Culture

9 New Songs By LGBTQ+ Artists You Need to Hear: Shea Couleé, Da Brat, and More


 

LGBTQ+ artists are releasing tons of great music, now more than ever. To help you with this extremely good problem to have, them. is selecting the best songs released by queer artists every month. This June, we’ve highlighted tracks by Da Brat, Honey Dijon, Shea Couleé, Gess, Mykki Blanco, Cakes Da Killa, Meet Me @ The Altar, Michael Love Michael, Shamir, Lazarus Lynch, and Jaewynn. Check them out below, listen along on our Spotify and Apple Music playlists, and see earlier monthly music roundups here.


Shea Couleé & Gess – “Collide” [ft. Mykki Blanco]

In every singing or rapping challenge that’s come their way on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Shea Couleé has consistently brought amazing performances filled with wit and ferocity. But on her new single “Collide,” made with longtime collaborator Gess and featuring rapper Mykki Blanco, Shea reveals a more sultry, vulnerable side of themselves: “I should tell you that/I’m not afraid of a little disaster,” they pout on top of a brooding electronic R&B beat.


Da Brat – “Quarantine With You” [ft. Kito Abashi and M I S T E R]

Legendary rapper Da Brat (who became the first woman rapper to go platinum with her debut 1994 album Funkdafied) came out publicly in March as bisexual, confirming her relationship with entrepreneur Jesseca Dupart. Earlier this month, the 46-year-old artist released her new single “Quarantine With You,” a tender R&B jam that seems to be dedicated to her boo and the happiness she’s felt since making their love public. “Said I wasn’t gonna tell nobody/But I couldn’t keep it to myself,” she sings tenderly, before launching into a rap verse that outlines everything she loves about being cooped up with her partner.


Shamir – “On My Own”

Over the years, Shamir has dipped into and explored a number of different genres, from experimental rock to country and even noise rock, which was prevalent on his latest full-length release, Cataclysm. But with his latest excellent single “On My Own,” the multi-faceted artist merges the sonic palette of ‘90s grunge rock with the exuberance of synth-pop to create an anthem for introverts everywhere, akin to the pop stylings of Haim or Paramore. It’s the first offering from his upcoming full-length project, which will be his “most commercial-sounding,” as he described it to Rolling Stone.


Honey Dijon’s Remix of Jessie Ware’s “Ooh La La”

Jessie Ware’s latest album What’s Your Pleasure is stacked with disco-funk bangers that call to mind visions of liberatory Studio 54 raves. Considering that disco music and the club spaces that played it later became fertile ground for the invention of house music in the ‘80s, it seems that there’s no better person to remix Jessie Ware than the Chicago house torchbearer Honey Dijon (who is teasing the arrival of her own upcoming album). In the DJ/producer’s hands, “Ooh La La” is transformed into a pulsating house track with the same funky elements, blurring the lines between the two genres as a tribute to the origins of house.


Cakes Da Killa – “Don Dada”

Cakes Da Killa is out for blood on his new single “Don Dada.” Over a house beat made by New York City producer Proper Villain, the New Jersey-raised rapper deploys tongue twister bars with ease, dipping down into the lower part of his register playfully like he’s playing jump rope with his delivery. “People always need time to let their fucking hair down and also just enjoy Black joy,” he said of the song in a Paper interview. “House music is one of the staples in music and Black music.”


Meet Me @ The Altar – “Garden”

There have always been women punks, punks of color, and queer punks. But in the pop-punk world in particular, those who get mainstream recognition are few and far between. Meet Me @ The Altar, composed of vocalist Edith Johnson, guitarist/bassist Téa Campbell, and drummer Ada Juarez (the latter two of which identify as LGBTQ+), is fiercely challenging the perception that queer women of color shouldn’t belong in the punk space. Their latest single “Garden” is a pop-punk track laced with hardcore elements that calls to mind early Paramore and Four Year Strong. Yet instead of carrying a sense of angst that’s typical within in the genre, Johnson’s piercing voice is a beacon of hope: “I’ll always be right here/When everything’s unclear/Please promise you won’t let go,” she sings, as her voice soars over the ripping guitars and crashing cymbals.


Michael Love Michael – “JFC”

New York City-based artist Michael Love Michael plays with elements of industrial, noise, R&B, and electronic music to create their own blend of transgressive pop music. Their latest single “JFC” is perhaps their “catchiest” song yet — full of haunting sing-song rhymes — but it’s far from being basic. On the slinky trip-hop track co-produced by Rich Dasilva, Michael sings about condemning a powerful figure in their life; “I got time for my freedom,” they sing in a whispery, serpentine voice, asserting their own autonomy with a sinister intensity.

“‘JFC‘ is simply a power statement from me, acknowledging these truths, and that we [no] longer owe — nor have we ever owed — a system that doesn’t respect us,” Michael said of the song in a statement. “Embedded in my lyrics is the idea that as Black people, we are culture and so therefore we can rebuild a new system, with allies of all kinds who imagine a more equitable world, one that cares for people and planet equally.”


Lazarus Lynch – “I’m Gay”

Though best known as a chef, cooking personality, and author of the cookbook Son of a Southern Chef, Lazarus Lynch is also a singer-songwriter whose new single “I’m Gay” is a “Black pride anthem” (in his own words) and his first new song in two years. In the song and its corresponding music video, Lynch reflects upon his Christian upbringing, which he shows can be just as campy as dressing in drag. Singing in gospel runs on top of a grandiose organ, Lynch pulls from the musical traditional that he grew up on and turns it into a liberatory hip-hop chant; “I’m so free just being myself,” he sings repeatedly at the end, as if to say that his Christian identity can co-exist with his queerness.





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