BEN (song)

Lion, who earned a degree from the University of Texas at Austin in Music with an Emphasis on Vocal Performance and Concentration in Sound Engineering, conceived and wrote the song while researching music for his upcoming full length Michael Jackson tribute album. He found an a cappella version of Jackson's "Ben" and centered that as the main hook, sped up the sample and made a hip-hop beat around the vocals. Lion noted that in hip hop it is standard to bash gays and that on every rap album he has heard the singers call each other faggot "as the first attack point". While Lion was in college, a friend of his came out, and it was confusing to him how to react to the news. Lion thought of his gay friend and was inspired by the It Gets Better campaign, an Internet-based project founded September 2010 by columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller in response to an increase of suicide among LGBT youth who were bullied because they were gay or because their peers suspected that they were gay. The goal is to prevent suicide among LGBT youth by having LGBT adults convey the message that the teens' lives will improve. Lion sees "Ben" as a way to being a rap version for the It Gets Better effort. ==Composition==

Lion has stated, "After choosing the lyrics that most moved me I sped up the sample and made a hip-hop beat around the vocals. I loosely used the kick pattern and song layout of "All Falls Down" by Kanye West." The phrase was a play by Milk on the accusation that gay people recruit impressionable youth into their numbers. The song has a theological message with Lion rhyming "Being Christian, it's hard to say this, the Bible was wrong this time; It's in every species and every family I've met, so I don't see why to the world it's a crime". Although the video is supportive of LGBT people Lion is himself hetero. He considers himself to be a straight ally. ==Critical reception==

"Ben" was generally well received by music critics. LGBT blogger site Gawker called it the "world’s first pro-gay rap song" created for mainstream consumption. Although homo hop, openly gay hip hop, has been a growing genre, it remains a niche market and largely insular to LGBT communities. In the lyrics Lion calls out Lil' Wayne, and Ye, a short from Yeezy, a nickname of rapper Kanye West. He was criticized for being a "hater" for doing so but defended his actions and stated that those artists are among his heroes: ==Music video==

Lion uploaded "BEN - Adair Lion (Texas Rapper Makes "Gay is Okay" Song)", the music video April 30, 2012 to his YouTube channel. In its first week the video has over 156,000. After thirteen days the video was blocked by Universal Music Group and a replacement video not using a modified sample from Jackson was reposted. The image accompanying the single is of a pile of three dollar bills. Lion noted that despite the video going viral, it was not being shown at most of the sites that had helped popularize his music by posting his earlier videos. A replacement video was posted May 22, 2012 with a note, "this video's predecessor was blocked by UMG after 13 days and 156k views... this is a second version of the music video and does not contain any MJ samples. It is an entirely original piece -composed, written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Adair Lion." ==References==