Chris Cali Speaks Candidly About Queer Recording Artists Breaking Into Mainstream Genres

The recent success of out artists like Sam Smith has potentially marked a new path for other queer artists to find mainstream visibility.For years Chris Cali tried to make himself fit into a mainstream dynamic, singing about women and straight love. It wasn’t until making this music video for his track “Never Let Me Go” that Chris Cali finally felt confident in his decision to throw off the burden of outside expectation and show his love for other men. We chatted with Chris about LGBT artists across all genres, the “hetronormative music model” & release of his upcoming projects.

Queer artists have seen some mainstream stress in the Dance & Pop genres recently i.e Sam Smith & Adam Lambert. Why do you think R&B & Hiphop have taken so long?
Hip hop obviously comes from this sort of “urban culture” that’s essentially derivative of black culture and there’s still a lot of homophobia woven into the fabric of black life in this country. Without delving too deeply because that’s a whole separate conversations, because of the historical threat of white supremacy to black men in a particular way, there’s this idea that black and thus “urban” masculinity has to be preserved, and for a lot of people homosexuality is a challenge to that masculinity. There were people of color who said they’d stop listening to Frank Ocean when he came out, and there were a few black hip hop artists that said they wouldn’t work with him. Just recently Erick Sermon said hip hop “isn’t ready” for a transgender artist/presence. There’s just still a lot of cultural resistance to identities and sexualities that fall outside the heteronormative model.

Do you think the racial & cultural background of R&B and Hip Hop has played a role in absence of queer artists?
Well to expand a little more I think there’s several things going on culturally. There’s the history of oppression from white supremacy, a lot of which involved destroying familial structures during slavery, emasculating black men, violating black women, etc. A lot of black culture has evolved as a reaction to that, and the church, both Christian and Catholic, has also played a huge role in promoting a heteronormative model to the black and thus “urban” influenced communities. Anything that falls outside that model can be seen as a threat to black life itself when viewed in that context. It’s not even necessarily a conscious thought process for those in the culture, but something that affects it nonetheless.

How might the journey differ for a LGBT Rapper or R&B from their Hetero counterpart?
First of all it’s going to be much more of a “grassroots” sort of thing so to speak. If you look at artists like Mykki Blanco, Le1f, or AB Soto for example, their early work was spread largely through specific nightlife scenes in New York and Los Angeles. Similarly Big Freedia started as a local icon in the New Orleans Bounce scene before attracting more mainstream attention. Without support from major labels and mainstream radio promotion hip hop artists who are openly LGBT or Queer are always going to be relegated to this “indie” or “cult” status until something they do, and a lot of them are largely in charge of their own social media and promotional presence, catches the attention of the mainstream. As far as R&B, I can’t think of anyone besides Frank Ocean or Azealia Banks who has any sort of mainstream notoriety, and neither of those artists really qualify as standard modern Pop/R&B and also neither’s work really pushes and overtly queer narrative. It’s very hard for me to imagine the radio or MTV playing an R&B song with openly LGBT or queer lyrics. There’s this sort of policing of LGBT/Queer artists who have achieved mainstream success that it’s ok to be LGBT/Queer as long as the material isn’t too overt. Everyone knows Adam Lambert is gay but is his label going to release a single where he’s openly singing in a romantic or sexual way to or about another man? It’s doubtful.

We have seen some gender fluidity in popular hetero artists in relation to wardrobe choices & comedic efforts. Do you think these moments help or hurt?
If you’re referencing Kanye West wearing skirts then I’m not sure what that’s really done to help LGBT/Queer visibility or promote tolerance. I think there’s been some interesting shifts in what’s socially acceptable for men, in particular, black men, to wear for fashion, but the problem I have with hetero artists borrowing from LGBT/Queer culture is that it’s never explicitly stated and it’s never presented in such a way that asks the audience to acknowledge where it comes from, or to be more accepting of that culture or those identities.

It has been said that the most problematic factor of marketing a queer artist is relatable content. Do you think there is any truth to that?
I think what’s “true” about that is that our society in general is still invested in presenting white male cisgender heteronormativity as the “normal” and thus standard human experience from which any deviation is “othered.” Until American culture moves to a more inclusive and more realistic picture of what our lives actually look like any LGBT/Queer artist will be asked to sort of water down their identity so as to be more relatable. Even in my own work it felt very strange at first to write R&B songs in which I actually said the word “boy” instead of “girl.” It’s something that’s been drilled into all our heads.

With artists like Angel Haze, Azealia Banks and Le1f coming up now, it’s looking like there’s some progressive voices emerging in the indie hip hop scene. What do you think it would take for an artist to become as successful as a Jay Z or Drake?
At the risk of sounding pessimistic I don’t see a LGBT/Queer hip hop artist achieving that level of success in the current cultural climate. We’re still dealing with presidential candidates arguing against marriage equality and trying to police women’s bodies and police going unpunished for murdering black children. There’s a lot of ground that needs to be covered in black and urban culture before we’re going to see that type of acceptance of LGBT/Queer identities.

Last year you released Never Let Me Go, the 1st single of your EP Pharaoh. What was the inspiration behind that track and video?
The Pharaoh EP was, for the most part, an exploration of the darker side of sex, sexuality and love. I wanted to express feelings I had regarding sexual compulsion, sex and love addiction, as well loneliness and isolation. “Never Let Me Go” was pretty simply about the fear of being abandoned. In the video I wanted to explore the aftermath of that abandonment, what sort of depressive state and desperation a person could experience. The segments of myself dressed as this dark figure who’s face is obscured were meant to signify the “dark passenger” so to speak that walks with you when you allow those negative feelings to consume you.

You just released your new single #IDGAF with visuals releasing around NYC pride. What can we expect from this followup?
Sexuality is always a theme in my music—I am a Scorpio after all—but for the next EP I wanted to make everything a little more explicitly and overtly gay. So whereas in some of my other material the lyrics were more generalized I made a conscious effort with the new songs to sing directly to a “boy.” I think the more we hear music that directly challenges the heteronormativity of popular culture the less unusual it will become. As far as genre so far it’s pretty firmly rooted in the R&B/Pop world and less in the Dance/Pop like some of my other work. But if I come up with a great dance beat that could change at any time! It’s always good to have something dance friendly in the catalogue.

Is there a big difference between your public Chris Cali persona and the real Christian G?
The answer is kind of typical of a lot of performers, but I’d say the main difference is that in real life I’m fairly reserved and laid back and when I’m onstage I try to give a lot of exuberance and sexual energy. The real Christian G doesn’t drop down and grind on the floor very often!

What is the lgbt music scene like in Cali?
There’s definitely some artists out here doing their thing, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. I live in San Francisco so I’d say the majority of the LGBT music scene that exists in Cali is probably going on in LA. I think any musician who is really going to pop off has to do both the LA and NYC thing eventually to really expand their audience.

Will we be seeing you at any Pride events this year?
I performed at SF Pride last year and I would absolutely love to do it again! Once the video comes out I’m hoping there will be more interest in getting me to Pride events all over the country. I’d love to do a mini tour and take my music to as many audiences as possible.

Where can readers follow you for updates & upcoming performances?
My website is www.chris-cali.com and there you can find all the links to my various social media. Please check it out!