Keeping It Gayngsta

Sgt. Sass bring street cred to gay hip-hop.

“A lot of people have an issue with us using the word ‘faggot,’” says DeShawn Seymore, the “first lady” of gay Philly rap duo Sgt. Sass. “But I hear that word every day and I probably will for the rest of my life. So you have to own it.”

Three years ago Seymore, 23, and friend DaQuan Motley, 25, were hanging out in Seymore’s living room when Sgt. Sass was conceived. “‘Sgt.’ because we’re militant in a way—in trying to make a point and lead a generation,” Motley explains, “But ‘Sass’ because … we’re still gay.”

By calling their brand of hip-hop music “fag rap,” Sgt. Sass hope to reclaim “faggot” in the same way female rappers like Missy Elliott and Lil’ Kim reclaimed “bitch” in the late ’90s.

It’s also a way for the pair to flip the script on rampant homophobia in hip-hop culture, a culture Seymore and Motley say they’ve grown up with and love.

Read the rest in Philadelphia Weekly.