Photo: Instagram
Is he or isn't he?
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Jan 06, 2020
Is Tank gay? The singer that the R&B world knows as Tank was born Durrell Babbs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has a long and storied career that includes singles like "Maybe I Deserve," "Please Don't Go," and, most recently, "When We." Though he's not a multi-platinum selling artist, he's sold just under 2 million records during the course of his career.
But he's better known for his songwriting efforts, having penned hits for the likes of Aaliyah, Pitbull, and Omarion. He's also a sometime actor with roles in Dreamgirls and The New Edition Story.
These days, however, he's mostly known for the questions revolving around his sexuality. Let's look at the latest rumors surrounding whether Tank is, indeed, gay.
1. Is Tank gay? Questions started being asked after he sat down with Angela Yee.
In addition to being a longtime member of The Breakfast Club, Angela Yee is the host of her own podcast, Lip Service — which you can check out in the above video — which is nothing if not explicit.
On the 216th episode of the show, Yee sat down with Tank to broach a variety of subjects — one of them being sex and sexuality. To make a long story short, Yee — along with her co-hosts Stephanie Santiago, GiGi Maguire, and Lore’l — started talking about the excuses men make when they lie, and they know they're in the wrong.
When Tank tried to beg off the situation Lore'l had presented, Yee countered with a question: if a man gives another man oral sex two times, does that mean he's gay? (She put it a bit less delicately.)
Tank replied, "He sucked a d*** once, right? Then, he’s like, I’m not sure if I liked it or not. Let me try it again, and then he says, ‘You know what? It’s not for me. Don’t like the taste.’ See what I’m saying? It doesn’t mean he’s gay. It means he sucked d*** twice. The art of being gay is being gay. It’s a continuous state of being."
2. He later walked back his statements — sort of.
During a follow-up appearance on the BET Soul Train Awards, Tank was commissioned to present an award with Keyshia Cole. Cole asked Tank if he'd had anything to "clear up" regarding his recent comments, opening the floor to an explanation on what, precisely, he meant.
"If a man has two dictionaries, it doesn’t mean he has a library! Maybe study but not a library,” he responded. Um, okay? That clears it up, we guess?
3. Tank made the comments around the same time he released a new album.
At the time that Tank made those eyebrow-raising comments about his alleged sexuality, he was in the process of promoting a new album called Elevation. Despite earning critical acclaim, Elevation was overshadowed by the comments he made on the Lip Service podcast.
That said, Tank received more attention from this controversy than any other time in his career.
4. He called out Charlamagne Tha God for his comments about fellatio, as well.
Even though Tank has made clear that he's heterosexual — he married his longtime sweetheart Zena Foster in 2017, with whom he has two children; he also has three children from previous relationships — he's not a fan of homophobic comments.
When Charlamagne Tha God made an offhand comment about giving Tekashi 6ix9ine fellatio if he managed to beat his case, Tank took to his Instagram stories to roast The Breakfast Club co-host for "downing his opinion" (referring to the "sucking d*** twice" comment).
5. Tank was recently caught "liking" a transgender model's picture.
Recently, Tank liked a photo from transgender model Gabby Amour. Amour, who is rocking a rather cute pink dress and a pair of high heels, hadn't commented about the "like," but the comments under the photo roasted Tank alive for the "like."
"It's so obvious he goes both ways. We been knew he was into LGBT... he always be at the gay. Especially here in the A," wrote one of the many commenters who seemed convinced that the "like" was proof that the singer was, in fact, gay.
6. Is Tank really gay, though?
There's no evidence, outside of inferences made from comments, that Tank is gay or even bisexual. However, we will definitely keep you posted if he makes a comment or confirmation one way or another.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.