Soce-ing Dicks

Andrew Singer-aka Soce, the Elemental Wizard-stepped up to the open mic at RARE on 14th Street in the Meatpacking District, and looked over an audience composed completely of hip-hop fans and rappers. Then he performed the unlikeliest track for this venue, a little ditty named "Sucking Dick." The reaction would've been similar if Singer had actually started performing fellatio in the middle of the stage. "I suck so much dick it's ridiculous. I suck so much dick I'm getting sick of this," he rhymed to the mostly straight audience. Jaws dropped. People started whispering. The vibe got real weird.

Calling himself the first Jewish, gay, white rapper, Singer borrows from this unlikely trifecta of combinations to influence his music.

But Singer didn't always rap about being gay. For a long time he'd write personal songs, but refused to perform them, scared to bring his sexuality into hip-hop. After an early performance, Singer says, "I'd go home and burst into tears. What point is it waiting four hours to spit a song if it's not going to be about who you are?"

Ironically, it was the aggressive hip-hop establishment itself that Singer credits with pulling him lyrically out of the closet. Going to tough hip-hop open mics, "they always rap about how they're going to beat you up and kick your butt. And I wanted to be hardcore gay. Because I can say, I'll beat you up," Singer pauses and chuckles before delivering the caveat, "in my bed. Instead of really hardcore on the streets, I come really hardcore in the bed."

Reactions to Singer's gay Jewish persona were awkward at first. He says that friends stopped talking to him, and people threatened to beat him up more than once. It was harder to overcome the lost friendships than it was to ignore homophobes threatening the "skinny gay guy."

At a Passover show at BAMCafé called Seder-Matzochism, Singer performed "Sucking Dicks." "[The event] was supposed to be about struggle and people's attempts to get freedom," he explains. He didn't pick the track for its controversy. "It isn't about how gay I am. It's about how I'm always trying to win people's love."

The inspiration, Singer says, for "Sucking Dicks" isn't the act itself, but its connotation. "It's the struggle to get somewhere in life. It's like brownnosing. But I thought brownnosing wasn't shocking enough." Singer only means it metaphorically, but when asked about the literal possibilities of people in the industry performing fellatio to get ahead, he didn't negate the possibility. "I've only been in the game a couple years. I'm sure I'll do whatever I can to make it." Slurp.

That isn't to say that Singer doesn't have a strong sense of integrity. People are always surprised that a Jewish, gay, white, Ivy League graduate performs hip-hop, but Singer says that he has to stay true to who he is. "I think people realize I'm doing it for the love of hip-hop music, I'm not trying to fool people. [I'm] rapping about who I am. Rapping about the Jewish side. The white side. The gay side."

Which means that the flashy hip-hop lifestyle is out. "I don't have a lot of bling-bling, but if I did, I wouldn't rap about it. That isn't my style. I like to brag about mental jewels, not physical jewels."

Singer, who still finds himself more comfortable in standard hip-hop clubs, has only made limited forays into the gay scene at performances like Queen's Pride and the Gay Hip-Hop Festival. "When I perform regular at non-gay clubs, they think it's hilarious. Anything gay is like, 'I can't believe he just said that!' With gay people it's more like, 'What is so special?'"

Some gay fans really enjoy Singer for other reasons, though. People have come up to him and explained how much they like masturbating to his songs. He generally responds with amusement, but takes it as a compliment. "If you like to listen to hardcore rap when you're doing your thing, it might as well be hardcore gay rap music," Singer tries to explain the fascination that his music might have in that department.

But though many people's response to Singer is sexual stimulation, not just musical appreciation, he isn't completely willing to give in to that yet. For instance, he says he has yet to take his shirt off during a show. "That's not my style. I don't want to sell out yet, but we'll see. I want people to use their imagination." Do so at the Knitting Factory, Wed., August 17th, or with his upcoming album, The Lemonade Incident, due out October 22.