When you hear a guy spitting out rhymes to a hard hitting beat and a driving rhythm, it may come as a surprise to find that he’s rapping about his boyfriend. But why? The world of hip-hop is home to many voices and more and more gays and lesbians are using their voices to crack that world wide-open. Attempting to break ground by covering this revolution is director Alex Hinton, whose documentary Pick Up The Mic highlights the lives of talented GLBT emcees who aren’t afraid to speak up about who they are and who they love.

What started as a short subject documentary for Queer Youth TV in 2002 quickly grew into a full-length endeavor as Hinton and his producer Alan Skinner compiled hundreds of hours of footage of more than two-dozen queer rappers from all over the world. Now wrapped and being shown in festivals throughout the U.S. (with showings on LOGO scheduled throughout October), the feeling of completion is more complex than all parties involved could have anticipated.

“When you live in the Deep South and a bunch of white guys show up at your door with cameras, people are going to start talking,” says Miss Money, emcee, producer and proprietor of the Houston-based label Money Talks Records. “While it was being shot, we all pretty much thought, ‘This is ludicrous,’ like nothing would ever come of it. Then when it started to become so much more, we realized it could turn into a life-changing event. It’s a good feeling to go from being the kid who got made fun of in high school to having your face huge and being shown on a movie screen.”

In 2002, Hinton co-directed and edited “Queer Youth TV Presents: Queercore,” a 25-minute documentary on the underground gay and lesbian punk music scene. He has also produced a feature length DVD for indie/punk artist Gravy Train. But he states that transitioning from the world of punk to rap is not all that different.

“I was always into hip-hop,” Hinton says. “My step-brother got me into it back when we were like 13.”

“There are so many similarities to punk culture and hip-hop culture,” adds Money. “Both groups were sort of outcasts and there is an understanding between [them]. Both had to come up from the ground.”

The idea for the project came to Hinton while working for QYTV where he became interested in seeking out queer artists in all musical genres. He imagined there could not possibly be very many queer artists in a genre like hip-hop, but he was wrong.

“It’s really known that hip-hop is homophobic,” says God-Des of God-Des and She, who are also featured in the film. “Hip-hop is an aggressive form of music. People assert their dominance by using terms like ‘fag.’ I think people want to hear things that are real now. People respect that we’re talking about things that are real.”

In her song “Misunderstood,” San Francisco-based hip-hop artist JenRo, also featured throughout the documentary, raps, “The more they push us, the more we gonna shove/ And the more that you gonna hate, the more we gonna love,” which is the general statement behind Pick Up the Mic itself.

“A movie like this is needed because it shows that people like me have a voice,”
Money says. “I believe that my life and my vision are so much bigger than being gay. Homophobic people aren’t going to come away with anything from this though, because the hate is already imbedded.”

Hinton says that he is satisfied with the completed version of the film and wouldn’t change anything about it.

“Alan Skinner and I really thought through every single edit,” he says. “Not one thing was put in that we didn’t talk about because we both know that editing is the way you tell the story in documentary films. I learned that you can’t film every single second of everything, and I genuinely wish I could have.”

With all of the different artists featured on the documentary such as those aforementioned as well as Katastrophe, Deep Dickollective, Deadlee and Scream Club, there were no ego battles.

“We don’t feel like we’re competing with anyone,” God-Des says. “We want people to feel like anybody can have a voice, have a chance, and be empowered.”

Pick Up The Mic does is job of showing the world that there are gay emcees who rap about gay issues, and there are also rappers who just so happen to be gay. All the little variations of a genre, little differences that once divided, are now coming together to unite and Hinton was there to make sure it would be televised.