''Hiding in Hip Hop: On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry—from Music to Hollywood'' is a 2008 memoir by the former

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

executive

Terrance Dean Terrance Dean (September 8, 1968 - August 11, 2022) was an author, academic, and a former MTV executive. He is best known for his 2008 memoir '' Hiding in Hip-Hop'' and is the author of books including ''Reclaim Your Power! A 30-Day Guide ...

Summary

''Hiding in Hip Hop'' begins with an account of Dean's traumatic childhood growing up impoverished to abusive, drug addicted parents and how these childhood experiences led him to the entertainment industry. Dean then discusses how he got involved in a secret gay hip-hop subculture and his first parties. He gives graphic depictions of sexual acts between men he either participated in or witnessed, some allegedly involving well-known rappers or Hollywood celebrities. Throughout the book, Dean refers to himself and various individuals as being " down-low" or "down-low gay": men who have sex with men but do not consider themselves gay or are in the closet. Dean discusses the "macho", "gangster" image that is the corner-stone but does not define the hip-hop industry, and how it plays against the "sissy" "weak" image of the gay community. Dean states that by

outing Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. It is often done for political reasons, either to instrumentalize homophobia in order to discredit political opponents or to com ...

himself and coming to terms with his sexuality, he might help other individuals or improve hip-hop and Hollywood as a whole.

Publication

In 2007 the publishing company Simon & Schuster announced the upcoming release of a book by

that would

out Out may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 * ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander * ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...

gay men in the entertainment industry. In 2008 ''Hiding in Hip Hop'' was published by Atria, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster. Contrary to its marketing, the book does not name real-life hip-hop artists, but rather contains blind items: allegedly gay rappers are assigned pseudonyms.

Reception

The ''Movie Nation'' critic Wesley Morris described the book's prose as "

E. Lynn Harris E. Lynn Harris ( Everette Lynn Jeter; June 20, 1955 – July 23, 2009) was an American author. Openly gay, he was best known for his depictions of African-American men who were on the down-low and closeted. He authored ten consecutive books th ...

sending Terry McMillan a one-handed email from his BlackBerry". He stated that the blind items were unremarkable: "it doesn't sound like there's anything all that scandalous here. From a pop-culture standpoint, this all seems moot." Black entertainment magazine '' Essence'' listed ''Hiding in Hip Hop'' as a best-selling non-fiction book in November 2008, based upon sales from African-American bookstores throughout the United States.

Summary

Publication

Reception

References

Further reading