Billy Porter reveals he doesn't listen to hip hop music: "It was for my own survival"

Billy Porter, an established figure in the LGBTQ+ community, has no problem expressing his dislike for anti-gay rhetoric in today’s hip hop music.

During an appearance on the “Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay” podcast on Tuesday (Oct. 25), Porter revealed that he does not listen to hip hop music or know any of the current rappers.

When Lathan asked the Emmy award-winning actor if he would ever talk to Boosie Badazz or DaBaby about their past comments toward the LGBTQ+ community, Porter replied: “First of all, I don’t know who they are. Let me say that, and here’s the reason — because I talk about it in my book. My childhood was very traumatizing. I was bullied, I was beaten, I was put out of the church, I was all of those things.”

He continued, “And [when] hip hop started to emerge, the first narrative was, ‘F**k the police.’ The second narrative on the list was, ‘Kill the f**gots.’ I missed hip hop because I had to extract myself from that energy so that I could save myself. I don’t know [anything] about it. I don’t know who these people are. I let the hip hop singers in — Mary J. Blige and the [other] nice rappers. You know, the Puffys, etc. But I missed a lot of that culture. And I’m not proud of it. [But] it was for my own survival.”

Porter concluded his thought, saying: “So I don’t know none of these people. I don’t know Lil Boosie. I don’t know who the f**k that is. Just like he doesn’t know who I am, or he may now, right? But when people come for me and talk about me shoving my gayness down their throats and blah, blah, blah, I’m like, ‘Then turn the page — Turn it off like I did.'”

Check out the clip of Billy Porter speaking on his history with hip hop on the “Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay” podcast down below: