Over the past few years, the world has been fraught with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policies. We have seen anti-LGBTQ+ legislation presented in Ghanaian governments following the closure of an LGBTQ+ safe space in February 2021. Queer Nigerians, such as Matthew Blaise and YouTuber Amara the Lesbian, protested against the erasure of LGBTQ+ narratives during the 2020 #EndSARS protests. In the UK, mainstream media outlets have been heavily preoccupied with spreading misinformation about transness, debating marginalised gender identities as a hot topic without including voices from the community. In the US and many other countries, inclusive healthcare is something trans activists are actively campaigning for. These examples are simply a drop in the ocean of the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people worldwide. We also have to add the context of the Black Lives Matter movement’s global resurgence in 2020, along with a host of other protests about racism. The everyday existence of marginalised people who live at the intersection of Blackness and queerness can be deeply traumatic. 

With this in mind, having Black LGBTQ+ musicians from across the world who actively defy gender and sexuality norms through their music and performances is more important than ever.

AMAKA speaks to musicians Dope Saint Jude, serpentwithfeet, Desire Marea and Mykki Blanco to find out more about their artistry, journeys through the music industry as a Black queer person and the use of music in challenging harmful narratives.  

anaiis on New Beginnings and Music That Heals

Dope Saint Jude

We started by talking to Dope Saint Jude, the Cape-Town born rapper who is currently living in London. Her collaborations with other queer South African artists and expression of her sexuality through music is groundbreaking. Discussing how she got into music, she says, "In South Africa, I used to perform in a drag king troupe. I think we were the first documented drag king troupe in the country. From 2015, I started exploring making music as Dope Saint Jude."

Dope Saint Jude also reflected on how transitioning from a drag king act to a rapper helped her delve into her identity. She felt that performing as Dope Saint Jude was "a way of stepping into my womanhood as a queer woman. A lot of the time, the way I framed my queerness was a lot around male identities. I grew up with four brothers, and they weren't lots of examples of what it means to be a queer woman. In 2015, I released "Keep in Touch" with my friend Angel-Ho, which was very much a queer music video. We spoke gayle, which is like a queer dialect in South Africa".

Dope Saint Jude also touches on her influences for her next album and her constant exploration of her sexuality. She discusses her upcoming project, "In my next project, I'm going to be a bit sexier. It took me a while to get to this point. Growing up in an African context, I was told to be very shy and covert with my physical expression of my sexuality. It's definitely been a process, and I hope that exploring this also gives other people some point of reference to explore their own sexuality and identity".

Lil Nas X is an artist who has made waves in the industry over the past couple of years. The pride over Lil Nas X from other queer artists is evident. Dope Saint Jude's appreciation of him is palpable. She expresses that "I'm so excited about Lil Nas X. I'm his biggest fan. I wish I was like 16 again, so I could have a book of all his photos. I'm excited about where we are right now. We have so many more Black queer artists coming out. It's really great. I can't imagine what Lil Nas X's presence is doing for queer teenagers. It would have been so awesome as a teenager to have someone like that." 

serpentwithfeet

In our interview with LA-based experimental R&B artist serpentwithfeet, we reflected on the treatment of LGBTQ+ artists in the music industry. He gratefully shares that his experiences in the music industry have been very positive. He expressed, "I haven't found any specific challenges with navigating the industry. Since I started my career, people have been very welcoming and open. I knew that I wanted to sing about men and be very open. It was amazing to have all kinds of folks be open to what I have to say. It's been received well."

When thinking about artists who have marginalised identities, it is easy to position the work they create as forms of activism. We pose this question to serpentwithfeet, and he explains, "I would never call myself an activist or would never call my music activism. What I'm doing is, I'm doing my part. Everyone's part is different. What I'm doing is placing myself and other gay Black men at the centre of my narrative. Taking up space and placing that boldness in the music [...] that's my part! I would never say I'm an LGBTQ activist. That is a very large statement."

When talking about future collaborations, serpentwithfeet gushes about his experiences working with singer-songwriter NAO. He has a strong connection with Black women in R&B. He lists SZA, Chloe x Halle, Normani and Victoria Monet as some of the artists he'd most like to work with in the future.

Desire Marea 

The importance of exploring and demonstrating queer stories in music and music videos is something that came across from all the artists we sat down with. Desire Marea, a South African musician, wanted to make it clear that the nature of South African music is inherently queer. They explain, "The queer music scene in South Africa is not an innovation that just happened now, just because people have started using language to describe it. However, I feel like the nature of South African music is queer. The nature of South African music is spiritual and has a spiritual vibration. We don't engage in things like gender or identity in the spiritual plane. South African music is about the essence, and that essence is queer."

This is an extremely poignant point from Desire Marea. Queerness is typically positioned as the antithesis of Africanness. So to reflect on the thought that the nature of South African music is inherently queer is a thought that stuck with us. 

Desire Marea also explains that their activism is centred on portraying their own stories in an authentic way and honouring their experiences as a queer Black person. "Music can be activism if you look at it from a political lens." They carry on to describe that "I think my art has switched from being overtly about activism. For me to just serve myself as a queer person is activism because I matter. My experience matters. My intention is to show up for myself and my experience, which I do through centring my narrative, with all the details and nuances through my music." 

Mykki Blanco 

We also caught up with Mykki Blanco, an American rapper and performance artist, whilst they were on the road during their UK tour. They reveal their nonlinear route into music, “I came from a contemporary art background. I actually wanted to work in museums and galleries. My first manager was the one that told me that I was actually creating music through my art. I never thought about being a musician. I was never classically trained and never knew how to play anything. I just didn’t think of myself as a songwriter until I met my first manager.”

After meeting their first manager, Mykki Blanco started releasing music in 2012. They felt it is important to explain how the nature of the music has changed since then. Mykki says, “ People forget that the world 8 or 9 years ago was a very different place. It was very homophobic and transphobic when I first started making music. Music media wouldn’t post my music and would be very derogatory in articles about me. Pre-2014, when Obama passed the gay marriage act in the US, and there hadn’t been a “transgender tipping point” (referring to TIME Magazine’s spotlight of Laverne Cox), it was a very different place.” 

Listening to Mykki Blanco’s responses, it is incredibly important to ponder on the landscape of where the world was just under a decade ago. While we have an increasing number of successful Black LGBTQ+ musicians currently, this was not always the case.Mykki Blanco also wants to be clear about the dangers of labelling all art created by Black queer artists as “activism”. They express, “Music can be a form of activism, but we have to be careful of this question. We have to be careful about performative activism. I prefer not to take away from the people on the ground, the people who are activists 365 days a year. Artists with big platforms can help and amplify the work of activists, but we should stay away from the pretentious notion of performing activism.”

Meet duendita, The Community-Rooted Sound Healer 

Final thoughts

It is evident that some progress has been made in the representation and treatment of LGBTQ+ musicians. However, it’s important to have conversations that hold space for the trauma experienced via anti-queerness in the media and beyond, which makes their prominence necessary. All of the artists we spoke to are walking proudly in their purpose and producing music that serves them and their community. It’s important to celebrate this whilst also remembering the artists who created the landscape for this level of openness and authenticity to be possible.

Following our conversations with these artists, AMAKA has compiled a list of our must-listen-to tracks from each of them.

Dope Saint Jude: “Grrrl Like”, “Didn’t Come To Play”, “Liddy”

Serpentwithfeet: “Same Size Shoe”, “Fellowship”, “Amir”

Desire Marea: “You Think I’m Horny”, “Tavern Kween”, “Ntokozo”

Mykki Blanco: “Wish You Would”, “It’s Not My Choice”, “Free Ride”