AceShowbiz - Being a part of LGBTQIA+ community in the hip-hop industry might be hard a few years ago, but things have changed, at least according to Da Brat. The raptress, who came out as gay last year, opened up about being gay in the industry amid the stigmas in hip-hop.

"It's way better now. Back in the day, it wasn't cool," said the So So Def icon during an interview with TMZ. Referring to Ellen DeGeneres, Da Brat added, "Ellen thought everything when she came out, her show, people didn't want to deal with it. But now it's 2021, so it's a different vibe, totally, and people are 100% supportive."

Gushing over her beauty business mogul girlfriend Jesseca Dupart a.k.a. Judy, the raptress said, "I'm grateful that I get to live out loud and I met somebody made me want to not care about what anybody had to say and put myself first and my happiness first."

Elsewhere in the interview, Judy also revealed how it felt when she first started a relationship with the "What'Chu Like" spitter. "When I first got in a relationship with her, I was kind of intimated, getting a celebrity," she admitted. "I didn't necessarily think that in the hip-hop industry, at this point because this was 2019 or so, that it was something that kind of had to be hidden."

"I think the reason why she was able to kind of live out loud is because it's almost like, I'm not gonna say way more accepted, but it's way more relaxed than it was back then," the businesswoman added. Da Brat also mentioned that Judy encouraged her to be herself and live for herself.

Da Brat and Judy announced their engagement in February 2020. The Miracle Drop CEO announced their engagement along with some footage of her showing off her engagement ring. "I said 'YES,' " she wrote in the caption of the post. "LOVE has always been a BIG part of my life. And this one thing I am CERTAIN about."