliment!

[Dan]

Okay, the man gives gays a compliment and you idiots flip it into some kind of insidious attempt at exploiting gays. Spare us your pontificating blah33, you're remarks are regurgitated garbage, spewed by all neoconservatives, which is really regressive for the entire gay community.

[Frankly]

BTW Gay is not the same as the N word Blah.

Faggot, Queer, Pillowbiter, Punk, Maricon. Those are similar. But Gay is okay.

Black is Beautiful.
And Gay is Great.

[markey]

I have always been a fan of Kanye's music and this now makes me like him as a person more.

[wolf4t3]

Kanye West is just a no talant arrogant ass...

[Dj Tigerstylez]

Kanye, please shut up! You are such an embarrassment.

[armsofundertow]

well i decided kanye was an ass a while ago when he declared himself god or whatnot and dropped his cd on sept 11th and vowed it was the best day ever. he's an idiot who is full of himself. i can only expect more dumb comments from him in the future, or at least until the general public realizes he is in fact NOT god and goes away for good..

[Rechlo]

God Damn, I hate the American slang. (Canadian as well, being that I am Canadian) I have NEVER seen the word "gay" as negative. It was only our bastardization of the word the turned it negative. It's original meaning has always been "happy, full of joy" and so on. I've always taken it as something positive. Frankly, I don't know about you, I quite enjoy when someone says I appear happy. I don't understand how it became such a negative thing for us.

But, i guess if you get offended by a word (like most like to do these days) that's up to you. My all time favorite childhood saying has always been "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." And they don't. They are just that. Words. They're not even tangible. You can only hear them, or read them on a page. BUT, I forget, many are affected by words in different ways; and it always seems a lot of us gay men take everything to heart and then make it our personal mission to combat all of mainstream society. THAT, my friend is up to you. I am quite content being unmoved by childish name calling.

[Hunter]

The only thing I really have to say, is using the word *gay* as a positive thing is great, but the bad thing is that it never really is if someone says *those pants are gay!* They usually mean it in a hateful way. But I get what hes saying and it sounds kind of cool...In theory...

[James]

wtf... Really. That's all I've got. This man really does not deserve our attention.

[rob]

Even though gay probably cant break into main stream that way. I think you guys are looking at it the wrong way. Comparing gay and the n word is like comparing hell to f**k. its not on the same level. Gay in itself is a label. We are gay. Its our orientation. But the n word and stuff like beaner etc are just bad words. I also hate how if kanye pretty much says gay people are cool someone has something bad to say about it. if he dosn't want to goto a gay bar great, he has no reason to. I wouldn't want to goto a club where i couldn't have fun like i wanted to. If you dont like him kick rocks and keep it moving. Stars are one of the reasons gay people aren't looked at so bad these days.(not the MAIN reason. but their star power does help. even a little bit.)

And Zarxo i dont know if your quoting someone or what but i dont care if im dating a guy for 10 years if he calls me the n word we are done. its just different for black people to use it. mostly because we dont know what other races mean when they say it. its just the way of the world.

[Whatev1987]

The time spent reading this article, and most of the ridiculous comments regarding it, was a complete and utter waste of time. The comparison of the "n" word to "gay" is completely deluded and offensive to me, as a "homosexual, white, male" to be politically correct.

PS. Love Kanye's songs, especially "Heartless"!

[Buck_NaykidOR]

Better than "queer", "faggot" or "fairy" in my book...

[Drew]

Why does the word "gay" need to mean anything other than homosexual? Honestly.

[Jesse]

Who gives a shit what this guy has to say about anything???

[the_real_sweedie]

To you people commenting on here that's being fucking negative about everything, get over yourself. That one of the most popular rappers in the business is saying that gay people are cool and that people, and especially rappers, should be more tolerant towards us is a GOOD thing.
It pisses me off when you turn everything to something negative, if you don't like rap, then why even bother discussing it here? If you do like rap, then embrace what he's saying and be happy that a rapper finally says good things about gay people.

[James]

He doesn't want to go to a Gay Bar, who cares. Neither do I and I'm gay :| Big deal...
As for the whole "One-Dimensional" thing, maybe the majority of the gay guys he talks to love the arts, the gays love the arts.

As for everyone else...
You guys need to calm down and learn to argue/debate without using profanity in your argument. It doesn't even prove anything, and has no relevance to your point. I'll admit Kanye isn't my favorite artist out there, mainly because he is full of him self most of the time. It drives me away from most of is songs, but the guy is trying to do something nice. Accept the help and stop being so dramatic about it.

[tj]

Well, by all mean, Kanye, start applying it towards yourself and your fellows in hip-hop and rap and let's see how it works.

And what about using 'dyke' in his songs? Was that complimentary and how?

I have to wonder if he's not trying to come out with this. Or maybe it's just to sell albums to disposible-income gays.

[Sallyjerts]

As a bisexual woman, I wanna share my ideas with you just as those I have put on the bisexual dating site forum (bimingle...com). How we ladel our sexuality is a problem at first. Others don't think women should not be bisexual. Then we are easy to affected by others. But women do really would like to experiment with both sex relationships. That's true.

[j]

is anyone really listening to that dumb motherf*cker.... I mean come on... who gives a sh*t what he has to say... can we get some real pieces maybe on politics or the economy is that too much to ask

[Cedsback]

i use to not like him- i like him now

[Dan]

Well doesn't this put us in quite the pickle! If we agree with Kanye, then we are a. letting those who don't feel what we feel about this (the heteros) decide where the future of the issue go, and b. saying that it is okay to call someone gay.

Then if we disagree, then we are only downing ourselves, and therefore solidifying that being gay is a negative thing. Hm....

www.youtube.com/gdprophetxvii

[ConnorH]

lol this is the last person I want talking about us in a positive light. Someone like Colbert however...now that's wonderful.

But Kanye West just portrayed us as a bunch of fashion designers.

[Charlie]

Since when is Kanye a hero of any kind??? I like the subject matter...but seriously, hero???

[NObama]

Lord of the Dumb Sh*ts.

seriously, Kanye? have you even noticed is grammar and speech?
and Gay dot com is featuring this guy?
LMAO! now that's really gay!

[richard]

I realise Kanye was trying to compliment the gay community, and I comend him for it, but, he realy should choose his words more carefully......try trading black for gay, and cool for dope..example, you know all the black people I've encountered in these past two, three years are like really, realy, really cool. y'know. Like I havn't, like gone to a black bar, nor do I ever plan too......etc, etc. it's like when the white sports reporter, made the statement about african american sports figures are better runners than whites. it's a bunch of back sided compliments, that we really, really, really, don't need....

[Doubleeddy]

Hey as long as Gay isn't bringing up turmoil or used rudely, at least we are moving forward in the sense that it is now a good thing and can be viewed as normal among society.

[b-boy]

that entire message was pointless, you ashould try putting more important stuff up

[wolf4t3]

He's still an arrogant no talent ass that uses a casio to dub his voice, but if I were to say he was an arrogent no talent GAY ass he might take that as a compliment...

[QueerVato]

This whole conversation is gay...move on!

[Gus]

Once again, the no-talent genius which is the Sean Puff P. Diddy Diddy Daddy Combs wanna-be, has opened his spotlight hungry dumbass......and has shown us that he is an idiot.

I'm just saying.

[Darren]

take it easy on kanye. he's going out on a limb for us just to say these things. so we need to respect him needing to say he doesn't go to gay bars so he can protect his ass.

[Anthony]

I feel as if some one gave Kayne crap for saying the word "gay" in the wrong context. And these examples are his terrible ways to cover up his misusage of the word. Sorry Kayne lets think before we speak next time.