Hey everyone from NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton with the next installment from season 2 of

Louder Than a Riot, as we continue to dig into the unwritten rules of rap and the rule breakers

who refuse to play nice. In this episode, the team examines how hip hop reinforces a version

of masculinity, the box's some artists out. Host Rodney Carmichael sits down with Portland via

Atlanta rapper I Love Maconin. You might know him for his song Tuesday, which got remixed by Drake.

So this story is about their relationship, the relationship between Drake and I Love Maconin,

and about how it crumbled due to pressure's known and unknown. But it's also about how Maconin's

queerness, especially when he came out in 2017, how it may have been seen as a threat to hip hop.

Later in the episode Rodney discusses the ways hip hop has transformed black masculinity

in a conversation with the writer Mark Anthony Neal. Also, a warning that this episode contains

homophobic slurs and hate speech. A warning before we begin. This podcast is explicit in every way.

And this episode contains racial and homophobic slurs.

It's the night of the 2016 MTV VMAs. Rihanna just walked away with the big video vanguard

of the year award. She's someone I've been in love with since I was 22 years old. Oh gosh.

Wait, wasn't this the same night Drake winning for a kiss?

Yeah, and Rihanna does yet, my lord. And after the show, all the celebs pulled up to her after party.

It's like a VMA after party at Up and Down. And I guess those Rihanna's after party.

The party's at NYC Club Up and Down. And one of the attendees happens to be Atlanta artist,

I love Macona. And so everybody was in the building, you know what I'm saying? And we play

a music everybody's dance, have a guitar set, what's up to everybody in there. All the stars,

everybody who was a thing, right? Fashionistas, models, influencers, pop stars.

The room is heavy with the who's who with the music world. The lights are dim,

...