Rap fans in Hip Hop have been inherently homophobic since the culture's inception, so it's no surprise that Rapper Playboi Carti faced homophobic backlash for his social media antics while promoting his highly-anticipated studio album "Whole Lotta Red".
Atlanta-bred rapper and songwriter Playboi Carti, known for his "baby voice" mumble rap and ad libs, made his Billboard Hot 100 debut with his song "Magnolia" and later, "Walk Like This". His debut studio album "Die Lit" released in 2018 peaked at #3 on the US Billboard 200.
Follow us as we take a closer look into the false gay rumors and homophobic shaming of Playboi Carti's unique style and personality.
"They thought I was Gay"
It had been two years since Playboi Carti released any music, so his fans were definitely anxious for him to release his second studio album on Christmas day. But when Carti took to Instagram Live to preview a song, he was called out for his lyrics which stated, "They thought I was gay". The lyrics instantly began trending on Twitter.
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Internet Trolls Allegedly Make Fake Photo
Social media trolls quickly took Playboi Carti's lyrics and ran with it, allegedly fabricating an Instagram story photo that infers he had come out as gay. Despite him fathering a child to rapper and model Iggy Azelia, Playboi Carti has not confirmed his sexuality, but from his lyrics it is expected that he identifies as straight.
Gay Dating Rumors Circulate
Following, Playboi Carti posted an Instagram story photo with the Director of Givenchy Matthew Williams. This later led to false rumors by Twitter trolls claiming that Matthew and Carti were in a relationship.
In addition, internet trolls later found a video of Playboi Carti and rapper Kid Cudi, whom he featured on his album, in a video dancing to a leaked song. A few pointed out that Carti was looking at Cudi a little too intensely.
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Gay Rumors Lead to Hate Train of Album
Due to a build up false gay rumors, a fake coming out photo and internet trolls doing what they do best, upon Playboi Carti's midnight release of "Whole Lotta Red", an outcry of disapproval for the album swarmed the internet. Many deeming the album as "trash". It was as if this cause and effect of being classified as gay made it easy for people to join a hate train.
It's important to note that their is underlying homophobia largely present in people's reasoning for stating that Carti's album has "0 good songs". Many LGBT artist fall victim to this, as for many hip hop fan's refuse to look past sexuality instead digesting the music as a whole. Unfortunately, Playboi Carti was an example of that this time.
Despite the social media backlash and bad press, Carti may still earn his first #1 album of his career. Whole Lotta Red is currently on pace to debut atop the next Billboard 200 chart. HDD projects that the controversial rapper’s new album is on course to move a big 125-135k copies in the first week which could enable a number 1 debut on next week’s chart, ahead of Taylor Swift.
After unpacking how homophobia led to unnecessary and baseless criticism of Playboi Carti's album, we can only hope that things get better. Though Carti has not confirmed if he identifies as gay or even bisexual, it seems his silence has saved him to a degree. As for other openly LGBT artists, who knows if they could even survive a similar backlash. Gayes, what are your thoughts?
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