siya: even heterosexuals bump her shit.

SIYA is short for "Mesiah". Siya is a Brooklyn rapper. Siya is also a lesbian.

A friend sent me Siya's song "So Crazy" a few days ago and I haven't stopped analyzing it since. Sure, I've heard lesbian rappers before. It's not a foreign concept that we should gasp and "ooh-ah" at. Homo-hop has been around for a while, even if it's not in the mainstream eye.

However, ,most rappers of the homo-hop variety are content with staying underground and speaking to their own communities, but Siya isn't. Her goal is to be accepted as the first openly gay female rapper in history to be fully accepted into the mainstream. Given her skills, accessible flow, and general swagger, this wouldn't be that difficult to accomplish...but she's not content with us forgetting she's a lesbian, mentioning it in nearly every song she performs. While America may be ready to accept a lesbian MC, I don't know if they're ready to hear a lesbian MC continually referring to herself as a "dyke". Beyond that, Siya isn't a typical sexy femme porno lesbian that some heterosexual men would drop their tongues out for. She's an AG, or aggressive, a subculture of lesbian culture which is heavily influenced by hip-hop culture. As Eric Parker of sohh.com stated, "Female rappers are marketed to sell sex, and their target audience is largely men. And the males in hip-hop, or outside of hip-hop for that matter, find femme lesbians appealing, rather than a more masculine female who challenges their personal ideals of masculinity." In short, Siya could probably throw on a skirt, rap about her vagina, and get a contract after a little bit of hustling her demo around. But I don't think she's going to do that any time soon. She's going to have to deal with close-minded labels who assume she'll only appeal to a small demographic, and I can only hope that her skills will help her overcome this hurdle.

In the past, I've argued that hip-hop is dying merely because voices are being silenced. You can't blame the south. The south is just what's marketable, and the death of hip-hop is this constant concern over what is marketable. The industry isn't taking risks, and each song that comes out is more forgettable than the next. I may hate him, but what would have happened if Eminem never got signed because he's white? What would have happened if Elton John was never marketed because he's gay? What if someone told Chuck Berry that a black man can't play the guitar? If the latter happened, we wouldn't have The Beach Boys and The Beatles. Rock and roll would have been supremely different. Hip-hop is suffocating because it needs a new direction. It needs to start taking risks. And who knows? Maybe Siya, the lesbian MC, is a risk worth taking.

d/l: SIYA- So Crazy (YSI)
d/l: SIYA- Call Me (YSI)
(Lesbian rapper tracks)
- space it - glee it -

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