Whether at the global, national, or local level, Black LGBTQ+ music artists have perpetually pushed sonic boundaries and are responsible for some of the most forward-thinking evolutions in music. Yet, members of this community are continually underserved when it comes to receiving recognition for their advances and influence. This list — while incomplete — is meant to highlight Black LGBTQ+ artists with Boston roots who are leading the way in making Boston’s music scene one of the best. If you like what you hear, consider buying their music directly. On Friday June 19th, BandCamp is donating 100% of their share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Anjimile
Texas born Anjimile has been gracing us with their blend of lively folk rock and heartbreaking soul since 2012. Releasing music while studying at Northeastern University before uploading a full length entitled Human Nature to Bandcamp in 2015. The following year they garnered acclaim for the self-released album Good Boy, a seven track lo-fi project recorded on a cell phone. In 2017 Anjimile, who is transgender, experienced a drastic shift downward in their vocal range as a result of hormone therapy. This trying time in their life would go on to inspire 2018’s Colors, where they directly address experiences with identity and gender on the breezy “Dysphoria” and the devastating “In Your Eyes.” After being named an Artist To Watch in 2019 by NPR, Anjimile released the Maker Mixtape, a gritty rock album revealing a fleshed out musician coming into full view with even more to offer on the way.
Favorite tracks: “Sonja Smokes Me Out,” “1978,” “Maker (Acoustic)”
— Andrew Bourque
Billy Dean Thomas
Billy Dean Thomas is already on their way to superstardom. Though originally from Harlem, they reside in Boston and have burst into our music scene with their incendiary blend of arty hip-hop and socially conscious lyrics. Thomas’s lyrics touch on a number of personal and societal issues, like life growing up in Harlem and ending up in prison, homophobia and racism both within the music industry and in family life, the gender spectrum and intersectional feminism. The concept of freedom dominates Thomas’s lyrics: freedom from poverty, racism and the gender binary, as well as the freedom of self-confidence and realizing your own true identity. Thomas’s unique, polyrhythmic flow is even more immediate than their lyrics. Thomas’s flow never falls into anything too relaxed, always edging closer to hectic and unpredictable. The vocal flow of songs like “Of Course” is energetic and impulsive, squeezing rhythms out of exchanges that feel more erratic than they actually are. Thomas has performed on “The View,” and on WCVB, and they have an EP and a single available on their website. They’ve also been nominated for two Boston Music Awards.
Favorite tracks: “Tina Turnup,” “Freeman” on Spotify and Apple Music, “Show Too Much / Show No Love” on Spotify and Apple Music
— Andrew McNally
Brandie Blaze
Feminist rap that comments about what it’s like to be a queer, Black, plus-size woman in Boston? Sign us up. Brandie Blaze makes her presence known in the local music scene by making sure her experiences are heard through her music. Brandie brings awareness to the that media often protrays Black women as the asexual, sassy best friend and actively tries to play against that stereotype through raunchy, assertive lyrics. In every song, each beat is artistically crafted to fit her commanding voice, that generations of rap lovers can identify with. Songs like “Money” will take you back in time to the R&B of the early 90’s with the slow, quintessentially piano backtrack, while singles like “Brandi/Blaze” are incredibly hip with a commanding voice and a beat that you can’t help but dance along too. The word “power” is one and the same with Brandie Blaze. For her, it’s all about bringing intense meaning to lyrics with a sick beat underneath. With every song comes a dual meaning of what it means to be a sexual person and someone with unbridled confidence, making this a Dorchester rapper an essential for any playlist.
Favorite tracks: “Boss (Like Me)” on Spotify and Apple Music “Only 1 Me” on Spotify and Apple Music, “Slip” on Spotify and Apple Music
— Allyssa DelVecchio
Dee Diggs
“House and techno were invented by Black people.” This is a true statement, sure, but a reductive one that more often than not tends to ignore the skilled Black practitioners of those genres that still pioneer, trailblaze, and straight up set fire to dancefloors today. Dee Diggs is one of those, a student of all eras of house music. Though she’s traded Boston for the more active club scene in Brookly, up until recently, Diggs was setting fire to dancefloors around Beantown with her energetic DJ sets. Revolving around the infectious grooves of house music, she’s never been afraid to tie in a bevy of genres. Part of her mission as a beat selector is to make space for marginalized groups, especially when considering dance music’s history as a haven for Black and queer bodies to express themselves safely. Like other Black communities, house and techno have been gentrified by white figures; Dee Diggs is working to counteract that.
Favorite tracks: Her mixes on Soundcloud
— Harry Gustafson
Lavagxrl
Lavagxrl’s tracks are dispatches from other dimensions. They are vehicles for self-examination and cosmic introspection. Their website features a message that is part origin story and part manifesto: “At the beginning, Lavagxrl emerged from the ether. Forged by fire, infused with the power to transform and destroy, Lavagxrl exists temporarily on this plane. Lavagxrl is a genderless, timeless, multidimensional being a starseed planted to push boundaries and encourage the abandonment of human mind-body worship.” Lavagxrl’s “industrial sad rap,” blends airy textures, and lo-fi beats that showcase their talents as a rapper, singer, and producer. In MCDONALDS FREE WIFI, Lavagxrl’s transition from dreamy vocals to a lightning fast flow is an exciting highlight. In “It’s getting late (Don’t touch anything)” they sample Pile, completely transforming “Don’t Touch Anything’s” guitar riff into a spaced out bop that is impossible to not dance to. Some select Soundcloud deep-cuts on their website also feature samples from The Beach Boys. Lavagxrl’s constantly evolving sound allows the listener to examine what it means to exist: “Let these volcanic sounds from another plane dismantle your hallucinations. Allow yourself to disconnect from the structures of your reality. Let your you-ness dissipate into the molten core. You are free.”
Favorite tracks: 2020’s BAD ViBES ONLY EP, “Secrets,” “Spacedust”
— Joey Del Ponte
Oompa
Oompa oozes charisma in everything she does. When the rapper smiles mischievously during a performance of “Your Girl,” you’re rooting for Oomp with the call-and-answer “Yeah yeah she love me”s even though it’s your girl she’s talking about. The combination of smart wordplay (born from her slam poetry background), melodic keys, and head-banging beats on her 2016 debut album November 3rd has a way of uniting people like a modern church hymn. Her 2019 album Cleo took her complexity as an artist to new depths. Paying homage to Queen Latifah’s character in the 1996 movie “Set It Off,” the album reflects on what it means to be a thick gay masculine woman over twenty years later, with a dash of Oompa’s signature playfulness and raps faster than ever. Offering up such a raw reflection on her past in a tight, catchy package is so succinctly Oompa.
Favorite Tracks: “By You [feat. Anjimile],” “I Deserve That,” “Thank You (Fed) [feat. Chevé, Lea Grace & Troy Durden]”
— Katie Ouellette
Optic Bloom
Optic Bloom make the kind of beats that perk up ears in the middle of DJ sets, turn heads at festivals, and about which cool kids sheepishly ask “Who’s this?” The duo of FlowerThief and Dephrase twist electro, funk, and hip hop into intoxicating, alien shapes that serve as an ideal playground for FlowerThief’s vocal turns that oscillate between dense raps and soulful hooks. No matter the mode, they are a fitting compliment to the music underneath, which students of low-fi hip-hop have come to classify as “that good shit,” an alchemical springboard that turns good rap verses into unforgettable songs. On propulsive single “Movement,” FlowerThief deftly fills the pockets of Dephrase’s industrial wasteland of buzzsaw synths and later serves as a soothing balm following a fiery Latrell James verse. On “Time,” they trade bars with local rapper Cliff Notez who grounds the spacey instrumental with simple pleasures: weed, wings, and chamomile tea.
Favorite Tracks: “Movement (feat. Latrell James)” on Spotify and Apple Music, “Time (feat. Cliff Notez)” on Spotify and Apple Music
— Ben Bonadies
Pink Navel
Blending airy, laid-back chiptune synthesizer melodies with pounding lo-fi beats, Pembroke hip-hop artist Pink Navel crafts impeccable art rap albums that are equal parts nostalgia and active introspection. Dev Bee, the artist behind the moniker, uses their encyclopedic flows of clever rhymes and word associations to connect everything from cartoons to the kinds of stray information discovered through Internet deep-dives. Among their albums in the past few years such as Born on the Stairs and Raw Navel, Bee often builds on recurring topics they rap about, one of which notably is Steven Universe, which Bee reflects on by drawing parallels between the nonbinary character Stevonnie and their own gender identity on standout track “brittlefingers.dev/kennysegal.” 2019’s stellar Andre’s Gift & Omer Tower reworks their pre-existing sound into an especially cohesive listen that consistently reconfigures samples and details about the titular Lego tower in Tel Aviv to mirror the fixations of Wiki-wormholing, and shows great promise for wherever Pink Navel goes next.
Favorite Tracks: “brittlefingers.dev/kennysegal,” “Andre’s Gift & Omer Tower,” “1957-fxr-upr.dev”
— Nat Marlin
Red Shaydez
Red Shaydez is a quiet force. She spits verses with such precision, when the tracks’ rhythms are heightened with electronic hi-hats and snares, the effect is hypnotic. She speaks to relatable problems of self doubt and anxiety, but she also discloses how isolating it is when people clamor for her attention due to her newfound fame. It’s reassuring to us mere mortals to hear that someone who effuses such seemingly effortless cool is trying her hardest like the rest of us. But unlike the rest of us, she gets to bask in her Magnetic Aura while she’s Chillin’ in the Shade.
Favorite Tracks: “Pop Out,” “Self-Care ‘18,” “Old School R&B”
— Katie Ouellette