"Hip Hop is more gay than it is dead."

In the wake of former entertainment industry exec Terrance Dean's gay-blind-item-filled book Hiding In Hip Hop, the hip hop community was split. Some reacted by saying, essentially, "Ew. That is so gay." But others basically yawned, and pointed out that of course there have always been gays in hip hop. Have you looked at some of these album covers lately?

NEWS FLASH! HIP HOP IS GAY AND BEEN GAY FOR A WHILE NOW!

I say that in the same context that Killer Mike said "Rap Is Dead" years before Nas copied and said "Hip Hop Is Dead." We all know that there is still some good shit out there, so we can't say ALL of Hip Hop is dead or gay. But, I will say, Hip Hop is more gay than it is dead...

Say if I had all of these CDs in my CD book. Wouldn't that shit look more like a wall in a teenage girls bedroom? If you was to go over to one of your homeboy's house and see wall to wall pictures of dudes with their shirts off, wouldn't that raise some eyebrows?

I ain't saying that every person who walks around shirtless is homo, but damn though. Sometimes when I go to the grocery store to flip through new magazines or go to the record store to see whats new, it feels like I'm at a male revue or someshit because all I see is male nipples.

That's from XXL blogger Maurice G. Garland. And for an eminently level-headed take on it, here's Ill Doctrine blogger and DJ Jay Smooth: "Because as we all know, being the gay rapper is like being the Highlander, and there can only be one on earth."