No homo

No homo is a phrase used as slang at the end of a sentence to assert the statement spoken by the speaker had no intentional homosexual implications. The phrase is “added to a statement in order to rid them of a possible homosexual double-entendre”. Most commonly used by males, it is, according to Associate Professor James Joseph Dean of Sonoma State University “a way of flagging one’s straight status and claiming its privilege”. It is a form of “identity construction in discourse via societal legitimization” for heterosexual males and a mechanism for which to distance oneself from any notion of homosexual intent.

The phrase originated in American hip hop of the late 1990s as a way to quash any sexual and gender error or overstep within lyrics. As Brown states, “the phrase no homo arose in Hip-Hop lyrics of the 1990’s as a discourse interjection to negate supposed sexual and gender transgressions”.

The roots in American hip hop is where a cultural narrative of heterosexual masculinity as inherent law in contrast to homosexuality and femininity as being disparaged and violently rejected attributes created a cultural vernacular of discrimination. As Nebeu Shimeles states in the "Critical Theory and Social Justice Journal of Undergraduate Research", “the commercialization of hip hop as the site of a colonial encounter, with capitalism as the force undergirding its entrance into mainstream American consciousness, implications of the institution of violent masculinity and homophobia became rapidly apparent. With the rapid popularization of gangsta rap, homosexuality became a marker of inferiority within the culture that coincided with the emergence of a complicated relationship between hip-hop and the sexuality they were sworn to disavow.”.

The phrase no homo used in a lyrical context comes as a pre-emptive maneuver to deflect any attacks on the artist’s masculinity or heterosexual status. Within this context, “'No homo' is not necessarily addressing homosexuality, but creating a verbal defensive in the musical battlefield that is wrought with signifyn’ and bustin’. [Musicians] realize that a lyric, which is ‘inadvertently gay,’ is fodder for another’s verbal attack on their masculinity within hip-hop culture. In an attempt to divert their own demasculinization, musicians presuppose those attacks at their masculinity”. Hip hop and rap lyrics both constantly demonstrate heterosexuality and heteronormativity through excessively lewd and misogynist phrases while denying any likelihood of a sexually-geared encounter between two same-gendered (male) artists.

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