Song Links Saggy Pants to Being Gay
Unedited Version of PYPU
The Bryant Park Project, October 26, 2007
A new campaign by the city of Dallas targets the hip-hop style of wearing your pants low enough that your boxers are showin — and part of your posterior, too.
The campaign has a signature song, “Pull Your Pants Up,” by Dooney Da’ Priest, that links so-called saggin’ with being gay. After the BPP blogged NPR’s original report on the public service announcement, listeners objected to lyrics they consider homophobic.
Andrew Jones commented on a line about living “on the down low” — common slang for a man who has secret sexual encounters with other men.”It’s cute when homophobia is part of a citywide campaign,” Jones wrote. “Shaming the youth by calling them gay, love that from the government.”
An accompanying billboard says it’s rude to be “walking around showin’ your behind to other dudes.” The song’s refrain is “Be a real man — pull your pants up.”
In an interview with a local television station, Dooney explained that saggin’ comes from jail, where he argued that showing your boxers has a very particular meaning. “You’re letting another man know that you’re available,” Dooney said.
Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture in the Department of African American Studies at Duke University, parses the lyrics and explains why they’ll hit some young men hard.
