Nipsey Hussle causes controversy with a homophobic Instagram post
ATLANTA, GA – JULY 09: Nipsey Hussle attends The Eritrean soccer Tournament after party at Medusa on July 9, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage)
American rapper Nipsey Hussle has caused outrage with an Instagram photo he’s posted with a homophobic caption that claims you can’t be a strong black man if you’re gay.
The photo seems to be taken at a demonstration and sees a room of all black men and male children wearing suits and posing for the photograph.
Nipsey captioned the Instagram post: “Demonstration speaks louder than Conversation. They gone feed us every image of our men and boys but this one. No hyper violent…No homo sexual…No abandoners….JUS STRONG BLAC MEN AND YOUNG Men. RESPECT TO MY BIG HOMIE @bigu1 for Leading with love and intelligence. GOD IS WITH US WHO CAN GO AGAINST US”
Nipsey’s Instagram post has received both positive and negative attention from fans (photo from nipseyhussle)
Despite getting 48,143 likes his Instagram post is causing a great amount of controversy amongst his 1.5 million followers.
There are those who are outraged at his homophobic statement and have addressed his shocking behaviour: “He made that statement and then went on to say “Just strong black men” insinuating Gay black men aren’t strong. Lmao, since when did being gay have anything to do with someone being strong?? Where’s the correlation?”
More shockingly though is the number of people supporting Nipsey and leaving abusive statements to those who disagree with him: “You gay as hell if you defending fags. Gays are not men you idiot. Their females trapped in a man’s body”.
Nipsey fans had mixed reactions to his posts caption (photo from nipseyhussle)
When gay activist DeRay McKesson, known for his support of the Black Lives Matter campaign, took to Twitter to question the Instagram post, Nipsey addressed his homophobic comment.
McKesson’s tweet read: “I’ve never thought that gay black men were *overrepresented* in the media. But the original point is that gay is not a bad thing, not synonymous with violent/abandoner and not the opposite of strong”.
To which Nipsey responded to with: I don’t look down on gay people I love all Gods children foreal. I take issue with the larger agenda. And I’m VERY WELL INFORMED contrary to my appearance. And my conclusion is there’s AN AGENDA…we can go fact for fact and get u some understanding if you’d like. If not God bless”.
Nipsey’s response to DeRay claimed that he didn’t hate gay people however seems insincere with his lack of apology (picture from @NipseyHussle)
Despite claiming that he doesn’t “look down on gay people” he still believes that they have an “agenda” and that their representation within the media threatens the status of black men.
From comments on his original Instagram post, it seems that a lot of the disappointment from the LGBT community comes from his exclusion of them within the black community in a time where the black community should be united.
Instagram user @drakelovesmeho concluded the feelings of many black LGBT men in a comment that read: “That’s the problem with the black community today, no matter how loud you scream we want equality, BLM, racism needs to end, all that sh** is irrelevant if you’re homophobic towards black men. How are you going to preach let’s stick together black folks, except gay black people. Lmao hypocritical as fu**. Until yall start respecting all black people, no one is going to take the black community seriously”.
Rather than deleting his post or issuing an apology to all of those who were offended by his post, Nipsey has been using his social media platforms to promote his upcoming album.
Rapper and president of record label Top Dawg Entertainment, who Kendrick Lamar is signed to, Punch (real name Terrence Henderson) has responded in support of Nipsey’s post. He Tweeted to say: “It’s crazy out of everything positive @NipseyHussle said in that ig post, ppl chose to focus on the one part they deem as being homophobic”.
Rapper Punch came to Nipsey’s defence via Twitter (photo from @iamstillpunch)
It’s incredibly disappointing to see a powerful man such as Punch, who is influential in the music industry, support Nipsey’s homophobia and undermine the feelings of those who have been offended.
The 32-year-old rapper whose real name is Ermias Asghegom has released several mixtapes since the beginning of his career in 2005 and has collaborated with rap legends such as Snoop Dog and Drake.
There can be no doubt that his dedicated fans will still be purchasing his upcoming album, but Nipsey Hussle has officially lost the support of the LGBT black community and all of its supporters.
