Deep Dickollective is the ultimate antidote to anyone thinking that white and dubiously-moral artists like Eminem held any sort of monopoly on the world of rap and hip-hop. But the hip-hop club world is still predominantly and increasingly white in fan base - and straight. There is no dedicated forum for gay performance, but hopefully this will change as more openly queer artists gain popularity (such as Me’shell Ndegeocello, Rainbow Flava, Duality, Cyryus).

 Based in Oakland, California, Deep Dickollective are Pointfivefag (Juba Kalamka), 25Percenter (Tim’m T. West), G Minus (Ralowe Trinitrotoluene Ampu) and LSP The Lightskin-did (Phil)osopher (Phillip Atiba Goff). Their 2001 CD " BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo" contains 20 pages worth of well produced and intriguing rap (most are online at sugartruck.tripod.com). Repeat listening is enjoyable - the music is varied and stimulating, and of course you understand more each time. In their own words:

 Pointfivefag

Born in the quaint ghetto of North Lawndale on Chicago's near west side, pointfivefag is a self-described nanomedia freekydeek. Growing up at the height of the 1970's African-centered independent education and literary movements the environment's myriad racial/sex/gender identity politics. While attending Chicago State University as an art education major, he began performing locally with popular west side group Raw Material before joining He Who Walks Three Ways in 1991.

He was particularly frustrated by the lack of opportunities (and his own internalised phobias) to discuss his ideas about queerness and culture within the typical rhyme cipher braggadocio. In the meantime he graduated, taught elementary school, married, had a kid, divorced and came out to himself. Shortly after moving to San Francisco in January 1999, he realised a wish and became a staff illustrator and writer for Anything That Moves: The Magazine of The Uncompromising Bisexual.

That same summer pointfivefag met 25percenter who promoted and performed in numerous Bay Area spoken word productions. After attending scads of poetry events centering on babydread noseringers and misogynist erotophobe Million man Nag Champers, they decided to start creating the melange of spokenweird and hip hop that spoke to unrepresented and invisible segments of the hip hop nation.

Tim'm is a funky derivative of a biblical name out of which the stutter name came. It’s a speech impediment transformed into ghettofab sig, in which he takes pride for that which hasn't killed him makes him alive.

He found himself collectivizing a movement some refer to as "homohop" and considers the Bay its birthplace while acknowledging queer presence in hip hop worldwide as well as it's beginnings in the Bronx and the heterosexist mechanisms that have kept queer men and women silent for so long.

25percenter has worked tirelessly for the past decade as a youth activist with College Summit and currently works with sexually diverse youth in the Bay area. He is an AIDS activist who hopes that his interventions in scholarship and music can uplift.

What I do: Me rev demonstratively constant from dawn to the onset of sunset and ain't done yet. Spellcraft held at the hell crack of twelve homoculus flows to open your nose with my spellbrook open or close. Trinitro-trickster: sicker than the next nigga. I think crime dialectical the length of the lines and write rhymes till the people fuckin' make up the minds organize sharin minds with who the system despise. Novelist turn rapper and then back to Raloster Crowley, trollin through the mall you're holdin golden wolvarine from which the soldiers all glean (golly) steel mimetipoli prolly forever flow fountains, so I'ma slump steep and watch the fetti make mountains.

The Lightskin-did Phil(osopher)

Lightskin-did was a devoted cock-rock enthusiast (Led Zeppelin and Rush to be exact) until he was proselytized by Charles Mingus' "Ah Um". He has since been trained in jazz and gospel vocals, electric and upright bass, and West African percussion, becoming an accomplished composer and director in the process. Lightskin-did is, perhaps, best known for founding Harvard's (and Boston's) first annual Black Arts Festival. Now in its 4th year, the BAF is the largest celebration of its kind in New England and boasts a "who's who" list of past participants. The festival, which combines activism and artistry with the academy, is a metaphor for Lightskin-did's life mission. The Philosopher seeks to eradicate lovelessness and nihilism brought about by the carelessness of our cultures* custodians, and to promote the sanctity of voice (in other words, to work his groove on folk.)

As a member of the collective, the poet/activist/scholar/thespian/athlete/emcee/oxymoronicon seeks to encourage self-reflection through reflecting self in hip hop. Check the breath on the mirror.