Erick Sermon Says Transgender Rappers Aren’t Welcome In Hip-Hop

Yikes. In an interview with TMZ, hip-hop legend Erick Sermon was asked about his thoughts on Bruce Jenner's recent gender-transitioning announcement, and then was hit with this follow-up question: "Do you think something like that will ever be acceptable in hip-hop?" To which Sermon swiftly responded: "No."

What follows is some more ranting about how accepting transgender rappers would be a misrepresentation of hip-hop and "taking the culture too far," and how hip-hop is a "sport for men and women who are representing the culture." When asked if he thinks it will be an acceptable thing in hip-hop in five to ten years, Sermon draws an analogy to openly gay football player Michael Sam, who was effectively frozen out of the NFL since coming out.

This isn't the first time the EPMD member has blustered through speaking on LGBT issues in hip-hop: in an interview from 2012, he made a similar analogy to gay athletes and also said there would never be an openly gay rapper. Sermon might come to regret his words, but in the here and now you can't help but cringe at every word that comes out of his mouth over the course of the above video.