That headline kind of just grabs you by the horns, doesn’t it? I knew it sure as hell grabbed my attention when I was reading it over at BET who recently sat down with J. Cole to dish on a few topics including skin color and homophobia in Hip Hop.

Check out what the self proclaimed Born Sinner had to say about the two below:

BET: You’ve talked about including dark-skinned women in your music videos versus all light-skinned women. The light-skinned, dark-skinned issue certainly affects women in hip hop; does it affect men in hip hop?

J. Cole: I can’t say it for sure but I just think we’re still in America. We’re still Black Americans. Those mental chains are still in us. That brainwashing that tells us that light skin is better, it’s subconsciously in us, whether we know it or not… still pursuing light skin women. There are some women out there that are like, “I don’t even like light skin men” and that’s fine. But Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin. I’m not saying that for sure, I’m still as talented as I am and Obama is still as smart as he is, but it’s just a sad truth… I don’t even know if this is going to translate well into text and people not hearing what I’m saying, but it’s a sad reality. So I can only naturally assume it’s probably easier for a light skin male rapper than it might be for a dark skin male rapper. It’s all subconscious s***, nobody’s aware — I think that s*** still subconsciously affects us.

Cole on homophobia:

BET: You got some backlash for anti-gay lyrics and you gave a statement to the Huffington Post. Do you regret using the word “f*****”?

J.Cole: No, not at all. It’s much different than the autism thing, it wasn’t conscious; that was a slip-up, being offensive without intent. The line was to engage the conversation of homophobia in Black culture and in hip hop. I thought it was going to be a way more interesting conversation that came from it. Of course I made the statement, but I thought from that it would spawn better conversations like, “Why are we so homophobic?” Much more than I think any other culture, I don’t want to just compare it to white people, but in terms of jokes that you make — everything’s got to be “pause” or “no homo.” You cant even play basketball without someone saying, “pause.” I’m not innocent of it. I am part of that same culture – but why? That line was supposed to be offensive and confusing, but I was hoping to have more conversations about it.

Jermaine makes a few very interesting points here. Hip Hop as a whole is entirely too homophobic and needs to catch up with the times. Sexual preference is no one’s business but your own. If it makes you happy, do you. Case closed.

Thoughts??