Celebrating 10 Years Of SapphicSoul

Out of a small basement room in a community house in East New York, Brooklyn came my first major solo effort, which I entitled The SapphicSoul EP, released on April 3, 2012 via my Twelfth Sign Entertainment imprint and CD Baby. At the time, I was surrounded by so many creative geniuses and innovators, I was inspired, and my goal was to create an out-of-left-field R&B project written, produced, and performed by a me, an openly queer and multi-talented performer – basically, I put everything I was at the time into this project. 

In the early 2000s and 2010s, the LGBTQ+ community had very little visibility in music, especially when it came to out POC (People Of Color) lesbian, masculine-of-center, and intersex performers; you had Toshi Reagan and Nedra Johnson, who were Folk R&B/Soul musicians, and you had KIN4LIFE (who appear on the song “What I Can See”) who blended Hip Hop and R&B together – the pool was very small back then. Outside of that, there was RuPaul and legacy artists like Elton John, George Michael, Boy George, and so on…gay men, basically. 

I wanted to plant my gay flag and do something different.

I came up with the term “SapphicSoul” to describe my brand of R&B from a queer Black POC’s point of view. Back then, most queer artists mainly wrote about sex and lovemaking, which made sense because the community had been repressed for decades and sexual expression coming from us was frowned upon by much of the straight community. I sought to create a dialogue between the heterosexual and homosexual communities at large with my album; I didn’t just want to talk about love and sex, I wanted to display and show the totality of my human existence – that we all have more in common than not, and that even our differences can be embraced.

Over the years, I feel like in some small way I helped to achieve that goal, because my fanbase is full of diversity and I love that! For the people that have embraced all of me throughout these many years, I thank you for your unending love and support. 

So, in the spirit of The SapphicSoul EP, continue to spread love and understanding…and play the hell out of this album until the 10 YEAR REMASTERED VERSION drops later this year! Stay tuned.

Join Me Today For A Livestream Discussion/Q&A Commemorating The 2012 Release Of “The SapphicSoul EP”

I will be conducting a livestream today (April 6, 2022) on both IG AND Facebook at noon EST, and we’ll be discussing all things pertaining to The SapphicSoul EP, during which time you will be able to ask me questions and share you fond memories. I hope I get to see you later on, I can’t wait to hear your stories!

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