iLoveMakonnen lent fans a little insight into what his motivation behind coming out of the closet was. During a recent interview with Willamette Week, he said it had a lot to do with location. The native Californian recently moved out to the Pacific Northwest, where he may not have necessarily "found himself," but indeed did find comfort in embracing his sexual identity among other facets of himself.
"Portland is a place where everyone is being themselves, so I just felt like, I'm living here, and I want to be able to be myself," said Makonnen. "I guess that's why I call it my home now." Makonnen also attributed his move to wanting to downgrade to a place that wasn't quite the city life but was somewhat still active. Up until his transition, the 27-year-old rapper/singer had been living in New York City.
In a recent Migos interview conducted by Rolling Stone, Makonnen's years growing up in Atlanta, where he moved at the age of 13 and developed into an artist, came up as the reporter inquired into Quavo, Takeoff and Offset's view of the scene's diversity. In the midst of the conversation, news of Makonnen recently sharing that he is gay came up as one of the examples of diversity coming out of ATL. The "Bad and Boujee" trio's response set off a firestorm, which led them to quickly clarify that they didn't mean to be critical of his sexual preference.
Source: hotnewhiphop.com
