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“Lauron J. Kehrer skillfully historicizes queer existence within, adjacent to, and beyond hip hop. Focusing on the identity of creators from the mid-twentieth century to the present, they create a meaningful account of queer creative expression as a necessary dimension of hip hop, originating in earlier genres of African American dance music. . . Kehrer’s text is a necessary addition to hip-hop pedagogy, celebrating the work of gender, queer studies, and music scholars through their interpolation of relevant works to tackle contemporary issues. The text truly focuses on the voices: individuals, their stories and contributions, and their efforts for placemaking and humanizing
queer perspectives in hip hop while challenging industry expectations.”
— Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association
“With careful attention to musical sound, lyrical content, and cultural context, Lauron J. Kehrer brings the submerged Black queer lineage of hip hop to the surface and shows how Black queer and trans rappers from Big Freedia to Young M.A to Lil Nas X and beyond have pursued their careers while balancing artistic goals and industry expectations. Queer Voices in Hip Hop is an accessible and insightful read that provides a welcome riposte to the persistent erasure of Black queer people from hip hop history and culture.”
— Maureen Mahon, author of Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll
“Queer Voices in Hip Hop resists the demonization of hip hop as a flat, toxically masculine space and the inaccurate gender binary that has had a hold in the field of music research on hip hop and identity performance.”
— Alisha Lola Jones, author of Flaming? The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance

Notions of hip hop authenticity, as expressed both within hip hop communities and in the larger American culture, rely on the construction of the rapper as a Black, masculine, heterosexual, cisgender man who enacts a narrative of struggle and success. In Queer Voices in Hip Hop, Lauron Kehrer turns our attention to openly queer and trans rappers and positions them within a longer Black queer musical lineage. Combining musical, textual, and visual analysis with reception history, this book reclaims queer involvement in hip hop by tracing the genre’s beginnings within Black and Latinx queer music-making practices and spaces, demonstrating that queer and trans rappers draw on Ballroom and other cultural expressions particular to queer and trans communities of color in their work in order to articulate their subject positions. By centering the performances of openly queer and trans artists of color, Queer Voices in Hip Hop reclaims their work as essential to the development and persistence of hip hop in the United States as it tells the story of the queer roots of hip hop.