Snoop Dogg's homophobia shows how old-school he truly is

The rapper’s latest video, Moment I Feared, sees him mocking his effeminate peer Young Thug, but hip-hop is moving beyond such kneejerk gay panic

Looking like a wizened sage even when he was a young man, and with a flow that trades on lofty observation, Snoop Dogg’s self-made image is of a hip-hop elder statesman. He even managed to stay down with the kids via a run of superb Neptunes-helmed noughties hits. But his latest – and openly homophobic – video shows just how out of touch he now is with modern rap.

Spirits are instantly dampened by the running time: at over eight minutes, it’s clearly going to be full of interminable stoner “comedy”. And so it proves – only it’s worse than unfunny. Snoop interviews a fictional rapper called Fonz D-Lo, who is clearly a caricature of popular Atlanta rapper Young Thug, known for his beautiful singsong vocal style and predilection for wearing women’s clothing. Snoop asks him if he’s gay. “Yes, I’m happy. I’m happy right now,” Fonz replies. Snoop asks him what he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning. “Cock. My annoying neighbours, they have this rooster.”

The title of the track meanwhile, Moment I Feared, is clearly directed towards the Young Thug-a-like, with Snoop and fellow old-school star Rick Rock pointing at him and saying: “This sucker shit is running rampant, it’s the moment I fear”.

If it’s a fear of homosexuality he is implying, it is misplaced – Young Thug is engaged to a woman, and his lyrics are as hetero and ejaculate-strewn as Snoop’s own infamous pornographic movie. Despite several interviews discussing issues around homophobia and rap culture, this isn’t the first time Snoop has been openly perturbed by light signifiers of homosexuality. In 2014 he took a screenshot a pair of men in bed together on Instagram, telling them “go suck ya man n get off my line f. A. G.”

On the one hand, Snoop is the blunt end of a culture that is struggling to keep up with widening acceptance of homosexuality. The biggest rap group in the world at the moment, Migos, expressed dismay at rapper ILoveMakonnen coming out, later trying to reframe their reaction as dismay at him having to hide his sexuality – not really what was suggested by them saying “the world is fucked up” for fans supporting his decision. The word “faggot” litters tracks across the spectrum – some, like J Cole, have attempted to interrogate its use, but most of the time it’s a thoughtless kneejerk. The openly gay likes of Cakes da Killa and Mykki Blanco remain marginalised.

But on the other hand, Young Thug’s popularity goes to show how pluralistic and accepting hip-hop culture has become. It used to be that Kanye West would only have to wear a pink polo shirt to have gay slurs thrown at him; now, everyone from A$AP Rocky to Travis Scott embrace flamboyant threads. Lesbian rapper Young M.A had one of the biggest hits of last year in OOOUUU, with lyrics about cunnilingus (though arguably she was accepted for dovetailing with the butchness hip-hop values).

The much-derided but excellent Lil Yachty meanwhile, like Young Thug, employs a mellifluous voice that’s very different to Snoop’s relative monotone, wears day-glo colours, doesn’t seem to particularly care about lyricism, and has put a deliberately diverse cross-section of people on his album cover. “Older hip-hop people, they don’t understand evolution, or just don’t want it. One of the two,” he told the Guardian last month. It is stars like this who have the Snoops of the world confused and resorting to homophobic abuse rather than innovating.

It’s a start, at least. Homosexuality freaks out many rappers because it doesn’t rely on male sexual prowess over women, one of the genre’s key tenets – and yet it’s one which Young Thug and Lil Yachty still absolutely subscribe to, with tracks full of stories of one-way sexual exchanges in their favour. That they need only adopt high-pitched voices and wear effeminate clothing for the old guard to reach for the smelling salts shows there’s a long way to go before the gay panic in hip-hop truly dies down. And that’s without even starting on its sexism.

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