Rapper QBoy debuts GoT-inspired ‘DragOn’ video
By Nick Bond
Queer UK rapper QBoy has just dropped the video for his new single DragOn, and there’s a whole lot to take in: it’s a stoner’s anthem with a Game of Thrones-inspired video and so-hot-right-now trap hip-hop production. We caught up with QBoy to find out about the new song and why more and more LGBT artists are emerging in the hip-hop scene…
Lyrically, DragOn is quite the weed anthem – did you set out to make something for all the gay stoners out there?
I set out to make something authentic. I have been a smoker for many years, it has always been my preferred poison. I’ve never been a big drinker. The acceptability of weed smoking is changing, especially with the pro-weed campaigns happening in the US. It felt like the right time. Plus I wanted a really great hip-hop track on the new E.P. The project guidelines are that it has to be danceable and entertaining, I already had several more dance-based tracks recorded but nothing hardcore hip-hop – and as a hip-hop artist this was essential!
The video’s a big nod to Game of Thrones – are you a fan? How did you come up with the concept?
I love Game of Thrones. Every time Daenerys Targaryen, the Khaleesi, does her thing in the show with her dragons I’m screaming at the TV “Yes Queen B, yes! Do It!” so it was no great leap for me. The hook “I get my DragOn like the Queen B Khaleesi” was the first point of creation; everything else fell around that concept.
The production – trap hip-hop – is that what you’re into nowadays?
I am a hip-hop artist, I came into this game as that – producing hip-hop music, rapping, my dance style is hip-hop street, my clothes – and I run hip-hop and R&B parties. Hip-hop is who I am. However, I don’t let that limit my production style as, like most people, I am open and enjoy many styles of music. If you listen to my back catalogue you will see a wide variation of sounds and flavours including pop and dance. Trap is very now, it’s great to dance to and I really like a lot of the chilled trap R&B beats by artists like Jhené Aiko and Tinashe.
Do you think the industry’s improving for gay rappers now?
When I started there was no structure in place for indie artists, let alone queer artists. There was no Facebook, no Google, no Twitter, iTunes was brand new and difficult to get onto, YouTube hadn’t a regular audience yet, for any independent artist it was a totally different playing field. Being a queer – I don’t like the word gay, it’s so limiting – artist in hip-hop back then was also radically different.
It was against the backdrop of the homophobia of gangsta rap, most prevalent in the 90’s/early 00’s, so being a queer hip-hop artist was more politically defined. It was a totally brand new concept for most people; there were no record companies even contemplating signing queer artists – and I had to fight hard at the start to get noticed or be booked. Now everything has changed, and in such a short space of time. Queer hip-hop artists are signed to labels, have management deals, are being booked at festivals, the whole infrastructure to connect with fans, promote your work and be heard and accessible is radically different – wider than ever. Plus being queer is no longer such a motivated statement, LGBTQ people are much more visible in media and in progressive countries more accepted. The focus is not on being queer, just on being who you are.
By the same token, do you feel queer audiences are more open to rap and hip-hop nowadays?
Hell yes, and I love it! I run a party night called ‘R & She’ in Dalston where we play hip-hop and R&B hits from the 90’s to now. When I look out at the crowds rapping along to Foxy Brown circa 1996 I wonder: where were all you guys when I was a teenager listening to this and thinking I was the only queer boy into hip-hop? It’s like there was some big hidden closet for all the homo fans of hip-hop that I didn’t know about and now suddenly they’re everywhere in their baseball caps and Lil’ Kim t-shirts roaming the landscapes of Hackney! Hip-hop has become the new queer ‘fetish’ – the style, the look – it is so mainstream, the whole world is reflecting the culture of hip-hop. Hip-hop used to be so subversive and fringe to me, but now it’s pop and everyone is enjoying it. That’s pretty cool.
Download ‘DragOn’ from iTunes, and follow QBoy on Facebook and Twitter.
