Kanye West spoke out against homophobia in Hip Hop in an interview with Sway that debuted on MTV News 10 years ago.
“Everybody in Hip Hop discriminates against gay people,” Kanye West says in the video from 2005. “Matter of fact, the exact opposite word of ’Hip Hop,’ I think, is ’gay.’ You play a record and if it’s wack, ‘That’s gay, dog!. And I wanna just come on TV and just tell my rappers, just tell my friends, ‘Yo, stop it fam. That’s discrimination.’”
Kanye West says that when he was in high school he was surrounded by homophobia. It was the status-quo.
“Everyone in high school is like, ‘You actin like a fag. Yo, you gay,’” Kanye West says. “It made me homophobic.”
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This attitude led to more discrimination from the likes of West and his thugged-out friends.
“Anybody that was gay I was like, ‘Yo, get away from me,’” Kanye West says. “It’s like I was racing to try to find that constant masculine role model right there, right in front of me. I would use the word ‘fag’ and always look down upon gays.”
Kanye West’s mentality changed once he found out that a family member of his was gay.
“My cousin told me another one of my cousins is gay that was the turning point,” Kanye West says. “This is my cousin. I love him. Do I discriminate against my cousin?”
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Last month, Kanye West appeared on I Am Cait, which focuses on the new identity of his former father-in-law Bruce Jenner, and expressed this open-mindedness.
“I think this one of the strongest things that’s happened in our existence as human beings that are so controlled by perception,” Kanye Westsays in a video clip. “Cuz you couldn’t have been up against more. Your daughter is a supermodel. You’re a celebrity. Every type of thing and it was still like, ‘Fuck everybody. This is who I am.’”
For additional Kanye West coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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