moved blog to hugo! lots of stuff still to do 😬

content/notes/cool-bash-tricks-for-your-terminal-dotfiles/index.md

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+---
+title: "Cool Bash Tricks for Your Terminal's \"Dotfiles\""
+date: 2018-12-10 20:01:50+00:00
+description: "Bashfiles usually contain shortcuts compatible with Bash terminals to automate convoluted commands. Here's a summary of the ones I find most helpful that you can add to your own .bash_profile or .bashrc file."
+tags:
+- Dotfiles
+- Hacks
+- macOS
+- Programming
+- Technology
+- Terminal
+draft: false
+---
+
+
+![](images/terminal_icon.jpg)
+
+
+You may have noticed the recent trend of techies [posting their "dotfiles" on GitHub](https://github.com/topics/dotfiles) for the world to see. These usually contain shortcuts compatible with Bash terminals to automate convoluted commands that, I'll admit, I needed to Google every single time.
+
+My [full dotfiles are posted at this Git repository](https://git.jarv.is/jake/dotfiles), but here's a summary of the ones I find most helpful that you can add to your own .bash_profile or .bashrc file.
+
+
+* * *
+
+
+Check your current IP address (IPv4 or IPv6):
+
+```
+alias ip4="dig +short myip.opendns.com A @resolver1.opendns.com"
+alias ip6="dig +short -6 myip.opendns.com AAAA @resolver1.ipv6-sandbox.opendns.com"
+```
+
+Check your current local IP address:
+
+```
+alias iplocal="ipconfig getifaddr en0"
+```
+
+Check, clear, set ([Google DNS](https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/) or [Cloudflare DNS](https://1.1.1.1/) or custom), and flush your computer's DNS, overriding your router:
+
+```
+alias dns-check="networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi"
+alias dns-clear="networksetup -getdnsservers Wi-Fi"
+
+alias dns-set-cloudflare="dns-set 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1"
+alias dns-set-google="dns-set 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4"
+alias dns-set-custom="networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi "   # example: dns-set-custom 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220
+
+alias dns-flush="sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; sudo killall mDNSResponderHelper; sudo dscacheutil -flushcache"
+```
+
+Start a simple local web server in current directory:
+
+```
+alias serve="python -c 'import SimpleHTTPServer; SimpleHTTPServer.test()'"
+```
+
+Test your internet connection's speed (uses 100MB of data):
+
+```
+alias speed="wget -O /dev/null http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test"
+```
+
+Query DNS records of a domain:
+
+```
+alias digg="dig @8.8.8.8 +nocmd any +multiline +noall +answer"   # example: digg google.com
+```
+
+Make a new directory and change directories into it.
+
+```
+mkcdir() {
+    mkdir -p -- "$1" &&
+    cd -P -- "$1"
+}
+```
+
+Unhide and rehide hidden files and folders on macOS:
+
+```
+alias unhide="defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true && killall Finder"
+alias rehide="defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false && killall Finder"
+```
+
+Force empty trash on macOS:
+
+```
+alias forcetrash="sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash /Volumes/*/.Trashes"
+```
+
+Quickly lock your screen on macOS:
+
+```
+alias afk="/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend"
+```
+
+Update Homebrew packages, global NPM packages, Ruby Gems, and macOS in all one swoop:
+
+```
+alias update="brew update; brew upgrade; brew cleanup; npm install npm -g; npm update -g; sudo gem update --system; sudo gem update; sudo gem cleanup; sudo softwareupdate -i -a;"
+```
+
+Copy your public key to the clipboard:
+
+```
+alias pubkey="more ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy | echo '=> Public key copied to pasteboard.'"
+```
+
+Undo the most recent commit in current Git repo:
+
+```
+alias gundo="git push -f origin HEAD^:master"
+```
+
+Un-quarantine an "unidentified developer's" application [blocked by Gatekeeper](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491) on macOS's walled <del>prison</del> garden:
+
+```
+alias unq="sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine"
+```
+
+Quickly open a Bash prompt in a running Docker container:
+
+```
+docker-bash() {
+    docker exec -ti $1 /bin/bash
+}
+```
+
+Pull updates for all Docker images with the tag "latest":
+
+```
+docker images --format "{{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}" | grep :latest | xargs -L1 docker pull
+```
+
+This odd hack is needed to run any of these aliases as sudo:
+
+```
+alias sudo="sudo "
+```
+
+
+* * *
+
+
+[View all of my dotfiles here](https://git.jarv.is/jake/dotfiles) or [check out other cool programmers' dotfiles over at this amazing collection](https://dotfiles.github.io/).

content/notes/how-to-shrink-linux-virtual-disk-vmware/index.md

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+---
+title: "How To: Shrink a Linux Virtual Machine Disk with VMware"
+date: 2018-12-04 19:10:04+00:00
+description: "VMware is bad at shrinking Linux VMs when space is freed up. How to optimize and shrink virtual disks."
+tags:
+- How To
+- Linux
+- Tutorial
+- Virtual Machines
+- VMware
+draft: false
+---
+
+
+![](images/screen-shot-2018-12-07-at-2-04-04-pm.png)
+
+
+**[VMware Workstation](https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-pro.html)** and **[Fusion](https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html)** normally work hard to minimize the size of virtual hard disks for optimizing the amount of storage needed on your host machine . On Windows virtual machines, [VMware has a “clean up” function](https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/11/com.vmware.fusion.using.doc/GUID-6BB29187-F47F-41D1-AD92-1754036DACD9.html), which detects newly unused space and makes the size of the virtual hard disk smaller accordingly. You’ll notice that even if you create a virtual machine with a capacity of 60 GB, for example, the actual size of the VMDK file will dynamically resize to fit the usage of the guest operating system. 60 GB is simply the maximum amount of storage allowed; if your guest operating system and its files amount to 20 GB, the VMDK file will simply be 20 GB.
+
+VMware can be set to automatically optimize and shrink virtual hard disks as you add and, more importantly, remove files – but [this automatic "clean up" setting is disabled by default](https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/11/com.vmware.fusion.using.doc/GUID-6BB29187-F47F-41D1-AD92-1754036DACD9.html). Either way, cleaning up virtual machines works like a charm...when you have Windows as a guest operating system with an NTFS disk.
+
+As a developer, I have several VMs with various Linux-based guest OSes – and, for some reason, VMware doesn't know how to optimize these. If you poke around in VMware, you'll find that the clean up button is greyed-out under the settings of a Linux VM.
+
+Commonly, I'll use a few gigabytes of storage for a project and then delete the files from the guest when I'm done. Let's say that my Debian guest starts at 10 GB and I use 5 GB for my project, totaling 15 GB. The VMDK file will be, obviously, 15 GB. I finish the project and delete the 5 GB of its files. On a Windows guest, VMware would be able to shrink the volume back down to 10 GB – but you'll quickly notice, annoyingly, that a Linux disk will remain at 15 GB, even though you're no longer using that much. On a portable machine like my MacBook Air, this can be a _huge_ waste!
+
+The "clean up" feature that VMware has developed for Windows guests can be applied to Linux guests as well, but it's pretty convoluted – we need to essentially clean up the VM ourselves, trick VMware to detect the free space, and manually shrink the volume.
+
+**_A tiny caveat:_** This only works on VMs without any snapshots. Sadly, you either need to delete them or, if you care about keeping snapshots, you can backup the VM as-is to an external disk and then delete the local snapshots.
+
+Once you're ready, here's how to shrink your Linux-based VM:
+
+
+## **Step 1:** Clean up time
+
+Boot up your Linux virtual machine. We'll start by optimizing the OS as much as possible before shrinking it. In addition to manually deleting files you no longer use, running this command in your terminal can free up a little more space by removing some installation caches left behind by old versions of software you've installed and updated:
+
+    sudo apt-get clean
+
+
+## **Step 2:** Make "empty" space actually empty
+
+This step is the crucial one. In order for VMware to detect the newly free space, we need to free it up ourselves using a little trickery. We're going to have Linux overwrite the free space with a file full of zeros – the size of this file will be the size of however much space we're freeing up (5 GB, in the example above) – and then delete it. These commands will create the file, wait a moment, and then delete the file:
+
+    cat /dev/zero > zero.fill
+    sync
+    sleep 1
+    sync
+    rm -f zero.fill
+
+Depending on how much space we're freeing, this could take a while. Let it finish or else you'll be left with an actual, real file that will occupy a ton of space – the opposite of what we're trying to accomplish!
+
+
+## **Step 3:** Letting VMware know we've done its dirty work
+
+The final step is to tell VMware we've done this, and manually trigger the clean up function that works so well on Windows VMs. You'll do this step **outside** of the virtual machine, so shut it down fully and exit VMware. These directions are for macOS hosts specifically – if you're on a Linux host, I'll assume you are able to find the VMDK file, but [here's some help if you need](https://www.howtogeek.com/112674/how-to-find-files-and-folders-in-linux-using-the-command-line/).
+
+VMware on macOS makes this a little tricky, since it packages VMs in what looks like a ".vmwarevm" file, which is actually a folder. Browse to wherever you've saved your virtual machines, probably somewhere in your home folder, and find the location of this ".vmwarevm" androgynous item. If you click on this folder, though, it'll just open VMware again.
+
+We need to right click on the .vmwarevm "file," and select **Show Package Contents** to see what's really in there. You should see the actual .VMDK file sitting there – normally we're looking for the plain VMDK file (named _Virtual Disk.vmdk_ by default) without a bunch of numbers after it, but if you have snapshots associated with your VM, this might not be the file we actually want. But run the command below with it anyways, and the output will tell you if you need to use a different file.
+
+![](images/screen-shot-2018-12-07-at-1-58-42-pm.png)
+
+Now, we're going to run our final command in our **host** terminal, so open that up. Linux installations of VMware Workstation should have a simple map to the _vmware-vdiskmanager_ utility that you can run anywhere, but on macOS we need to tell it exactly where that's located: in the Applications folder, where Fusion is installed.
+
+We're going to feed this command the exact location of the VMDK file we're shrinking. You can either do this by typing the **full path** to it, or by simply dragging the VMDK file onto the terminal after typing the first part of the command (up to and including "-d"). The "-d" argument will defragment the disk.
+
+    /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager -d <path to your .VMDK file>
+
+The final command should look something like this, with your VMDK file instead:
+
+    /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager -d /Users/jake/Documents/Virtual\ Machines/Debian9.vmwarevm/Virtual\ Disk.vmdk
+
+If you've done this correctly, you'll see it defragmenting the file, and then return "Defragmentation completed successfully." If it returns a different error, such as "This disk is read-only in the snapshot chain," it should tell you which disk you should actually shrink. Just run the command again with that VMDK file instead.
+
+After the defragmentation completes, we need to finally shrink the image. We do this by running the same command as you did above, but replacing the "-d" with "-k" as follows:
+
+    /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager -k <path to the same .VMDK file>
+
+
+## **Step 4:** Storage Profit!
+
+Obviously, this is a really annoying way to perform a feature that only takes one click to execute on Windows virtual machines. I don't recommend going through this entire process every time you delete a few random files. However, if you notice the free space on your host OS is mysteriously lower than it should be, the time this takes can be well worth it.
+
+Let's hope this will be integrated in VMware Tools in the near future – feel free to [nudge VMware about it](https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-help?p_p_id=getHelp_WAR_itsupport&p_p_lifecycle=0&_getHelp_WAR_itsupport_execution=e1s2) in the meantime!
+
+
+* * *
+
+### Update (Dec. 30, 2018):
+
+The open-source version of VMware Tools for Linux, [open-vm-tools](https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools), has added a simple command to automate the above steps in the latest version. Make sure you have the latest update through either apt or yum, and then run the following command in the **guest** terminal:
+
+    vmware-toolbox-cmd disk shrink /
+
+Thank you to [commenter Susanna](https://jake.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/how-to-shrink-linux-virtual-disk-vmware/#comment-21) for pointing this out!

content/notes/millenial-with-hillary-clinton/index.md

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+---
+title: "Why This Millennial Is With Hillary Clinton Now  — and Why We All Need To Be In November"
+date: 2016-02-29 00:10:26+00:00
+description: "I am a 24-year-old \"millennial\" and I passionately support Hillary Clinton for the 45th President of the United States. Yes, we exist."
+tags:
+- 2016 Presidential Election
+- Bernie Sanders
+- Hillary Clinton
+- Politics
+draft: false
+---
+
+
+![](images/24707394571_0818d4ab83_o-1-copy.jpg)
+*[Hillary for New Hampshire](https://twitter.com/hillaryfornh) Winter Fellows with [Hillary Clinton](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/) in Derry, NH ([February 3, 2016](https://www.flickr.com/photos/hillaryclinton/24707394571/))*
+
+
+## Keeping in mind the big picture…
+
+I am a 24-year-old “millennial” and I passionately support [Hillary Clinton](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/) for the 45th President of the United States. Yes, we exist.
+
+My goal here isn’t to convince every Bernie believer to jump ship and support her as passionately as I do, although I feel obligated to try. I totally understand the passion for Bernie. I smile inside every time I see a young person (like my sister) become interested in politics for the first time and become directly involved in influencing the course of their own future, no matter which candidate triggered it for them. For me, it was admittedly Senator Obama. I would, however, like to put the Democratic Party primary process back into perspective, because it’s turned into a bloodsport that isn’t helpful for _anybody_ in the long run — not for either candidate, not for our party, and certainly not for our country.
+
+**News Flash:** We aren’t in the general election right now. Not even close. We’re in the middle of _our own party’s_ primary, where the field of opponents we are choosing from are all our friends. They’re both on our side. They both agree on an overall vision for our country. Of course as individuals we choose one who we like better than the other, and root for her or him and ideally invest some time and money to help however we can. I chose Hillary a long time ago because I feel she is, if anything, overqualified for the position. Especially during this increasingly turbulent period of foreign affairs, we can’t afford to allow an entry-level applicant to experiment with our standing in the world and learn our relationships with other nations on-the-fly.
+
+After working for months as a fellow on Hillary’s campaign in New Hampshire leading up to the first primary in the country, I could feed you all the standard campaign talking points in my sleep: After graduating from Yale Law she went to work at the [Children’s Defense Fund](http://www.childrensdefense.org/), not a high-paying New York law firm. She [went undercover](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/us/politics/how-hillary-clinton-went-undercover-to-examine-race-in-education.html?_r=0) in Alabama to investigate discrimination in public schools. She [got juveniles out of adult prisons](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/huffpost-criminal-justice-survey-democratics_us_56bb85eae4b0b40245c5038b). She [gave 8 million children healthcare](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2015/12/23/hillary-clintons-lifelong-fight-for-quality-affordable-health-care-for-all-americans/). But there’s just one thing that, for some reason, is hard for people to believe: at her core she is a good, caring, and loving person who has had only selfless intentions her entire life. I promise you.
+
+
+![](images/9e58a-1bvweqv_ve2_c1tw5-ihrhw.jpg)
+
+
+I had the incredible chance to meet Hillary the weekend before the New Hampshire primary. Her motorcade plowed through a quiet suburb in Manchester around noon and she hopped out to go knock on the doors of some lucky families. As neighbors started coming out of their houses to shake her hand, I couldn’t restrain myself from at least trying to get close and wave hello. (By the way, it’s amazing how casual the people in New Hampshire are about meeting presidential candidates.)
+
+I walked up nervously and told her that it was my birthday (it was) and all I wanted was for her to win, which got her attention, and I thanked her for the spotlight she had been shining on the rampant addiction epidemic in the state. Instead of nodding her head and thanking me for my support and moving along like I assumed she would — she knew she would have my vote no matter what — she locked eyes with me and asked me how I’d been affected by the issue. It felt as though she dropped everything in her life and literally put her jam-packed schedule on pause to make sure I was okay and to learn more about some dude she just met ten seconds ago. I told her that I had fallen into the trap myself when I was younger, and that the [part of her detailed plan](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/addiction/) that addresses the overprescription of narcotics by doctors could have prevented me from doing so. As my conversation with her grew longer and longer, and as she respectfully asked me more and more questions about my story, I totally forgot I was casually chatting on the sidewalk with a freaking former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State. I promise you again: She. Is. A. Real. Person.
+
+> “I know I have some work to do, particularly with young people, but I will repeat again what I have said this week. Even if they are not supporting me now, I support them.” [»](http://www.vox.com/2016/2/9/10956458/hillary-clinton-new-hampshire)
+
+But at the end of the day, all I ask is for you to keep in mind the stakes in this overall election. They have never been higher. Last year, the spectacle of Donald “The Donald” Trump running to be the leader of the free world was purely comical and impossible not to laugh at, from the moment he entered the race [via gold-plated escalator](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab9AnZaLL1U) whilst blasting Neil Young. But as this racist xenophobic pumpkin is rapidly racking up _actual real-life delegates_ thanks to votes from the [poorly educated](http://www.vox.com/2016/2/24/11107788/donald-trump-poorly-educated) and/or the [white supremacists](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-white-supremacist-sec-primary_us_56cf4437e4b0bf0dab31222f), the thought of him being within striking distance of the desk in the Oval Office is slowly twisting a knife into the pit of my stomach. This is real. This is the big picture. This is why we need to team up and work together in any way possible as soon as possible.
+
+I’m aware of the street cred young Democrats collect by claiming they hated Hillary before hating Hillary was cool. Hating on HRC has gone more viral than Damn Daniel. But when you ask these young voters to explain why they think she’s a liar or untrustworthy or a criminal, they can rarely put their distaste for her into actual words — or if they do, they just vomit hashtag-ready soundbites from Fox News or The Young Turks. #Benghazi. #Emails. #ReleaseTheTranscripts. Joining in on the Republican-led attacks and stooping to their level is no way to advocate for the candidate you support. If you support Bernie for the nomination, you do that by going out and talking to others about why **his** policies rock, what **his** life story is, how **your** story relates to **his** story and **his** policies, etc. — not by spending your day mercilessly assassinating the character of a woman you’ve never met and a woman you might very well be voting for in eight short months, unless you’re able to stomach the idea of President Trump. During primary season, you win by focusing on the merits of your own candidate, not the flaws you see in another.
+
+As [Bill Maher](https://medium.com/u/cdc04a9799f6) (an avid Bernie supporter) [said this weekend](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd1gpjkjcfc), some in our party need to “learn the difference between an imperfect friend and a deadly enemy.” I don’t agree with everything Hillary has said or done. I don’t unconditionally defend every single chapter in her public record over the past 30 years (and [neither does she](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/02/25/hillary-clinton-responds-to-activist-who-demanded-apology-for-superpredator-remarks/), by the way). I don’t think that’s possible for any voter to find in a politician. But if you identify as a Democrat, she is the farthest thing from your enemy. Plain and simple. Like you and Bernie, she wants to prevent a Republican from winning in November and reversing so much of the progress we’ve made over the past seven years on their first day in office. That is our number one goal right now. And whether it gets accomplished by a President Clinton or a President Sanders, I am 100% on board either way. Let’s stop fighting each other and start fighting together.
+
+
+{{< youtube TqrwDMTByNM >}}

content/notes/no-homo-still-raps-motto/index.md

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+---
+title: "\"No Homo!\" – Still Rap’s Motto in 2012?"
+date: 2013-11-22 03:18:10+00:00
+description: "This essay was written for Professor David Valdes-Greenwood's \"Love & Sexuality\" class at Tufts University in April 2012."
+tags:
+- Essay
+- Homosexuality
+- Music
+- Rap
+- Tufts University
+draft: false
+---
+
+
+![](images/1_b41ztscbaxqi60snwsswfw.jpg)
+*This essay was written for Professor [David Valdes-Greenwood](https://www.davidvaldesgreenwood.com/)’s "Love & Sexuality" class at [Tufts University](https://www.tufts.edu/) in April 2012.*
+
+
+* * *
+
+
+> Too many faggot n*ggas clocking my spending, exercising your gay-like minds like Richard Simmons …. Fucking faggot-ass light skin n*ggas, get the fuck out of my face …. It’s crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow, to everybody on your dick, no homo …. You homo n*ggas getting AIDS in the ass, while the homie here’s trying to get paid in advance …. If y’all leave me alone this wouldn’t be my M.O., I wouldn’t have to go, ‘eenee-meene-minie-moe,’ catch a homo by his toe, man I don’t know no more...
+
+
+What do all of these lyrics have in common? Two things. Firstly, they are all blatant in their use of anti-gay slurs and graphically homophobic language. And secondly, they’ve each been written and recorded by one of the top five mainstream rap artists of 2011: Jay-Z, Diddy, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem — a worshipped all-star team in music with a combined income of $82 million last year alone, with multi-platinum records endorsed by and distributed through Universal, Sony, and Warner Brothers, and with endorsement deals from Gatorade, HP, Pepsi, Chrysler, Lipton, and others.
+
+Of course, these five rappers are protected by their right to free speech to speak these irrefutably homophobic lyrics into a studio microphone, release them onto future multi-platinum CDs, and get played by world-renowned New York City radio stations. But what about their gay and bisexual counterparts? A fame-aspiring gay rapper has just as much of a right, if not more, to record music as Jay-Z and Eminem record, and as much of a right to speak publicly as Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell speak. So, to put it candidly, where are all the gay rappers? I’ll give you a minute to scroll through your iPod.
+
+Is the increasingly apparent void of gay (or even bi) male rappers due to a lack of demand or a lack of supply? Or, do gay rappers get automatically turned away at the doors of Universal, Sony, and Warner Brothers, over fears of losing profit? Let’s follow a hypothetical gay rapper through the intricacies and politics of the music industry to answer one simple, overarching economical question: How successful would a young, talented, and coincidentally gay male rapper be in 2012?
+
+To get a sense of the industry a new gay rapper would be walking into, I surveyed 62 college-aged rap fans at Tufts University. Before introducing the prospect of a gay rapper to them, I wanted to gauge their feelings about the homophobia in pre-existing mainstream rap music. The results were staggering: 92% of the respondents said that hearing “faggot” or “no homo” doesn’t stand out to them while listening to a song, and 100% wouldn’t stop listening to that song or that artist after hearing these phrases. On the flip side, none of the 62 respondents–including one gay sophomore–could name a gay rapper. The existing landscape of the rap industry became rapidly clear: there are no gays on the radar, except when “homo” or “fag” rhymes with the line before it.
+
+My next inquiry was about whether there’s room for a gay person in the mainstream rap industry. Is the clear absence of gay voices from mainstream rap by the choice of gay rappers, or is there no demand from music listeners? 90% of the college respondents claimed that they would listen to a gay rapper (under the condition that he or she is talented, of course). However, only 4% could reasonably predict that a talented gay rapper would be commercially successful. When asked to explain, the responses included that “the ridicule and internal conflict [would not be] worth the possible profit for record labels,” that “people would be embarrassed to have their iPod seen with the rapper’s name playing,” and that “rap is already about women, women, and women, and it’s been around for too long to change that.”
+
+It became apparent to me that there is still an ethical divide between the rap industry and the rest of America. In 2012, there are few areas where undisguised and unapologetic homophobia is not only accepted, but rewarded with money and power. (Rap and the Republican presidential nomination race come to mind.) Every few years, we see the issue of rap and homophobia as front-page news, but the time between these climaxes of public outrage is filled with self-encouraging homophobic songs that get no backlash at all.
+
+
+![](images/66574-132xjztnwqcm40hmdrec08q.jpg)
+*Frank Micelotta/Getty Images*
+
+
+Eminem is a prime example of this. After rapping about “homos” and “fags” for years, his third studio album, _The Marshall Mathers LP_, finally saw mainstream recognition and acclaim, including the nomination for Best Rap Album and Album of the Year at the 2001 Grammy Awards. After both the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and CBS “endured a storm of protest over the rapper’s best album nomination” due to his use of homophobic slurs, Eminem announced a duet with Elton John to be performed at the Grammy ceremony. “I’d rather tear down walls between people than build them up. If I thought for one minute that he was hateful, I wouldn’t do it,” John said in defense of the performance.
+
+However, the newly announced alliance was still met with criticism from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD. Media director Scott Seomin called the move “hurtful” and “embarrassing,” and voiced public regret for giving John the foundation’s yearly award the year before, claiming, “Elton’s actions now totally violate the spirit of that award.”
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+More recently, in late 2011, MTV’s Video Music Awards also came under fire from GLAAD for recognizing the sophomore album from 20-year-old rapper Tyler, The Creator. According to _NME Magazine_, the album from Tyler, The Creator and his group, Odd Future, “uses the word ‘faggot’ and its variants a total of 213 times.” In defense of his lyrics, Tyler told NME:
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+> I have gay fans and they don’t really take it offensive, so I don’t know. If it offends you, it offends you. I’m not homophobic. I just think ‘faggot’ hits and hurts people. It hits. And ‘gay’ just means you’re stupid. I don’t know, we don’t think about it, we’re just kids. We don’t think about that shit. But I don’t hate gay people. I don’t want anyone to think I’m homophobic.
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+The seemingly clear disconnect between rap and the rest of America becomes somewhat blurred when you factor in that the award Tyler, The Creator won was determined by a popular vote of MTV’s fairly young audience. Sara Quin, 20-year-old Canadian indie singer and half of the rock duo Tegan and Sara, expressed her frustration with both Tyler and the music industry on her blog. “While an artist who can barely get a sentence fragment out without using homophobic slurs is celebrated on the cover of every magazine, blog and newspaper,” she wrote, “I’m disheartened that any self-respecting human being could stand in support with a message so vile.” Tyler simply responded with, “If Tegan and Sara need some hard dick, hit me up!”
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+With both homophobia and “womanizing” being so prevalent in the mainstream rap industry, one has to wonder if these themes are not only accepted, but also necessary to become a successful rapper. When the top five rappers of 2011 openly use homophobic slurs in _Billboard_ Top 100 songs, is homophobia in rap simply a vicious cycle of new rappers trying to climb the ladder to work with these acclaimed rappers by using similar lyrics and style? Are rappers simply afraid to “come out” as non-homophobic in fears that this will sever ties to more successful rappers which are necessary in an industry full of connections and word-of-mouth?
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+According to mainstream rapper and insider Fat Joe, this fear is very much real. But as of 2011, he says, there’s no reason for a rapper to hide his sexuality. In an interview with _Vibe Magazine_, Joe speculated, “I’m pretty sure I’ve done songs with gay rappers…In 2011 you gotta hide that you gay? Like, be real. ‘Yo, I’m gay, what the fuck!’ Fuck it if people don’t like it.”
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+Based on his inside experience, Joe continued to claim that a gay rapper would have an outpouring of support from inside even the mainstream rap industry, even going as far as calling the entertainment industry a “gay mafia,” including everyone from “editorial presidents of magazines, PDs at radio stations, and the people that give you awards at award shows. This is a fucking gay mafia, my man; they are in power.”
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+Similarly, a few months before Fat Joe came out publicly favoring gay rappers, Grammy-nominated rapper The Game spoke out less strongly but still in support of the idea. In an interview with DJ Vlad, Game told gay rappers:
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+> I think there are several rappers that are in the closet and gay, and see those are the type of gay people—the only type of gay people that I have a problem with. I don’t have a problem with gay people. Game don’t have a problem with gay people. It ain’t cool to be in the closet. If you gay, just say you gay. Be gay and be proud.
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+A year earlier, in 2009, Queens rapper N.O.R.E. also revealed to DJ Vlad:
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+> I have recorded, not with people who are openly gay, but people who are closet gays. I’ve got songs, you know, Google it. I’m positive I have worked with a gay rapper. There is one and he won’t get me to say the name. Once he’s a success story to the point where he can’t be stopped, then yeah, he’s gonna come out the closet… It’s not a big secret, everybody is gonna be like, “Oh yeah, I knew that.”
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+Several other rappers have recently been vocal against homophobia. Nicki Minaj, protégé of Lil Wayne, said in an interview last year with _Out Magazine_, “Normally, Wayne probably wouldn’t have gay guys coming to see his shows much, but they’re definitely a big part of my movement, and I hope they’d still come out and see me. I think that will be really, really interesting, just to start bridging that gap.” Up-and-coming 23-year-old rapper A$AP Rocky, admitted last year to Pitchfork.com, “I used to be homophobic, but that’s fucked up. I had to look in the mirror and say, ‘All the designers I’m wearing are gay.’”
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+![](images/f9d7a-1gad6zdgng2-mjsedg5igwa.jpg)
+*Sarah Taylor/Fashion Magazine*
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+Unfortunately, not all rappers—including and especially the most popular and celebrated—are not as enlightened as today’s up-and-comers such as Nicki Minaj and A$AP Rocky. Kanye West, one of the rappers quoted before for shouting “no homo” on Jay-Z’s number-one single _Run This Town_ and (in)famous for speaking what’s on his mind, was the target of countless questions about his sexuality after his sudden attendance at Paris fashion shows and interest in women’s designer clothing. When asked by DJ Sway for MTV News to respond to accusations from fans that he “dresses gay,” West responded, “Your dress don’t give away whether or not you like a man. Think about actors that straight dress up like a woman or something like that. People wanna label me and throw that on me all the time, but I’m so secure with my manhood.”
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+West, disagreeing with Fat Joe’s claim of being surrounded by gay members of the music industry, told Sway that, before releasing a music video for a 2008 collaboration with rapper Fonzworth Bentley, “There was people calling me before we dropped it, like ‘Man y’all shouldn’t put that out with y’all dancing, man. People gonna say y’all gay!’” West also disagreed with the prospect of a gay rapper, making a claim that the industry has actually gotten more homophobic in recent years. “Back in the day, people used to have songs like ‘Get In That Ass’ or something like that,” West said. “Someone would never make a song like that today because they’d be like ‘Whoa! I can’t make no song like that! People gonna call me gay!’”
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+While the sentiment from mainstream rappers is becoming increasingly supportive of all sexualities, West’s automatic instinct to defend himself so passionately against rumors about his own sexuality reflects no such sentiment from the community of rap fans and critics. In other words, maybe the record executives are justified to think that a gay rapper would jeopardize the one thing they are hired to protect: a profitable return on investments in recording contracts, marketing, and concert venues.
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+![](images/a5c2a-1fkblnzkye3g04gdvsbbtpa.jpg)
+*Amy Odell/New York Magazine Fashion*
+
+
+Lil Wayne’s performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards last year showed the community’s lack of progress in the area of homophobia. The performance generated tons of instantaneous buzz on the Internet, but not for the reasons Wayne had hoped. Instead of his musical performance being discussed, the topic instead turned to his wardrobe. Viewers of the live award show started wondering and asking online, _“Is Lil Wayne wearing women’s pants right now?”_
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+Sure enough, _Rolling Stone_ confirmed with the fashion store Tripp NYC that Wayne was sporting their ladies’ leopard-print jeggings that retail online for $44. _Out Magazine_’s assistant editor Max Berlinger spoke in support of Wayne, attributing his choice of clothes to Dandyism, or “extreme visual paradigms that are manifested in a completely overt way and also heavily rooted in consumerism.” Berlinger, when asked to elaborate on artists like Kanye wearing women’s blouses and calling it individualism, simply responded with, “Fuck all that theoretical bullshit. At the end of the day, I just want someone to look confidently like themselves, which Lil Wayne did perfectly”. However, Wayne’s fans vocally disagreed. A Twitter account, @Waynes_Jeggings, was created almost immediately after the performance, and spent the rest of the night questioning Wayne’s sexuality (the messages have since been deleted).
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+![](images/a805a-1ghqzd91ei4fdntwmzwxw6g.jpg)
+*Martin Rose/Getty Images*
+
+
+In the most revealing and straightforward social experiment yet, 21-year-old rapper Lil B, famous for his intentionally offbeat rhythm, extremely loose rhymes, and, according to him, over 3,000 songs, some with ridiculous titles such as “I’m Miley Cyrus,” “I’m God,” “I’m Orange Juice,” and “Wonton Soup,” decided to test the rap community’s homophobia once and for all. In April of last year, Lil B announced during his Coachella performance that his next independently released album would be titled _I’m Gay_. Lil B elaborated on the title, claiming “that he does not partake in that lifestyle but, but he wants to make a statement about the power of words, or lack thereof,” but little of his reasoning made it past the headlines and onto the radar of rap fans other than the title, _I’m Gay_.
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+As he predicted (and hoped for—any publicity is good publicity, right?), the entire entertainment industry was in uproar over his announcement for all different reasons. Rap fans hoped that the title was just a gimmick, while GLAAD released statements on the other side of the spectrum, saying, “Lil B knows that words matter. Slurs have the power to fuel intolerance. We hope that Lil B’s album title is not just a gimmick, and is really a sincere attempt to be an ally. He has the platform and the voice. We hope he uses it in a positive way.” Even several rappers spoke out about Lil B’s title choice, including a notably politically active rapper, Talib Kweli. “I’m like, now that’s a fuckin’ social experiment if I’ve ever heard one,” Kweli told _XXL Magazine_. He continued:
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+> I don’t care who you sleep with at the end of the day. I don’t care if Lil B’s gay or not. It doesn’t change my life in any way, but for him to name his album _I’m Gay_ issues such a challenge to his fans. I’m not sure if it’s brilliant or not, but what he did with that, in one fell swoop, was challenge every single bandwagon fan. Like are you really down with me or not. And me as an artist, I have no choice but to respect that.
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+Kweli, when asked to comment more specifically on the sexuality aspect of both the title and the reaction, said, “I’m happy to see young hip-hop heads move away from homophobia. Regardless of what your stance is on gay people, homophobia or the act and practice of it, is extra wack.”
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+When questioned on his motivations behind the title by _Vulture Magazine_ and asked to respond to GLAAD’s plea for an ally, not a mockery, Lil B affirmatively responded, “I am an ally. I am a man that loves women, but I am an ally.” He acknowledged that sexuality is still a very taboo topic in rap music, and that “there are some bridges and gaps that we as a people need to close. It takes a person to be brave enough to do that and wake people up. I wanted to be that first artist to be brave enough to do it for the people. In 100 years, people will look back and appreciate it.”
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+Maybe in 100 years from now, _I’m Gay_ would have been a chart-topping success. But in 2011, the album peaked at #56 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop charts and failed to make it onto the Hot 100 Albums chart at any point after its release. After selling only 1,700 copies in its first week, Lil B released the album for free on his social networking accounts.
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+Based on the insider reports and public fan reactions, it seems as though in 2012, the big-time industry influencers are talking the talk. Now, the onus to walk the walk is on every rap fan—and record producer—across the country. It’s up to you to prove Lil B right: hopefully, in 100 years, you’ll wonder why this article was even written. But for now, it looks like too many words rhyme with “no homo” for this to be the case.