Out Artists on the Rise
Team Gina’s expressive brand of rap combines their shared experience as children of the ’80s, and their love of all things pop.
The Seattle-based duo of Gina Genius, 27, and Gina Bling, 26, audaciously sample Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” simultaneously referencing My Little Pony, and themes from the queer rights movement.
“We’re synthesizing all the elements of pop culture that we grew up with and mashing them up to create something new,” Genius. “We’re also trying to bring a perspective that’s kind of utopian—we want to represent the perfect queer paradise that doesn’t exist yet, that maybe exists at our shows.” Components? “Well, there’d be really great outfits,” muses Genius, giggling. “And really great dance moves.”
While Gina Bling is a Seattle-born former “musical theatre junkie,” Genius, who hails from D.C. via Brooklyn, is a former folk singer. The beat-heavy duo, who met in 2006 at a Scream Club show, sport matching attire (think booty shorts, wristbands) when they break it down every first Friday at Seattle’s Wild Rose bar. Their debut CD, gina gina revolution, was released this year by Crunks Not Dead and Don’t Stop Believin’ Records.
The two giggly femmes, who just finished touring with MondoHomo Dirty South, share one other love: butch girls. Hence these memorable lyrics from their Sir Mix-sampled track “Butch/Femme”: “I like butch girls and I cannot lie/You other femmes can’t deny/When a butch walks in all the femmes wanna fuss/’Cause it’s like one of them and thirty of us.”
For more on Team Gina, visit myspace.com/teamgina. –Melody Wells
Hip-hoppers to country crooners, this year’s up-and-comers are here, queer and ready to entertain
Deepa Soul
It’s hard to believe, but dance diva Deepa Soul once lived with inhibition and fear. Raised in the “bible belt” of the deep south, the New Orleans native left her hometown after realizing there was “no chance to be happy” as an out lesbian.
After enjoying an early life abundant with gospel, soul and classical music, she kept her grandmother’s words close to her during the tribulations. “My grandmother said, ‘Don’t let no man on Earth tell you who you are. They don’t know why you’re here.’”
While working nights at an East Village record shop, Soul’s sonorous vocal power caught the ears of record producer Junior Vasquez (Madonna, Cher, Cyndi Lauper), a regular patron at the store. Ever since, she has been treating club-goers to imaginative and diverse tracks. Her first release “Nowhere Love,” a resounding, beat-driven romp, landed at the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Dance Chart. Her latest single “911 I Can’t Breathe,” is a blazing rock/funk track that comments on adverse health effects from the lingering debris at the World Trade Center site.
Though she hopes to “bring people to consciousness” about the pressing topics evident in her music, she retains her desire to maintain a fun and inviting feel.
“Life is about everything: sex, love, fighting, and standing up for what you believe in…but it’s also about balance,” she says.
The songwriter is currently recording and awaiting completion of her 2008 triple disc release, Funk/Rock, Deepest Supreme and Spirit Free: A Musical Journey of Life, Fun, Love, and Pain.
Visit myspace.com/deepasoul for more. –PC
