''Pick Up the Mic'' is a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

, released in 2006, which profiles the underground

homo hop LGBTQ representation in hip-hop music has existed since the birth of the genre even while enduring blatant discrimination. Due to its adjacency to disco, the earliest days of hip-hop had a close relation to LGBTQ subcultures, and multiple LGBT ...

scene, which is a subgenre of

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

that includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender artists. The film was directed by Alex Hinton. The documentary had its premiere at the

2005 Toronto International Film Festival The 30th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8–17 and screened 335 films from 52 countries - 109 of these films were world premieres, and 78 were North American premieres. Awards At the Festival's closing event, the following ...

. Subsequently, the film screened at other film festivals around the world. An edited version aired nationally in the United States on the

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

cable television channel. Though

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

is a phenomenon commonly laid at the feet of mainstream hip hop, pop culture's relationship to it has also been shaped by white middle class LGBT communities' covert and overt

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

internalized homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or antipathy, m ...

. As a result, the attendant conversations in LGBT and straight mainstream media around the subject tend to gravitate toward the speculative (

Queen Pen Lynise Walters (born September 24, 1972), known professionally as Queen Pen, is an American rapper. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, she was discovered by producer Teddy Riley at an IHOP restaurant in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Riley later invite ...

's 1998 single "Your Girlfriend") and the apocryphal (the brief career of self-proclaimed "gay rapper"

Caushun Caushun (born Jason Herndon, 1977) is an American rapper, often erroneously referred to as the first openly gay hip-hop artist to be signed to a major record label in the United States. It was reported that he was to be signed to Kimora Lee Simmo ...

, who was the subject of a flurry of mainstream press from 2001 to 2003, yet failed to release an album or single through his reported record deal with

Kimora Lee Simmons Kimora Lee Simmons (née Perkins; May 4, 1975) is an American businesswoman, fashion designer, television personality and former fashion model. As a teenager, she was signed with Chanel, where she became a model. Simmons has walked the runway ...

Baby Phat Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons is a privately held American apparel brand originally established in 1999 by entrepreneur, Russell Simmons. Initially launched as a womenswear offshoot of the menswear label, Phat Farm, Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Si ...

imprint). Homohop is a growing subgenre of aggressive pro-gay lyrics directly confronting the perceived homophobia of mainstream rap. It is a significant underground gay hip hop movement, spearheaded by many of the artists profiled in ''Pick Up the Mic''. The performance footage in the documentary was shot at the

PeaceOUT World Homo Hop Festival The PeaceOUT (World) Homo Hop Festival was an annual festival of hip hop music and culture created by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people from 2001 to 2007. The main festival took place in Oakland, California, although sibling fe ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

between 2002 and 2004, and Peace Out East, a sister festival in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

curated by Judge "Dutchboy" Muscat and Shante "Paradigm" Smalls. All of the artists featured in ''Pick Up the Mic'' have released multiple independent recordings and have toured the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and internationally over the past several years. Katastrophe, Deep Dickollective and Scream Club have been among the most prolific, with the Scream Club making several tours across

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

in recent years, where they have developed a cult-like following.

Artists

* Juba Kalamka *

Deep Dickollective Deep Dickollective (D/DC) was an LGBT hip hop group based in Oakland, California that were active in the homo hop scene of openly queer/LGBT artists during the 2000s. They were regular performers at the PeaceOUT World Homo Hop Festival curate ...

* Dutchboy *

Tori Fixx Tori Fixx is one of the first openly gay hip hop artists. He also produces music for other noted queer performers. He is based in Minneapolis. Career In the mid-90s, he DJed at parties for Prince at Paisley Park Studios in Minnesota. After mov ...

* Deadlee * Tim'm T. West *

JB Rap JB or J.B. may refer to: People * JB (Canadian rapper) * JB (Swedish musician) * BlocBoy JB (born 1996), American rapper * Jay B (born 1994), South Korean singer * Jack Black (born 1969), American actor and comedian * Jaffar Byn, Swedish rapper ...

* JenRO * Katastrophe * Marcus Rene Van * Miss Money * Paradigm * Aggracyst *

QBoy QBoy (born Marcos Jose Brito on 10 October 1978) is a UK-based rapper, producer, DJ, writer and presenter. He is one of the original few out rappers in hip hop circa 2001 that became pioneers of the new subgenre colloquially known as "homo hop". ...

Cazwell Luke Eugene Caswell, known mononymously as Cazwell, is an American rapper, record producer, and songwriter. He has released the three studio albums '' Get into It'' in 2006, '' Watch My Mouth'' in 2009 and ''Hard 2 B Fresh'' in 2014, along with vi ...

* Johnny Dangerous * God-Des * Tina G (aka She of

God-Des and She God-Des and She are an American hip-hop/pop/soul duo from the Midwest, composed of Alicia Smith (God-des) and Tina Gassen (She). Since they appeared on the Showtime hit series The L Word in 2006, they have sold more than 30,000 albums and toured ...

) * Scream Club * Soce, the elemental wizard

References

External links

''Pick Up the Mic''
* {{IMDb title, id=0422952, title=Pick Up the Mic 2006 films LGBTQ hip-hop Documentary films about hip-hop music and musicians 2006 LGBTQ-related films Rhino Films films African-American LGBTQ-related films African-American films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films 2006 documentary films American LGBTQ-related documentary films English-language documentary films Transgender-related documentary films Transgender-related films Transgender history in the United States

Artists

See also

References

External links