Reports: Joyner Lucas, Eminem Collaborate on 'What If I Was Gay?'

Rapper Joyner Lucas addresses the question "What If I Were Gay?" in a new track that reports say has been leaked online. He's joined in the track by Eminem, who takes up the refrain and twists it into a different direction.

Joyner's lyrics posit the case of a young gay man raised in a homophobic religion, reports XXL:

"I grew up in church where I couldn't be myself/I felt like a prisoner, couldn't leave my cell... And if I ever seen things different, I would burn in hell/And on the real, this is not new, this is not a phase/I grew up different than I was raised."

Eminem, who has said he's not homophobic but who had been accused of anti-gay sentiments after rapping about being approached for sex by another man and, in a different song, hurling an anti-LGBTQ epithet, plays the heavy. He joins in the song in the third verse, media reports say, taking the part of an anti-gay character who rejoins:

"What if I told you I'm homophobic?/And you have zero control over your impulses/And the genetic flaw in your chromosomes is the culprit/It's something I can't sugarcoat, it's repulsive."

But in a twist, reports Complex, Eminem's character has another, more explosive, confession to make:

"What if I told you my wish never came true? / What if I'm a hypocrite who is afraid to just face truth? / Wait, what if I told you I'm gay too?"

Not everyone on social media was convinced that Eminem was just tweaking listeners by playing the part of the bad guy.

ah yes eminem, the arbiter of gay rights, making a song around the plight of being gay... the same guy that called tyler a f*ggot on kamikaze and has said countless other hateful things about the gay community.... not all heroes wear capes I guess https://t.co/hs0o0FBZeL– Dr. John Ocer; Dr. Jocer for short (@yungsadboydan2k) October 29, 2019