Disclaimer: This article intends to celebrate, not exclude or give unnecessary attention to sexuality/gender choices. We wish to build an inclusive environment which is conscious and encouraging of visibility of the LGBTQIA community in dance music. 

Zebra Katz

Bouncing on the scene as a key player in the developing ‘Queer Hip Hop’ scene, Zebra Katz is increasingly gaining traction as a producer with serious bass game. Starting out as a piece of performance art by mortal Ojay Morgan, Katz soon developed into what he calls the, ‘dark rapper, dark villain, dark lord of the fashion world’. 

The phrase, ‘little did he know’ have never been more applicable, with Morgan believing his music would never take off on the commercial market. Telling Interview Magazine;

“I never thought that people would listen to my music—I never thought it’d be as accessible as it is now. When I made most of the tracks, they weren’t meant for release.”

Freaking us all out with the unstoppable schoolyard jam ‘Ima Read’ (see slightly unnerving video below), Katz was instantly memorable for amazing rapping vocals as well as unafraid bass minimalism. No joke, this is maybe the best track ever to have an angry jog (or equally angry munting session) to.

A coupla years down the track, Katz is back and slamming it again with new releases – the most recent of which was his collaborative effort with Hervé ‘Tear the House Up’. Playing with bass drums and heavy kicks – the track is a sexual farce and a party jam simultaneously. It’s little surprise Katz is now a Mad Decent regular and collaborative favourite, working with Azealia Banks and Icona Pop amongst many others.

Mixtapes Champagne (2012) and DRKLNG (2013) are also so damn good.

Das some funky shit.

HONEY DIJON

‘I love the craft of DJing, it’s like fucking. It’s a journey. I like to have peaks and valleys and humour and darkness…’

One of the most fabulous DJs on the global club and fashion circuit – Honey Dijon (mortal name Honey Redmond) is likewise, one of a kind. Hailing from Chicago and now based in New York, Dijon is famous for her transgressive nature, in musical genre and attitude. Exploring and bypassing in her mixes the limits of house, techno, soul and a million other genres – there’s not a lot that this lady cant mix, and it’s alllllll vinyl baby.

Shedding some light on her early life in the ">VFILES Video Series, Dijon was born into a young family who would have house basement parties – before she started attending house music parties at the tender age of twelve. Working her way up the musical ranks by befriending and DJing for premier fashion brands before moving onto bigger fish such as global Ministry of Sound stages – Honey has now released mixes for a stupid amount of US labels; from Toolroom to GetUp and Stereo.  The powerhouse now even has her own label – ‘Digital Disco’ – with an eclectic mix of diverse talent.

Check out the insightful video below, plus a favourite mix handpicked by yours truly.

So. Much. Fucking. Dance.

SOPHIE

UPDATE: We here at Stoney have been informed that SOPHIE is not actually the person pictured at the Boiler Room set. However, we would still like to feature her and the person who she chose to mix that set (identity also unknown) as members or allies of the LGBTQIA community. More updates on this elusive producer to come.

With one of the most original sounds out there on the dance music at the moment, SOPHIE is indeed a one of a kind. With her trappy, high energy, house, disco smorgasbord – the London-based producer has hit the ground running with her releases through UK label Numbers. With people attempting to find her sound somewhere in between Rustie, Hudson Mohawk and Fred Falke – nothing really comes close.

Having a listen to debut track ‘Blipp’ – the over-transposed, perfectly composed single has to be listened to to be believed. Clocking up almost 800,000 plays on Soundcloud, the song is sexy-pokemon-acid-pop – yet strangely accessible and easy to dance to. This was enhanced through the release of ‘Lemonade’ and ‘Hard’, which cut the paradigms of genre to pieces, they’re so fucking edge.

Although SOPHIE’s true identity is not known, the individuals real name is thought to be Sam, as let off by Skream in a BBC1 interview. Remaining elusive for unknown reasons – the only documented performance available of SOPHIE is her smashing an LA Boiler Room last month. Sporting a pair of hot pink Beats, she smashes her way through original remixes and releases in a way that I cant give justice to with my wordsticles. Watch that shit.