The true queen of Hip-Hop Soul Mary J. Blige made a much needed appearance on The Advocate magazine. In it, Mary discusses her gay following, the new-direction she’s taking in music, and her involvement fighting AIDS. One thing I can say about Ms. Mary J is that she gets it. Not just her acknowledgment of gay fans, but this…
“When I was growing up,” she says thoughtfully, “my neighborhood was full of everyone — black, white, Latino, gay, straight. A lot of people that I knew were gay, but they were great people. They were good people. It’s not like they were alien. They were just people. That [acceptance] was just something that was always in me. I’ve never been a judgmental person because I have been through so much hell myself…”
At the end of the day we’re just people. You really think 50 Cent or Jay-Z cares who’s buying their CD? Gay or straight. A sale is a sale. Mary lands it home.
“The real hip-hop,” she stresses, “the real people don’t even care about that. They’ll love you and accept you no matter what because they know who they are. There are a lot of people trying to figure out who they are and what they’re gonna be. There’s a lot of confusion in that. Confusion causes a lack of identity.
“I’ve heard a couple of guys say foul things, and those guys are not around me anymore because when they say things like that, I’m looking at them like, What makes you so scared? You don’t know who you are? I guess it all boils down to them not being sure about themselves and what they wanna do, whoever that is. I won’t say any names. And I don’t dislike them or anything — it just makes me wonder about them period. ’Cause if you’re not sure about that, then you ain’t sure about a lotta things!” she laughs. (source – advocate.com)
Thank you!
Tags: advocate • AIDS • blige • fans • gay • homophobia • mary • Music • queer
