Pump it Up: Montreal’s Rough Diamond Collective celebrates queer hip-hop

One doesn’t have to search very long to find queer artists in the realm of pop, rock, and/or roll. However, at first glance, other musical genres don’t always appear as chock-full of bent content, such as metal or rap. But if you look a little harder, you’ll find that gay and lesbian artists have a long history in rap and hip-hop. Furthermore, there’s a huge demand for queer hip-hop from a fan base that has grown exponentially in the recent past. In short, this was the impetus for Montreal’s Rough Diamond Collective.

The Rough Diamond Collective identify as a “queer Montreal hip-hop triumvirate,” a triumvirate being a coalition of three magistrates or rulers for joint administration. Three friends—Alex Heggie, Priscilla Pleasant, and Betty Fikre-Mariam—realized that even though they all loved different aspects of hip-hop, they weren’t attending any shows because the artists that resonated with them weren’t coming to Montreal. So the three industrious magistrates decided to just book the musicians themselves. With some wildly successful events already under their belt, including the Le1f show during Pervers/Cité, the collective is prepping for a monthly event called QUEERS PUMP THIS, the inaugural launch taking place this Saturday at the Royal Phoenix Bar. 

EMOTICON AND ON AND ON / "SWEET TEA" / LE1F from One Line Creative on Vimeo.

What is the collective's mandate?
Promoting (mostly) queer (mostly) hip-hop in Montreal. Queer rappers like Le1f, Invincible, and Big Freedia are among the best rappers out there. There’s a new generation of queer artists at the forefront of innovation in hip-hop culture; their hard, daring, glamorous sound is changing the industry and the game. As three fans of this music, we’re organising collectively to promote queer hip-hop in Montreal. We’ll be booking queer rap shows featuring musicians from New York, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, and other centers of the hip-hop revolution. We also want to build a queer-oriented hip-hop community in the city by putting local artists on stage, presenting workshops, and hosting art shows.

What’s inspiring you to build this community?
We’re passionate both about hip-hop and queer culture, and we realized that the melding of the two wasn't something that happened often in Montreal. Yet, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and L.A. all have thriving queer hip-hop scenes that connect with both communities in their respective cities. We realized that Montreal has the capacity to support something similar, it just needs space and time to be nurtured.

Are there challenges in getting support for what you’re doing?
On an organizational level, it's not necessarily more challenging than putting on any other new cultural event. What has been striking to us, though, is how surprised people are to hear that queer people are making hip-hop music—but it's also been fantastic to see how excited they are! So there is a challenge, in that it's a new idea to convey to a lot of people, but at the same time it's great to open people's ears to all of this amazing new culture.

What can people expect from QUEERS PUMP THIS?
The first hour of the night will always feature DJs to open the city up to fresh talent. Then there will be a brief hip-hop dance lesson and contest –best dancer wins free drinks! We’re committed to incubating and promoting new talent, so for future events, if any queer Montrealers reading this want to DJ hip-hop, perform live rap, or get involved in the creation of hip-hop culture in any way, they should get in touch with us at roughdiamondmtl@gmail, or check out our Facebook page.

QUEERS PUMP THIS
With DJs Odd Faggot Wolf Gays Kunt Them All, Diggy Smalls, and The Salivation Army
Saturday, September 17 at 10PM
Royal Phoenix Bar | 5788 St. Laurent
roughdiamondmtl.tumblr.com | royalphoenixbar.com