For the past decade, queer and trans rappers have been the dominant force in New Orleans bounce, a dance-centric hip hop genre specific to that city. Inspired by the language of bounce rappers themselves, such as Sissy Nobby, who self-identify as gay and reclaim a once pejorative term to openly express their sexual and gender identities through…[Read more]

Of the sixty-plus companies that comprised the collective WILD (Women’s Independent Label Distribution), Goldenrod Music is the only one that remains and still specializes in women’s music. The company’s survival is contingent upon its ability to adapt to changing lesbian communities; it must both meet the communities’ needs and maintain continu…[Read more]

Notions of hip-hop authenticity often rely on the construction of the rapper as a black, masculine, heterosexual, cisgender man. Artists that fall outside of this “normative” identity, including black women, white men and women, and queer and trans individuals, employ performance strategies that engage with and challenge this construction in ord…[Read more]