Marcos Jose Brito is UK’s most famous gay rapper and the pioneer of the new sub-genre ‘Homo Hop.’ He’s young, he’s gifted, he’s Gay. Did Marcos possibly fit into the notoriously bigoted, often homophobic world of hip-hop? Sourendra Kumar Das meets him
Sometimes, I have encountered people, even strangers who begin to interest me at first sight before a word has been spoken. I sit down at Café Samovar at Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai to tell you my lasting yet brief encounter with such a person whom the world knows as QBoy, the original rapper in hip-hop circa and as one of the pioneers of the new sub-genre colloquially known as ‘Homo Hop.’
Music indeed is a necessity of life and only a handful would be the ones, in whose life music has not made an impact. Marcos aka QBoy is not an exception as from the age of six, he found himself getting fascinated by the music, dancers and their matching costumes. As years passed by, he got inspired by the likes of Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Notorious B.I.G. and Trina, with his notion ‘if they can be sexually explicit, so can I.’
M always knew that he liked men, only when he grew up he got to know the term ‘gay.’ But being gay in school was never easy for him, overcoming the bullying of school-mates was quite a painful task. They would often call him names and it was mentally draining for him to go to school everyday. But when he went to college, he turned the tables and used his sexuality as a weapon against homophobia.
His works started with being sexually free and liberated as he would listen to Gangsta rap and find its explicitness quite witty. His initial works were sexually very explicit and his alternative sexuality made him write it more unambiguously. Later on, as years passed by, his works even delved into topics like spirituality, universe, humanity, and the likes. Love and Relationship is something that he feels is too personal and hence finds it difficult to express easily.
M was nominated for Performing Artist of The Year at the premier GALA Awards, while his acclaimed TV documentary ‘Coming Out to Class’ for Channel 4 was much appreciated where he looks back to his homophobic encounters at his school. He is presently working on a dance project with NYC producer/DJ Larry Tee under the name of ‘Sam LeMans’ that is releasing this year.
M tells young readers of Pink Pages that the road may be difficult initially, but a little help from someone can make it worth walking the way. For other he says, ‘CHECK ME OUT, I am in your country for the first quarter of this year!’
Most of Marcos’ music as ‘QBoy’ can be found on iTunes whereas the first ‘Sam LeMans’ release will be next spring, in the meantime check www.soundcloud.com/samlemans, www.facebook.com/samlemans and for his videos www.youtube.com/qboymusic/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHJbt-XTFzg