With all eyes on DaBaby right now following the controversy of his homophobic rant at Rolling Loud Festival, the internet has resurfaced a video of a vintage MTV News Kanye West interview from 2005.
As reported by Billboard, the video in question sees Kanye West call out his fellow rappers, accusing the hip hop industry of being particularly homophobic, saying that “hip-hoppers discriminate against gay people”.
But while West expressed his support for the LGBTQ+ community, he also revealed that growing up, it wasn’t always that way for him.
As per the interview, West recalls how his high school peers would frequently try to insult him by calling him “gay”.
West said that caused him to be “homophobic, because I was like damn, why does everybody else walk like this and I walk like this?”
He continued, “If you see something and you don’t want to be that because there’s such a negative connotation towards it, you try to separate yourself from it so much that it made me homophobic by the time I was through with high school.”
However moving on from high school and growing up, West shared that the sexual orientation of his cousin changed the pre-conceived ideas he had about homosexuality.
Love Hip Hop?
Get the latest Hip Hop news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
“I remember my cousin told me that another one of my cousins was gay, and at that point was the turning point where I was like, ‘Yo, this is my cousin, I love him. I’ve been discriminating against gays. Do I discriminate against my cousin?’ West said.
“And then everything starts to click.”
West then goes on to praise hip hop for the way that it serves as a vehicle for artists and music lovers to break brown societal barriers.
But for all the good that it does, it had one very huge pitfall, where West says,” the exact opposite word of ‘hip-hop’ I think is ‘gay'”.
He said, “Hip-hop seemed like it was about fighting for your rights in the beginning and about speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers… but everybody in hip-hop discriminates against gay people. To me, that’s one of the standards of hip-hop… matter of fact, the exact opposite word of ‘hip-hop’ I think is ‘gay.'”
“Me speaking for my entire culture and me looking at my rappers out there, hip-hoppers discriminate against gay people.”
West continued, “I wanted to come on TV to just tell my rappers, tell my friends like, ‘Yo, stop it, fam.’ Seriously, that’s really discrimination. To me, that’s exactly what they used to do to Black people. I’m just telling people to stop all that.”
For more on this topic, follow the Hip Hop Observer.
Watch the Kanye West interview below:
