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Gay rapper? Believe it
25 May 2006- You're not going to get a sob story out of Tori Fixx
about how hard it is being a gay artist in a genre of music that's
notoriously homophobic.
"Honestly, I'd say that being gay opens
more doors for me nowadays than it closes them," the 31-year-old
producer/DJ/rapper said this week.
Sitting amid the keyboards, turntables
and piles of vinyl records inside his Uptown apartment, Fixx (who
legally changed his name a few years ago) is friends with other gay
hip-hop artists around the country who haven't been so lucky. He knows a
couple of performers who lost record deals when they opened up about
their sexuality. Others have been ridiculed or pushed around after
shows.
Fixx, however, is pretty content with
the way his career has gone. He has released five CDs, and the latest
the gay-marriage-themed "Marry Me" earned him some press and a small
nationwide following. More and more, he is also getting invited to gay
and lesbian pride events in other cities.
"Usually, it's six or seven folk
singers, and then me," he said with a laugh, "but I still go over pretty
well."
This weekend, Fixx is coming out more
in his hometown via the Flaming Film Festival. He's one of a dozen
featured performers in "Pick Up the Mic," a documentary about gay
rappers that showed at the Toronto Film Fest. He's performing after
tonight's screening at the Suburban World Theater and also will take
part in Sunday's "Homo Hop" show at 7th Street Entry.
Fixx's success could be seen as a sign
that hip-hop is so widely integrated in pop culture nowadays, the gay
and lesbian community was bound to demand it. But let's not forget that
hip-hop does have gay roots, since a part of its early formulation was
sampling beats out of New York discos.
Homophobia in hip-hop became a hot
issue a few months ago, when Kanye West openly denounced other
rappers' gay-bashing in interviews. Fixx wasn't all that impressed.
"Action speaks louder than words," he said. "That's great Kanye spoke
up. Now let's see him hire an openly gay producer or work with a gay
rapper."
Still, Fixx saw West's comments as yet
another sign that the hip-hop world might be inching toward acceptance.
"More and more, you're seeing the two worlds collide," he said, adding
with a smile, "and let's face it, there are probably a lot of [famous
rappers] who are queer but afraid to come out."
Fixx himself opened up about his sexual
makeup pretty early on, which, he admitted, is generally even harder for
black men to do. A south Minneapolis native from a "good churchgoing
family," he said he worried about his family's reaction but "they were
braver about it than I was." He struggled with his identity for several
years and even attempted suicide once.
A childhood passion that started with
Prince's "1999" album pulled him through. "Making music and
writing was how I dealt with my sexuality issues," he said. "Eventually,
a friend of mine convinced me the music was worth putting out, but at
first I was only doing it for myself."
Fixx spent a few years in San
Francisco, where he first started performing. In the mid-'90s, he was a
sort of "on-call DJ" for Prince. He said he'd often drive out to Paisley
Park in blizzards or late at night whenever the call came to throw a
party.
Nowadays, Tori spins most Wednesdays
and Thursdays at the Saloon in downtown Minneapolis and works the
monthly lesbian nights at the Kitty Cat Klub in Dinkytown. He produces
records for other gay artists and is working on his own double CD,
"Chocolate," which explores more of his funk and singer/songwriter side.
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