Angel Haze Finally Does Justice To Macklemore’s “Same Love”

October 24, 2013 2:03 AM

Angel Haze, who last year described her pansexuality to the Guardian and who was previously featured on metafilter for her heart-wrenching rap that transforms Eminem's "Cleaning Out My Closet" from an adolescent boy's angry confessional to a young woman's crushing autobiography^{[ALL KINDS OF TRIGGERS]}, has released her version of Macklemore’s “Same Love” (Previously) (Previouslier), which just slays with its honesty and vision.

Same Love by Angel Haze

Also of interest from Haze,

Werkin Girls
Hell Could Freeze
Shit I Don't Like

Hi mom
I’m really scared right now, but I have to

At age thirteen, my mom knew I wasn’t straight
She didn’t understand, but she had so much to say
She sat me on the couch, looked me straight in my face
And said you’ll burn in hell or probably die of AIDS
It’s funny now, but at thirteen it was pain
To be almost sure of who you are and have it ripped away
And I’m sorry if it’s too real for some of you to fathom
But hate for who you love is not exactly what you’d imagine
And I guess it was disastrous
Because everything that happened afterwards was just madness
Locked away for two years to keep me on the inside
Because she’d rather see a part of me die than me thrive
And it’s tougher when it’s something you can’t deny
And ignorance teaches us it’s something you decide
You’re driven by your choices, an optical illusion
Here’s to understanding it’s not always confusion

[Hook]
And I can’t change
Even if I tried, even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I tried, even if I wanted to
My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm

I’ve walked the halls of my school
And I’ve seen kids hide behind walls and footballs and things like pride
I’ve seen innocent children suffer beneath bruises
Suffer beneath every single hand that chooses ignorance
Fuck your religion
Fuck constitutions
Fuck superstitions
There are no lakes of fire; they’re here on earth
And the only thing to do is put love first

And so I stand for the boy who died by his hand
To the sound of his father screaming “Woman loves man”
“This is Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”
And I stand for the girl with the cuts up her sleeve
And the heart in her hand and a chip on her shoulder
And I stand for it all until ignorance is over
This is for you, for knowing who you are
For never letting your magic outside of your heart
Be you, be brave, and understand that things do change
I accept you for you when I don’t understand
And I love you for you because this is who I am
I accepted you for you when I didn’t understand
Now love me for me ‘cause this is who I am

[Hook]

Here’s a message to the people who just don’t get it:
Love is love
There is no difference
Not a medication to fix it
There is no prescription
No rehab to visit
It is not an addiction
It’s love and it’s selfless
It’s yours and everybody else’s
So don’t badger and abuse the solemnly defenseless
See us as yourself
There’s no equality in difference
Until we all get it, we’ll be drowning in the same blood
Despite orientation, we all feel the same love
We’ll be drowning in the same blood
Despite orientation, we all feel the same love

[Hook]

We are boxed in and labeled
Before we're ever able to speak who we believe we are
Or who we dream we'll become
Like drum beats forever changing their rhythm
I am living today as someone I had not yet become yesterday
And tonight I'll only borrow pieces of who I am today
To carry with me to tomorrow
No, I'm not gay
No, I'm not straight
And I sure as hell am not bisexual
Damn it I am whoever I am when I am it ------------ [Quoting Andrew by Andrea Gibson]
Loving whoever you are when the stars shine
And whoever you'll be when the sun rises
So here's to being able
Here's to love
Here's to loving just because
Here’s to acceptance
Here’s to never fearing the fear of rejection
Here’s to love and never neglecting who you feel you are
Here’s to bullies because beatings cannot last forever
Heres’ to the moment you realize things do get better
Here’s to the parents who will get it when its too late
Here’s to second chances
Here’s to new fate
Here’s to every single moment you’ve ever had to hide you
Here’s to the single star shining bright inside you, asking you to guide you
Here’s to who you’ll be when you figure it all out
Here’s to momentary doubt
Here’s to feeling, because we all feel it the same
Here’s to the moment that things will change
Because we all feel love, we all feel it the same
Here’s to love, here’s to change

posted by Blasdelb (44 comments total)

This is brilliant, thank you.
posted by aclevername at 2:57 AM on October 24, 2013

this is great, but the original is fucking amazing, I'm kind of astonished I haven't heard it up till now.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:13 AM on October 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

The facebook comments on buzzfeed (always dangerous ground) are pretty harsh towards Macklemore. There are a whole lot of 'he has no right' comments. As an example,

"You don't get cookies for being a decent person. Stop it. LBGTQIA+ people would rather speak for themselves than have white straight rapper speak for them and its kind of annoying that you guys are like "but what about the allies? don't i get recognition for acting how i SHOULD be?" like, yes, and thank you but you don't know what it's like, so its a little odd that you feel you have license to speak on it."

I totally disagree. I think the world would be a better place if people did actually get cookies for being decent, but that's just my opinion as someone who is decent and likes cookies.
posted by grajohnt at 3:27 AM on October 24, 2013 [27 favorites]

I totally disagree. I think the world would be a better place if people did actually get cookies for being decent, but that's just my opinion as someone who is decent and likes cookies.

I totally get that; I think decency should be recognized and rewarded and, unfortunately, there's just not enough of it in the world. That said, that song just doesn't really sit right with me and I change the station whenever it comes on because it makes me kind of uncomfortable. There's something about the shatteringly earnest tone of it that feels used to describe the marginalization and suffering of others in really personal terms and that bothers me.

As a woman, and someone bisexual, and with other issues, this actually seems like something that happens a fair amount in many different spaces; an ally, someone genuinely thoughtful and caring and well-intentioned, comes in to express pain or emotion or whatever on behalf of a community of which they are not actually a part and everyone goes wild for it. I know the song is an attempt to be decent and good and to help but when everyone goes crazy for Macklemore's Deeply Moving song about his experiences as a straight man realizing he's not gay it just feels problematic. Like many other people (apparently including Macklemore, but in a different way) I struggled intensely with my sexuality and it was challenging and personal and painful and scary and having someone privileged come in to Speak For Me in a very public way feels like it's co-opting my struggles, especially when it's done in a commercial way.

I guess part of it is that, while there is still a very long way to go in terms of acceptance of differing sexualities, in 2013 taking a pro gay rights position doesn't seem very brave or challenging for a straight white man and when I think about seventh grade me crying and feeling ashamed and bewildered and scared and now I see this guy who isn't really risking anything getting both respect and airplay for a commercial song on the same subject, especially when part of the draw/appeal of the song is the emotional and earnest tone of it, it just kind of rubs me the wrong way, even though I know it's genuinely meant to be supportive and helpful.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 4:04 AM on October 24, 2013 [11 favorites]

Let's not forget the other member of the "Same Love" family, Mary Lambert - "She Keeps Me Warm".
posted by seraphine at 4:12 AM on October 24, 2013 [8 favorites]

There are important ways in which cookie seeking behavior gets really problematic really quickly, when it is all about seeking praise for what amounts to just basic fucking decency, and meeting what should be basic fucking expectations, a weird judo flip happens where marginalized people only get further marginalized by being made the object to the cookie seeker's subject in the conversation. The Overton window never shifts or is set back because basic fucking decency gets reinforced as something extraordinary and those who do the right thing with regards to regards bias shouldn't stand out because so many others around them aren’t doing the right thing anyway. I think a lot of the praise for "Same Love" has been pretty problematic in ways that the song itself maybe is not, it is a plainly deeply moving and powerfully written song that is worth praise on its own merits, it's success does not come from Mackelmore's straightness.

I love Macklemore's song because I see it speaking to my experience as a queer person even though I know Mackelmore is not queer himself, and because it speaks from a deeply Christian perspective that is both powerful where voices like this are most needed as well as totally lacking from other music in the genre. I can totally get and respect how his intimate portrayal of something that is so raw for so many of us from what looks like the outside could be grating, but I think to call him an outsider simply because of who he loves almost misses the point. He has clearly been deeply affected by homophobia, explicitly speaks only from that perspective, and I think its one worth listening to when expressed so well.
posted by Blasdelb at 4:24 AM on October 24, 2013 [25 favorites]

The problem with connecting the original song to quite legitimate issue of ally voices displacing queer voices is that a 100% contentedly hetero man who is just gender variant enough to not care about "seeming gay" (the act of cleaning one's bedroom is sufficient in the song) will absolutely suffer marginalisation and corrective abuse and in doing so is suffering the gender policing that is the root of casual homophobia.

I hear not an Other come to co-opt and profit from my plight, but a man speaking of his own experiences which have given him an innate empathy for those who suffer more greatly and regularly and an intolerance for their mistreatment.
posted by seraphine at 4:26 AM on October 24, 2013 [21 favorites]

...having someone privileged come in to Speak For Me in a very public way feels like it's co-opting my struggles...

How do you feel about, for example, James Peck? (Not that Macklemore is any real comparison, but there are similarities with your sentiments and those that were directed towards James Peck and people like him).

On preview, Blasdelb maybe hits the nail on the head that it's the praise for this song that's perhaps more of a problem than Macklemore himself. You have to keep in mind that Macklemore was not famous at all when he wrote this song, and he didn't ride this song to fame. That speaks for his sincerity in this song, rather than him attempting to incourageously coat-tail a rising issue.
posted by grajohnt at 4:32 AM on October 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

I know the song is an attempt to be decent and good and to help but when everyone goes crazy for Macklemore's Deeply Moving song about his experiences as a straight man realizing he's not gay it just feels problematic.

I can't help but think that the problem some people have with the song is not the song itself, but its popularity. That the concern about cookie-seeking is properly aimed not at the artist, but at the listener.
posted by Slothrup at 4:33 AM on October 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

Macklemore wasn't "looking for cookies" when he wrote Same Love. He was trying to persuade his state government to legalize same-sex marriage so his uncles could finally get married.

Sometimes the political is personal. For straight people too.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:34 AM on October 24, 2013 [60 favorites]

I think we rehashed Macklemore and whether or not he co-opted gay experiences enough in the last thread we had about him, let's not lose sight of the actual subject of Blasdelb's post and her music.

Which is amazing.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:36 AM on October 24, 2013 [11 favorites]

Seriously, both this song and Angel Haze in general are fucking awesome and not at all worth derailing.
posted by Blasdelb at 4:38 AM on October 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

Those are some really good points and I apologize; I didn't meant to derail and the expressions here of the actual issue being more the response and less the song itself are really good ones. Apologies again for any potential derail!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 4:50 AM on October 24, 2013 [6 favorites]

Seriously, both this song and Angel Haze in general are fucking awesome and not at all worth derailing.

Sure...but by releasing her own version of the song, isn't Angel Haze necessarily drawing a comparison between the two, especially with regard to greater authenticity? Look at the first link of the FPP, which plainly calls her version the "proper" version. It keys into the understandable concerns that Macklemore has received undue attention, as a straight man making a wildly popular song about GSM rights.

In addition to the more social justice oriented concerns, there's also hip-hop's proud tradition of one-upmanship. Consider the reference in the FPP to her version of "Cleaning Out My Closet", where the selling point is that Haze's version is more adult and crushing. It's not that Eminem did anything wrong with his original song, or that a white guy can't rap about his life, but rather that Angel Haze is using the original track to both tell what's supposed to be an even harsher and more compelling story, and also to frame herself as being at least somewhat within Eminem's wheelhouse (grimly autobiographical, but not at all mopey).

I'm not complaining about what Angel Haze is doing. What I'm saying is, the act of making a new version of "Same Love" from a GSM perspective automatically starts this kind of discussion.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:10 AM on October 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

The Heist 1 year anniversary. A look back on the year that changed everything. (via; also btw ;)
posted by kliuless at 5:19 AM on October 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

This is good. I think one thing in particular it gets right is the profundity of this idea of "same love," that love is something sacred and always always partake of that sacredness when it appears. Catholics like Augustine knew this once and called it caritas, before they forgot.

Thanks for the post.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:38 AM on October 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I don't think I'll ever finish writing a comment on this because the words get too confused, but the short version of what I keep trying to write and then deleting is, where were songs like this when I was a kid? Where was even one voice saying, it's okay, you're not going to hell, your preacher and your parents are just wrong? So you don't have to spend night after night awake, unable to sleep, trying to talk yourself out of whatever it is you are?

Didn't anyone realize how much time a person could waste, how significant a chunk of an entire life, trying to twist into properly labeled boxes, because if you're in a box, at least you can understand and name what you are, and maybe even squeeze yourself into the box where people like you and you're not different anymore?

This is a good song. Although it needs more screaming in bloody rage at the waste of it all.
posted by mittens at 5:53 AM on October 24, 2013 [12 favorites]

I'm glad that the Mackelmore song reaches people who might not otherwise have reached.

The Angel Haze version speaks to (and for) me in a way that the Macklemore one doesn't. (And it doesn't annoy me, which is a thing the Macklemore one does not because of its subject but just because my ears find him annoying.) I love her voice and her tone and will now go find other stuff of hers, so thanks!

Also, I love these kinds of conversations between musicians.
posted by rtha at 6:11 AM on October 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

The return of answer records is one of my favorite things hip hop has brought us. I love old blues and R&B answer records.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:44 AM on October 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Didn't anyone realize how much time a person could waste, how significant a chunk of an entire life, trying to twist into properly labeled boxes, because if you're in a box, at least you can understand and name what you are, and maybe even squeeze yourself into the box where people like you and you're not different anymore?

Amen. Mittens, you and I are of a similar age. For me the only one saying it and doing was Freddie Mercury. All the other queer artists were squeezed into little boxes, but he broke them open and wrote songs of such stirring ambiguity that they are still relevant today because they are so defined by their context. He refused boxes and anyone with half an eye open could see it too. He was a big inspiration to me.

Not sure I'd want to be a teenager nowadays watching what my daughter has to navigate with ever more sophisticated and complicated dangers in her world. But one of the things I am grateful for is her utter comfort with the varieties sexual identity and expression of her peer group. These kids have so much more to draw on, so many more ways to understand their own situation then we did back when all we heard was "boy meets girl." 1970s radio rock worked fine right up to the point when "boy met boy", or "girl was powerful" or something else happened and then you were instantly in the desert. These days, my daughter has so many more resources in her life. I'm grateful to all of those who suffered to bust these fucking boxes to bits, and grateful for all the artists that speak for the beautiful liberating richness of the margins.
posted by salishsea at 7:10 AM on October 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Just as an example of what I mean about Queen, this lyric from "Don't Stop Me Now", read in a context of "am I okay?" was one that really kept me going at times:

Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world it's turning inside out Yeah!
I'm floating around in ecstasy
So don't stop me now don't stop me
'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time

I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I'm gonna go go go
There's no stopping me

While not an explicit liberation song, to hear that on the radio at 13 years old when confusing thoughts were going through my head was hugely important. And I love that it is one of my daughter's favourite songs too, which she often sings at the top of her lungs!
posted by salishsea at 7:15 AM on October 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I love Angel Haze. Her song New York is great - that beat! Her rhymes! Her flow! She really is excellent. Glad to see her on the Blue again.
posted by k8lin at 7:30 AM on October 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Maybe it's just my nostalgia glasses at work, but I thought pop music was a lot more queer friendly in the 70s and 80s. Queen has already been mentioned. There was Lux Interior prancing about rubber pants and high heels giving fellatio to his microphone. Lauper dropped nods to gay porn in her ode to masturbation. Fred Schneider (possibly following Nomi) wrapped a thin layer of sci-fi utopianism around it with the refrain "there are others like you." Of course there were plenty of artists of the time playing the pronoun game before officially coming out.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 7:31 AM on October 24, 2013

How ironic that the sexuality/gender-identification of a person comes into question... even when we're addressing whether or not that sort of thing should affect what a person can and cannot do.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we're to a point where we're taking everybody into consideration now. But for some people to say that the value of the statement is less because the person said it is [gendered] just strikes me as the same shit the other people have been throwing out there for years/decades/ever.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:44 AM on October 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

I don't think they're saying that the value is less, as if it's cash value or something. I have heard some things to the effect that Macklemore's lyrics are of value to the wrong people. You can certainly object to that statement, if you want. I would not recommend that you reduce its value to an integer, or assume that its parts are interchangeable.
posted by LogicalDash at 7:55 AM on October 24, 2013

Didn't anyone realize how much time a person could waste, how significant a chunk of an entire life, trying to twist into properly labeled boxes, because if you're in a box, at least you can understand and name what you are, and maybe even squeeze yourself into the box where people like you and you're not different anymore?

fwiw, and this may seem completely dry (next to macklemore and angel haze!), but i was listening to shibley telhami on arab/islamic identity and he mentions how identity can be looked at thru the media (e.g. like in the US context, people who watch fox news and listen to rush limbaugh; you are what you consume, etc.) but then i think makes a more profound statement: "people embrace the identity that they have to defend most... people embrace the identity that provides the most efficient vehicle to their aspirations... you are what you have to defend." (#t=891)

i guess the other thing sort of pinging around in my mind was an offhand comment in some interview with richard dawkins about how conspiracy theory and religion were similar in a desire (innate?) to have some being(s) in charge/control that got me thinking about how people can 'reclaim agency' thru science and art :P that is all!
posted by kliuless at 7:56 AM on October 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I am living today as someone I had not yet become yesterday
And tonight I'll only borrow pieces of who I am today
To carry with me to tomorrow

A sparkling line in the middle of already pretty great writing. I got more out of reading this than listening to it if I'm honest - there's so much to digest there.
posted by greenish at 8:27 AM on October 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Blue_Villain: I think it's not about the performer, except in those corners of internet culture where criticism has gone off the rails from "this is interesting" to "you're a bad person for doing this."

There is this long-standing cultural trend out there where dominant culture voices talking about discrimination against someone else tends to have more authority than the people experiencing discrimination. This isn't just Macklemore, but, a problem running back centuries in popular music, cinema, and literature. It's possible to walk and chew gum. And it's possible to say that "Same Love" is a good song, and say that it shouldn't be hyped as the "gay anthem" (a direct quote from some reviews, since we can only have one anthem at a time) at the expense of performers like Haze.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 8:36 AM on October 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

Love this. Thanks so much for posting it.
posted by zarq at 9:02 AM on October 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Part of that is that Haze's admissions of "volcanic" anger and wanting to bash her abusers with bricks speak a truth about my experiences growing up queer. Saying those things are not considered to be nice or conciliatory, and mainstream interpretations of hip hop have a long history of treating frustration and advocacy for violence as the same thing.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 9:13 AM on October 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

kids have so much more to draw on, so many more ways to understand their own situation

What is the most philosophical thing that you have ever heard a child under the age of 5 say? "My little sister handed me a juice box as I was packing to move out and said "No one is really a grown up. They just act old because they have to.' "
posted by kliuless at 9:14 AM on October 24, 2013 [10 favorites]

It generally seems like win-win to me, and maybe I will just be happy about that for once. Macklemore himself responded to this with a retweet (simply commenting "powerful") to a laudatory Billboard article about Angel Haze, which, being real, is probably one of the best things anyone's done for her career given she is soon to release her debut album.

What did Kanye West, Jay Z, Drake, Kendrick Lamar or A$AP Ferg have to say about her similar freestyle treatments of their work? Nothing, as far as I can see.

It's a flatly more powerful lyric than the original and it doesn't take anything away from the original to say that... I'm glad to have been introduced to this artist.
posted by nanojath at 9:33 AM on October 24, 2013 [5 favorites]

It really irks me that people equate Macklemore's Same Love as a song that speaks for LGBTQ individuals. It's pretty clearly a personal song. As EmpressCallipygos mentioned above, a main focus was support of legalizing same-sex marriage particularly in reference to Washington Referendum 74.

But the lyrics also speak to the "fear of what we don't know" found in America and in the (Christian) church, and homophobia in hip-hop and online in general, even the casual homophobia of "that's so gay". These are all things from Macklemore's personal life, as heavily reinforced by the cover for the single, featuring Macklemore's uncle, John Haggerty, and his partner, Sean. He talks about kids who live with "pain in their heart" and "[a] world so hateful some would rather die than be who they are" -- a few lines in his song, but made really clear in Angel Haze's rendition.

As a straight, white dude, Macklemore's "Same Love" makes me tear up, even reading it, because that's my view of this ugliness of homophobia. I'm happy every time I hear it on the radio, because someone might listen and stop saying "that's so gay." Angel Haze's version slaps me with a reality that I don't have to face: family saying "you will probably die of a miserable disease, then suffer after you die, because of who you love" at age 13. At that age, my parents were annoyed I was slacking in school.

Thanks for sharing this.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:04 AM on October 24, 2013 [6 favorites]

I suppose all of the (in my opinion unwarranted) vitriol thrown Macklemore's way for his attempt to speak for himself to his audience and industry about their problematic behaviors and opinions is a net positive since it has resulted in light being shone on LGBTQ+ artists who the mainstream would otherwise not being paying attention to.

Angel Haze's take is terrific.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:07 AM on October 24, 2013

Danny Brown, Big Sean and Angel Haze — Detroit's reppin' so hard maybe we can all ignore the new Eminem.
posted by klangklangston at 10:43 AM on October 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

kliuless, thanks for that Heist one year anniversary link. Love that he did a shout-out to Blackalicious. Macklemore is more than a one hit wonder. His song about relapse, "Starting Over" is deep.
posted by larrybob at 11:10 AM on October 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Would Macklemore be getting this same flak if he remained an underground artist, and his stuff was only played on local Seattle radio in the wee hours, when barely anyone is listening? I sincerely don't think so.

I'm Queer, and in Seattle. And while I definitely understand and appreciate the criticism that is being leveraged towards this song, I'm also happy to hear it blasting out of some random car's window when I go about my business. I don't think this could have happened even 5 years ago. And while Macklemore really only speaks for himself, his story has resonated with a lot of people. I'm OK with that.

I'm also grateful for the exposure this is giving to LGBTQ hip hop artists. I want to check some out, and when someone went on a rant on my FB feed about how horrible Macklemore was, and how I should listen to actual LGBTQ artists, I said, "Sure. Hook me up. Who should I check out?" I heard nothing since.
posted by spinifex23 at 11:58 AM on October 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

klangklangston: Detroit's reppin' so hard maybe we can all ignore the new Eminem

Oh, please, let's do just that.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:10 PM on October 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I have absolutely nothing against Macklemore's Same Love except that I don't particularly care for it as a song, which I always hesitate to say because I worry that that will be taken as a proxy for homophobia. I just don't especially like his rhymes or his flow, and it comes off as kind of artlessly preachy to me. I'm very glad that the song exists and more so that people connect to it as powerfully and authentically as they do. It, and honestly he as an artist, are just not really for me, even though I'm a straight man with ties to a frequently homophobic religion.

Angel Haze's version, on the other hand, makes me understand why everyone chokes up when Mary Lambert comes in for the first time, because, yeah, that happened. I connected with her lyricism and rhythm instantly. There's an urgency and an immediacy in her voice that I don't get from Macklemore and that always makes me sit up whenever I encounter it in any medium. So, yeah, she's great.
posted by Errant at 12:50 PM on October 24, 2013

Love Angel Haze if just for New Slaves, but it seems like she has lots to offer-amazing lady.
posted by PHINC at 2:05 PM on October 24, 2013

Actual LGBTQ artists: For the scene as it was about a decade ago , check out the 2006 documentary Pick Up the Mic (free stream on Hulu - it's on some other services as well.)
I think it's unique in showing a community of hip-hop performers collaborating with each other.

Here's what some of the artists in Pick Up the Mic are up to now:
Deep Dickollective: defunct as a group but founders Juba Kalamka and Tim'm West are still active.
God-Des & She: still touring.
Tori Fixx: last CD came out in 2008.
Deadlee: mostly active in acting.
Scream Club: subject of a documentary, And You Belong that came out this year.
Cazwell: I miss when he was a nerdy Boston rapper in Morplay before he changed the S in his name to a Z and went all NYC club kid.
JenRO: Philipino-American woman rapper who has a bunch of music videos.
Shante Paradigm is a professor of American Studies
Katastrophe: Has a lot of music videos. Co-edits the trans culture zine Original Plumbing with photographer Amos Mac.

Maybe you want to check out my YouTube LGBT hip-hop playlist?

In terms of people who've shown up since Pick Up the Mic:
New Orleans Bounce musician Big Freedia has a new TV show on Fuse.tv
Mykki Blanco (Previously) draws from Riot Grrrl, queercore and performance art.
A 2012 roundup article with old and new LGBT hip-hop performers.
And to bring it back to Macklemore, the Previously thread on Le1f's response to Macklemore.
posted by larrybob at 2:45 PM on October 24, 2013 [6 favorites]

I want my
I want my
I want my
MTV
posted by charlie don't surf at 4:24 PM on October 24, 2013

The Angel Haze version speaks to (and for) me in a way that the Macklemore one doesn't.

As it should. I enjoy Angel Haze's version of the track and empathize with her struggle, but as a cis-male I will never truly understand her plight, but then I'm not the intended audience. Same with Mackamore's original track making some LGBT a bit uncomfortable, because they are also not the intended audience. Mackamore is knowingly using his privilege to speak to those are struggling clash of a upbring where anyone you didn't like was a F-g smashing into a world where gay marriage is a reality a few states. He's singing from a hetrosexual perseptive so other hetrosexuals can relate eaiser to it.'

Any bigoted cis-person listening to Angel Haze will be very defensive, "This freak is stealing something from me, I don't know what that thing is but I'm sure I used to have something and now I don't." That something, of course, was a monopoly on "the way things should be" and losing that for 'normative' white people its terrifying.

When Y.M.C.A. came out (ahem) in '78, straight and gay disco dancers heard two completely different songs, yet will still fail to recognize different groups see/relate to the world in different ways based on their own identity.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:27 PM on October 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I love Angel Haze. She's so great and so is this song.
posted by Aquifer at 9:21 PM on October 24, 2013