Everyone’s been talking about Bruce Jenner’s major decision to come out as transgender, and one notable person talking about Jenner’s transition is hip-hop legend Erick Sermon, who recently claimed that hip-hop is no place for transgender people.
In a recent interview with TMZ, Sermon shared his thoughts on Jenner’s transition and said that it could come off as a move to get attention from the media.
“I think Bruce took too long to do that. It was rumored that he was like that in the ‘70s. You saw the story, he didn’t wanna come out, the whole nine,” Sermon said, before backtracking and praising Jenner for coming out.
“Maybe, what he’s trying to do is bring about awareness because I heard that the suicide rate is heavy,” Sermon says. “He’s just crazy for doing it right now.”
And when asked if he thinks the world of hip-hop will ever embrace transgender people, Sermon replied “No.”
“You know what?” he says. “The way the world is going you’ll never know because we have some rappers that are close to that. I just think they are taking the culture too far. You have to be what hip-hop represents. The culture is what [it] is.”
Well, hip-hop has certainly been slow when it comes to progress around accepting gay and bisexual people, so it’s no surprise that not everyone in hip-hop is keen on the idea of embracing transgender people with open arms. However, as slow as the progress in hip-hop is, it’s still moving in the same direction as the rest of society. And what we see from the world around us is that transgender people are finally being recognized and embraced for who they are. So we won’t be surprised if Sermon, one day, has to eat his words. In fact, on that day, we’ll rejoice and look back at pioneers like Jenner for paving the way for trans people.
