Deadlee's MySpace page burns with vitriol heated enough to reduce the Internet to ash.

The self-professed "gayngsta rapper" has created a furor among some hip-hop fans, and they're not biting their tongues about it.

"A gay rapper? U should really go (expletive) shoot yourself," one post fumes. "I hope you get AIDS."

"Burn in hell, man," reads another missive. "When judgment day comes, I hope you can say to God's face that you were leading a homosexual tour."

Said tour, dubbed the "Homo Revolution," hits Las Vegas this weekend, stopping at the Gipsy Nightclub on Saturday.

Deadlee is one of the headliners of the multiartist bill, a hard-eyed, heavily tattooed Hispanic rapper who has lashed back at the homophobia still rampant in the hip-hop community, targeting such big names as 50 Cent, Eminem and DMX for their use of the word "faggot" and dismissive attitudes toward gays.

"Hip-hop is my music too," he says. "I grew up with it. I think gays have probably been doing hip-hop all along, there just hasn't been any out and open people."

That's changed in recent years with guys like Deadlee, an L.A.-based MC whose rhymes are as forceful and raw as the most hardened gangsta rapper.

"Comin' out swingin', like a Compton queen," he growls on his latest disc, "Assault With a Deadlee Weapon," an album that packs all the menace of an underfed Rottweiler.

"You kind of have to fight fire with fire, step up to the game," Deadlee says of his confrontational approach to challenging gay bashing rappers. "They always think that gay equals weak or that you're a punk, but we're just trying to show that that's not the case -- especially on the mic."

Of course, gay stereotyping is hardly confined to hip-hop -- it cuts across all genres -- but it has been given more of an explicit voice in rap.

Perhaps this has something to do with the origins of hip-hop. The music was born in the mean streets of the inner city, where projecting a certain measure of toughness is in many ways a survival mechanism. Anything seen as unmanly or feminine, which gays have long been derided as, is a threat to that pose.

"They just always see images of 'Will & Grace,' the feminine gay guy, and that's what I grew up with too," Deadlee says. "When I realized I was gay inside, I was like, 'Oh man, I don't want to be femmey and all that crap.' You almost start hating on yourself. If I knew there was someone like me out there when I was growing up, that would have helped me a whole bunch. I couldn't look up to Elton John."

With this tour, Deadlee is trying to become the role model that he always lacked.

"We're calling it a revolution because it's like, 'Hey, go ahead, call us what you want, but we're going to keep on doing what we do,' " he says. "I think someone needs to step up and check these people."

Sounds like someone already has.

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com.