Kanye West speaks
out against homophobia in hip-hop

Kanye West says "gay" has become an antonym to hip-hop and that it needs to be stopped. During an interview for an MTV special, the 27-year-old rapper launched into a discussion about hip-hop and homosexuality while talking about "Hey Mama," a song on his upcoming album, Late Registration. West says that when he was young, people would call him a "mama's boy." "And what happened was, it made me kind of homophobic, because I would go back and question myself," West says on the show, All Eyes on Kanye West, set to air Thursday night (10:30 p.m. Eastern).

West says he changed his ways, though, when he learned one of his cousins was gay. "It was kind of like a turning point when I was like, 'Yo, this is my cousin. I love him, and I've been discriminating against gays.'" West says hip-hop was always about "speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers, but everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people." He adds that in slang, gay is "the opposite, the exact opposite word of hip-hop." Kanye's message: "Not just hip-hop but America discriminates. And I want to come on TV and tell my rappers, tell my friends, 'Yo, stop it.'"

West, whose debut disc, The College Dropout, won a Grammy for best rap album, will see his second record in stores on August 30. (AP)