'No Homo' Makes Hip-Hop Less Homophobic

Kanye West was one of the first rappers to say, “Yo, stop it” to homophobic hip-hop artists, and his stance on homosexuality “remains the highest-profile rebuke of gay-bashing that hip-hop has seen,” writes Jonah Weiner for Slate. So why did West use the anti-gay hip-hop phrase “no homo” on a recent Jay-Z single? Weiner argues that this can actually be seen as progress.

“No homo” is “a phrase added to statements in order to rid them of possible homosexual double-entendre,” but its proliferation in recent songs is quite possibly “helping to make hip-hop a gayer place,” Weiner writes. After all, rappers must “actively think up gay double-entendres just so that they can cap them off with no homo kickers.” (More Kanye West stories.)