My current musical obsession is Los Angeles rapper, Deadlee. Based out of Echo Park and looking like he sprung full blown from the heart of Death Row's glory years, Deadlee - aka Joseph Lee - has been on my radar for a number of years as the foremost proponent of homo hop, hip hop done for and by gay artists. I've watched the videos and listened to the emphasis tracks, but only recently went further and began exploring his whole body of work and I must say I'm beyond impressed with the man's skills, tenacity and heart. And, yes, he is totally fine to boot!
Even a cursory listen to Deadlee's sophomore effort, "Assault With A Deadlee Weapon," reveals a wordsmith with rhythm, uncommon verbal gifts, a sense of humor and rarely heard stories to tell about being gay in a hip hop world and growing up gay in a culture or even a family where you are not accepted and kicked to the curb. His songs, "Good Soldier" and "Good Soldier II" (check out the video on youtube), address issues common to gay youth with compassion and honesty. I wish there had been a Deadlee on the scene when I was coming up to let me know I wasn't alone and that I could be macho, hot, strong, everything I am, and still be a gay man. It turns out Deadlee was inspired to become a rap artist when he was working with troubled gay youth and wanted to provide an antidote to the homophobic mainstream hip hop acts they listened to.
He targets 50 Cent, Eminem and other pop rappers for their moneymaking homophobia and many of his rhymes are barbed with his anger, understandably so. A finely tuned sense of humor rears its head, notably in "Gay Pac," and his seeming mission to educate with compassion is mitigated - gratefully - by a number of tracks that are flat out horny, e.g., "Suck Mah Gun," where the metaphor is full of wit and still retains its heat.
Deadlee has expanded recently into acting but is recording a new CD for Fall 2009. I've seen videos of his live performances and they appear to be incendiary. Can't wait to see him in the flesh!
One final note: It's interesting that Deadlee moved rapidly from being regarded as The Gay Rapper to a straight up Hip Hop Thug Rap Artist...he's that committed, and that good.
"Assault With A Deadly Weapon" available for download on iTunes, cdbaby and Amazon.com. Hot new track, "Nasty," from Homo Revolution Tour 2007 CD, available on iTunes.
