The internet’s taken over and nothing’s like as it used to be. “Now, though, we’ve entered an age of underground musicians who are rising above that. That idea doesn’t make sense to macho-macho men, which is why that idea’s been prevalent in hip-hop and rap. If someone that society considers to be a man decides to do something feminine, it’s seen as if they are disempowering themselves. It’s been a common idea since man wanted to enforce patriarchy that you have to put down femininity. Hip-hop has always been a way for people of colour to say, ‘You say that we’re uneducated and inexpressive, but we’re expressing ourselves in a safe way off the streets.’ When it spread, it reached communities where masculinity is praised and looked up to. “Hip-hop hasn’t just been been homophobic, but also misogynistic as well. “People say that hip-hop has a history of being homophobic, but I think that was just the normalisation, back when hip-hop came into the light, of people downplaying feminism and femininity. Would you call somebody a ‘black musician’? It’s the same shit.” No, but I would say that there has, historically, been homophobia in some elements of hip-hop I think what’s confusing for people is that they think people from the queer community put our identities before our art. Would you say it’s gay hip-hop? To me, that doesn’t make sense. People like Kevin Abstract and Lil Nas X are just hip-hop artists. For example, people seem to categorise female rappers as their own thing. “I think in the past music in general has been compartmentalised where they try to categorise everything. Shilow Has rap made more space for queer artists in recent years? They’re the face of Pride and attractiveness.
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Skinny white twinks are the poster children for the queer community. That doesn’t just come from outside the queer community it comes from inside the queer community as well – actually, more frequently, because the queer community is put under so much scrutiny.
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And I think that is tough for people to swallow because people like things that are packaged up nicely and delivered simply. As a person who is very fluid on the gender spectrum, I think any performer has the right to wear anything they wanna wear. If I turn up to my gig in sneakers, it shouldn’t be like, ‘Why don’t you have a wig on?’” Do you ever get that? I know it can be heartbreaking to my fans who say, ‘Oh my God! Go back on the show!’, but I really don’t want to. It might be different if I was like, ‘Oh I’m a drag queen! And also a musician!’ But I don’t even say that. I went my own way I don’t carry the brand of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
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“To be honest with you, no-one I’ve met on reality TV has been extremely supportive of my music career. They don’t wanna see me jumping up at them and being like, ‘ What the fuuuck!’” Has Ru Paul been supportive of your music career? They wanna see Kim Petras being a bubblegum sweetheart, talking about her heartbreak. Queer people don’t wanna see me yelling at them. “I often get a better reception from straight people than gay people, though. There are a lot of punk kids and queers of colour.” Now a lot of my supporters aren’t necessarily Drag Race fans. I lost a lot of fans when I made the transition to only doing music.
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I’m going from being a reality television drag – we’ll call it what it is: legend – and my story on television was so impactful to people, so they’re interested in what the storyline is afterward. For me it’s a bit more of a complex situation because I’m doing a polar opposite thing. “Yeah, people can go from reality TV and do different things. I don’t think there’s any reason to glamourise myself just for other people to be entertained by it.” Do you think pop culture is more porous now, so that people can move from reality TV to music and vice-versa? My experience as a queer person has not been that glamorous. They expect you to be campy and jokey about sex and make-up. People often want to pigeonhole people in the queer community – especially if you’re more feminine – as having to be comical. There’s nothing wrong with a queer niche, but if you don’t know who I am and you hear my music, you don’t really get a gay or queer vibe. “It’s a hard pill for people to swallow – and even harder because I’m not really into queer niches.