Growing up queer

Bimini: I don’t know about you Peppa, but I was very flamboyant from a young age, it was quite obvious that there was something going on. I don’t know if I understood the language or if I was too young to understand how I felt or what I felt, but I always felt different. I always felt a bit weirder than others. I used to get called gay from such a young age because I was that kid doing cartwheels in supermarkets and jumping around and dancing around to S Club 7. I was like living my best little gay life. But as you get a bit older, you get to your teens and become more self-conscious. I tried to hide it, but my family, they’ve always been really supportive, which I’m really lucky about. When I finally did come out, they were like “Finally,” basically, so I was very lucky for that. I think I was more afraid of it than the people around me, which is good in a way. 

Black Peppa: Oh, that’s nice. Well, my family, I think probably knew, but they were more scared. I didn’t even know. I can’t say that I knew I was gay. I had no idea something was different with me until people started making fun of me in church, in school, and all of that. I think I found out the hard way. I think my parents, their initial, natural response was, “This is not right. You shouldn’t be acting this way,” because they were in a protective mindset at this point and they’re also religious and they just don’t want people to make fun of me or think it was wrong. I was in a really long period of praying that I wasn’t actually gonna be gay. It sounds so weird saying that now, but yeah, I remember being like, “Lord, just please don’t let me be gay. I hope this is just like a phase or something.” And I think when I got older I was like, “Okay, I need to leave. I need to leave St. Martin’s because I don’t think I can survive and live here.” Now I realise it’s just the surroundings and that says a lot because there are so many people older than me, like adults, grown people with kids that pretended their whole life that this was their reality. They have probably never seen what it’s like to finally be free and be themselves.

Bimini: You know at the start, you said you didn’t really know when you were young that something was wrong with you. There was nothing wrong with you!

Peppa: I know. That’s the thing. I just have so many things in my head that I always keep thinking. “What if or why did I have to be this?! Like, I’m normal, I’m fine.

Bimini: Totally. Especially when you are young, it’s not the norm or it’s not seen as the norm. So queer kids and kids that aren’t in the heteronormative lifestyle feel like that. But I hope you know now that you are normal. You are amazing and you are better than normal. You are incredible. You are living your true, authentic self and that’s good. It takes hard work to get there. There are so many factors that can counter into it and make you feel like that. But you living your best life changes so much for younger people that look up to what we do and the life that we live. And they might share a similar story to you, or an experience, and just seeing visibility like that is so important. It’s hard work for us to get there, but we got there and we are doing it. You should be proud of yourself!

Peppa: Oh yeah. I definitely am. I mean Drag Race is great and I’m happy I went on it, but I always look at my success, not just because of Drag Race but at how much I felt I have grown within myself. There are people that messaged me from high school, they were like, “Oh, I remember seeing you in school and you inspired me a lot and I’m just so happy that you’re finally yourself.” It’s as if they were seeing me struggle and knew I was gay probably before I did. They were like, “We just wanted you to win in life and we’re just so happy that you won.” And I’m like, “What?!” It is just so amazing to hear stuff like that. 

Bimini: You know, it’s funny, in high school, when I got to year 11, I started wearing a navy cardigan because that was the colour of the uniform. All the girls were wearing navy cardigans but the boys weren’t allowed, they had to wear jumpers. I started wearing a cardigan and I got put in isolation for it. They said that I couldn’t wear it. It was crazy. But then I started seeing all the younger kids that were obviously queer start wearing navy cardigans, from Year 8 to 10. That was such a minor thing but by me just doing that small thing that I wanted to do allowed those younger people to open up. And it’s amazing that even if you weren’t being the truest version of yourself then, it still has an impact on people and that’s why they’re messaging you saying “Love to see what you’re doing.” It’s so beautiful.

I’m lucky with my family as well. Something that you said Peppa about your family is that they were scared for you and that was always my mum’s biggest worry. It was people hurting me, people not understanding me, not getting me. But I think if you love your queer child or you allow them to thrive, they’re gonna love themselves and they’re gonna go out in the world and do amazing things. And I’m very lucky that my mum did do that. And it hasn’t always been easy for her and it’s not always been easy for me. I grew up in a smaller town and she owned a hair salon. She used to get people coming in when I first moved to London and started putting makeup and wigs on, she was getting people coming in and going, “Ooh, I bet you feel a type of way about Tommy,” trying to antagonise her and make her feel a certain way. And as hard as it was for her, she’d turn around and say, “No, I’m proud of them for doing that,” and that would shut people up and she’d see the reaction on their face. Having her do that, I always just knew that I was very lucky for that.

Peppa: Oh wow. That’s really nice. I love that. I think my mum’s a little bit at that point now because people are like, “Oh, do you know your son is on television dressing up like a woman?” and stuff like that. Some parents can be like, “Oh my god, my child’s on Drag Race!” My parents, they’re so behind and they’re not in on all this Drag Race stuff. They’re just like, “Oh, Akeem is on a TV show in England,” and that’s like all they can fathom or really understand about it. My mum doesn’t care about any of that, she’s just like, “This is my son, he can do what he wants now.” And for my mum to reach that point now compared to where she was before, I didn’t actually think that this day would come, genuinely. I’m really happy that she kind of has my back, because that’s all I ever wanted. Because if you raise your child, making them think as I said earlier, that something is wrong with them, you know how much more things I could have focused on in life. I could have gone through school and just thought about other stuff and not worried about myself, and that someone’s gonna bully me, because just worrying about being picked on takes up so much of your childhood. When I see other queer kids that are younger and were really being themselves because their parents supported them and I see how much they’ve grown into themselves, I’m like, I have so much longer to go. But everyone’s journey’s different. As I said, I’ve come a long way but I’m still coming a long way. That’s why I’m just so proud. People can see me from the show until now and the journey continues, you know?

Bimini: Yeah, of course.

Role models

Bimini: Can I ask you a question? How do you feel about the term when people refer to you as a role model?

Peppa: I just don’t feel worthy [laughs]. In all honestly, I don’t feel worthy. I know my life is a good example of someone going through stuff but I just feel I have yet to reach that because I know what I wanna accomplish, I know how many things I wanna do. I find it flattering, but I’m not perfect, I don’t have it together. I just don’t ever see myself like that. But I can understand why they would.

Bimini: Yeah, I struggled with balancing this idea of my work life with what was going on personally. And I think when people would use that term role model, I put a lot of pressure on myself and I was like, “I have to be perfect. I have to show up and I have to do this and I can’t get things wrong.” I went through a lot of things personally that really affected me and I dealt with them in different ways that I wasn’t always proud of. And I always had in the back of my mind that people are looking up to me and people want that. But also on the other side of this, I’m human and I make mistakes and that’s perfectly normal. The space I’m in now and I’ve worked very hard to get back to this place. 

Peppa: You know what Bimini, I’m so happy you said that because that is what being a role model is. I told you the other day that I watched that interview that you did and it really resonated with me and you went through a lot of stuff and I was just like, “You’re so strong and you’ve made it to the other side.” I’m going through stuff in my life right now currently. I’m dealing with friendships that I never thought would be broken that is now tearing me apart and every single day I’m asking what it’s like to feel normal again. And like you said, you’re human, that’s what it’s about. Me being human and seeing someone like Bimini be human, go through this, mess up, and be like, “God, that’s okay. I can do it too.”

Bimini: It’s difficult though being hard on yourself. You are your own biggest critic. I have that, it’s the inner voice.

Peppa: Funnily enough, I looked up to my mum. As much as my mum really caused me a lot of pain growing up, I just looked up to her as being a strong independent woman. Even though my dad was in the picture, she worked so many jobs to try and put me and my sister through school. She tried really hard to get me my Dutch passport because I’m Dutch Caribbean, so I had a Jamaican passport first and then she was like, “Oh no, you need to get your Dutch passport so that you can travel to Europe so that you have rights to travel around the world.” She just did everything she could, even though it might not have come off the best way sometimes. She’s just a really strong Jamaican woman and she was very independent and no one could tell her that she couldn’t do anything. And I saw that as a child growing up and that did something to me where now I have such determination that no one can tell me that I can’t do this. So, I feel like the biggest role model no matter what will always be my mum first and foremost. Then, it’s Grace Jones. I remember seeing them on television and I was like, “What? There is someone that looks like me?” I saw a dark-skinned lady being powerful, being strong. And I did “Vamp” for the tour, which I think a lot of people were surprised and I was like, “You don’t understand, this resonated with me ever since I was a child.” And I just remember being like, “I wish I could be her”. I remember imagining I was on the TV and doing all the moves. I was doing different scenes and I knew them word for word and I thought, “This is my future. This is my dream. I wanna be this so badly.” I think you don’t realise, and I could say the same for Beyonce, but there’s part of that person that kind of becomes you and then as you get older you find this strength that you didn’t know that you had. And even manoeuvring through being queer in the Caribbean, I had to really tough it out til I got to England, which I’m so happy I survived. 

When I got here and started Uni and I started doing drag, I remember without even starting drag, I already felt powerful. I already felt like something changed in me because of all that I’d been seeing on TV, like Grace Jones, Beyonce, and people in London, when I went to Heaven and I saw other black people and other queer people from other minorities being themselves, I was mind blown. I didn’t know that was possible and it shifted something once again. As I said, I’m growing still but this stage in my life I think was the biggest shift for me. A lot of people in London at the time that I observed, Cara Melle and Tayce, and all the girls that I didn’t even know at the time, I was like “How are they so confident?” That just did something for me.

Bimini: Amazing. That’s so sweet. Grace is incredible. I remember seeing them from a young age just being so defiant and gender defiant as well. She was always so powerful and bringing that masculine androgyny but feminine as well. I always saw them as something beautiful. 

I think for me growing up, I watched my mum work her ass off. She had nothing. She worked six days a week as a hairdresser. I’d go to school and I’d always be so jealous because the other kids’ parents would pick them up. I’d always go to a babysitter or get picked up by someone else. I’d always say, “Mum, why can’t you pick me up?” But it was because she was working to get a better life for us and she started her own hair salon and she did that as a woman in the ‘90s with nothing and just started for the bottom as a working-class hero. I was just in awe of that. As I got older, I understood what she sacrificed with us and she’s my best friend now. We are so close and it wasn’t always like that when I was in my teens. I think I went a bit awol because I always felt like she worked so much and I never saw her and didn’t have a strong relationship, but now I understand why she did it. For me, she’s someone that was just determined and I always respected that. I wouldn’t be me without her because she’s always supported me even when I was being a little bitch. 

But also, Madonna to me is a sexual, rebellious, proper ally performer. Like everything about her embodiment, I just adore everything that she’s stood for. She was standing up for queers and gays. Inside her vinyl, she promoted how to have safe sex as a gay person while the AIDS epidemic was happening, and how to do it to save lives. I think that was incredible, that someone of her stature spoke up. She’s always been defiant about that. And I think that attitude and that determination is very inspiring. Someone that was defiant of agism; she had people telling her she couldn’t be a certain way because she was ‘too old’ in her thirties. And then she decides to make a sex album and a sex book. I just think it is amazing.

Peppa: That’s so interesting hearing that. What age were you when you started noticing Madonna?

Bimini: I was young. I didn’t understand from a young age what her impact was. I was just dancing around to “Into The Groove” and all of those Madonna classics. As I got into my teens, I think that’s when I first watched Truth or Dare the documentary. I was just in awe of her watching it and how she was being a boss. She was around all these men but just owning it and the power she had. 

Peppa: And just really good at doing it as well. I didn’t have many television channels, and I believe this is a cultural thing as well. When I hear you say that I’m like, “God, I wish I grew up seeing Madonna on TV” because we probably didn’t have these things. I can only imagine kids in England having access to see an amazing artist like Madonna. Whereas for me, it was maybe more Bob Marley or something. I think when I got older and YouTube came out, I was like, “Oh, there are people like Madonna.”

Discovering drag

Bimini: I mean this is probably not the best thing to probably say, but it was a different time. I can remember going to Soho when I was like eight or nine and being with my family and one of my family members going, “Look at the Adam’s apple, that’s how you know that they’re in drag.” I remember seeing a drag queen for the first time, they were tall, super trashy, and being in awe of it because I was like, “Whoa, I’ve never seen that.” I didn’t understand it for what it was. I was confused by it. And actually another icon, someone I slept on at that age because of what people said as society was Pete Burns and how they were being just like truly unapologetically themselves. I feel like I really resonated with Pete in a way because of how they were like, “I’m not a man, I’m not a woman. I’m just me.” How they defied that idea of gender at the time, I didn’t understand it, so I was a bit confused. I didn’t put respect on Pete’s name until the last 10 years I’d say. They were another gateway into seeing gender. But drag, it wasn’t until I moved to London and I went out in Soho. I was 18 when I moved. It took me about a month and a half until I was in a wig and heels. It did not take long. I went to one of Jodie Harsh’s nights and started seeing Drag. I’d see all these people in the bars and it took me a minute to really start taking it seriously. I finished uni, did some travelling, and came back and started going out in East to The Glory in 2016. That’s when I started seeing people and I was like, “I could do this, I wanna do this. I can do this.” And then I ended up at Lipsync1000. That’s kind of how it all started. 

Peppa: Ah, yeah. I remember that. I remember that clearly! I hadn’t even started yet. When you did Lipsync1000 was when I just finished Coventry University. After, I knew I needed to go somewhere – either Manchester or Birmingham. I chose Birmingham because it’s closest to Coventry. When I went there, um, I remember Tayce and Baby actually, they came to the village. I remember seeing you come to the village as well. You did “M.I.L.F. $” by Fergie and you were on the chair.

Bimini: I remember meeting you back then!

Peppa: I was like, “Oh my god, this is amazing. I wish I was a drag queen!” 

Bimini: I remember you being the kindest, sweetest person. You were so lovely with the words that you said. 

Peppa: I remember being like, “God, like I wish I could be a drag queen.” And it didn’t register to me that I could be. I remember just watching like “I really want to do drag. I really wanna feel like this, it’s amazing. I feel like I have something in me that I need to show.” When I finally started, Baby came as well and I saw how they performed. Every performance was different and I started to learn that as well. Halloween came and I’ve always loved Michelle Pfeiffer growing up and I’d never seen a black girl do it. Even though you had Eartha Kitt, I had never seen it done in a Michelle Pfeiffer kind of way. I love the whole latex aesthetic, so I did that and Dan Brown from Nightingale saw me, he was doing all the bookings at the time. He was like, “Who are you? What’s your name? You need to work here”. And I was like, “Oh my name’s Akeem.” I didn’t even have Black Peppa yet. I started go-go dancing there on stage and that’s how I started learning my style. I started adding stones on my face and I started getting shoulder pads and going to the market in Birmingham Bullring and finding little items that I can put together the night before a Saturday. That’s how my drag creative aesthetic came about. It didn’t come from me getting someone to put me in makeup for the first time. I didn’t have that privilege. Then I started to learn who I really was and then I started taking it seriously when we had Church Of Yshee in Birmingham. I won that and I thought, “Oh my god, maybe I should give this a shot because everyone really loves it.”

Bimini: I don’t know about you but I’m so glad I started out in the club, going out on the circuit and doing it that way. A lot of the people that do it in the bedroom and don’t do anything, don’t go out and get that experience of training a crowd and going out there and fucking up. You learn and do things that you wouldn’t normally get to do. 

Peppa: And it’s good to see because you’re like the fashion girl where you’d probably be wearing something that you can barely move in but you’d be jamming to it, and there are girls that look pretty and they’d just stand to the side because they’re like, “Oh, I look too pretty, I’m not meant to sweat,” or whatever. I know that we are the ones jumping up and down until we’re sweaty as hell because that’s what we’re used to. 

Bimini: Yeah, totally. I’m glad about that. When I talk icons again, I didn’t even say Kate Moss, but she’s like that, like gorgeous, but she was always down at Glastonbury in wellies boots in the mud and, just being that fun person. I’d rather that than be stiff as a board, you know? 

Participating in Drag Race

Bimini: Every experience is gonna be different and unique but ours was weird because of Covid. I remember starting the show and there were talks that there was a virus happening. There’s a lot of prep that has to go into the show so we’d done all of that, not thinking anything bad was going to happen. When we started filming the show, I lip-synced in the first episode, it threw me right off, and thought I was a goner. It took me a minute to get back into the swing of it. When I finally kind of felt I was getting back into the swing, Covid hit and when episode four happened, the sirens went off and we had all of the crew come in and say we’ve gotta go. We thought we’d be back in a few weeks but seven months later is when we actually went back. We had this massive gap but everyone was always like, “Oh, you really honed your craft.” We spent the first three months in the garden in my flat, with no money, no job. I spent everything I had on Drag Race and then I went on universal credit. I didn’t have the means to do anything. We just were like, “What is going on with the world?” I was obviously ready to go back. I’d had some time, sometimes I need a minute to debrief, and sometimes I need a minute to myself and I got to have that. I went back and luckily started on the girl group challenge. I love to write and I love to perform, so I was like, “Okay, let’s go.”

My reason for going onto the show, I remember being on the scene when Drag Race was first announced that it was coming to the UK and everyone was just like, “Fuck, how is this gonna change the scene? How is it gonna react?” And I remember thinking I wanted to give the first season a go, see how people reacted, and then apply. I applied for the second season and got on. it was crazy because it really did make an impact on the scene. It really did change how drag was within the community. I think to do drag, you’re defying gender and societal expectations of you. It’s quite a political thing without having to overtly be political. It’s kind of mocking gender and society’s expectations of that. A lot more people do it that don’t have the heart. Everyone can do drag, but it’s when it’s not about the art anymore and more about gaining a bit of attention, people aren’t doing it for what it really deeply means, that’s the saddest part of it, I think. I’m hoping the shift goes back and a lot of people I know on the scene that were doing it for years stopped because they feel like drag no longer represents them and what they do.

Peppa: I remember when Drag Race was being rumoured to start here and I was like, “England ain’t big enough. It’s not like the US, it’s gonna run out of queens. What are they doing?” I was like, “Let me just wait and see how it’s gonna play out.” And you know, the first season happened I was like, “Okay, really interesting.” I never thought of doing drag on Drag Race, never ever, until probably season three. I was like, “Maybe I could go on Drag Race and make my fee go up.” Because at that point, I was doing so many gigs. I was in Manchester, I was in London, I had about five gigs in a day. I had three brunches, then I had to hop on a train, come back to Birmingham, do Nightingale, and Sunday I had another gig. It was ridiculous. I was a workhorse non-stop. I started to think, if I could just do one gig and get like a grand or whatever, more money that would eliminate me having to do so many. That was probably the number one determining factor of me going on the show, I’m not even gonna piss about. I’m so dead serious. I worked so hard up to that point.

Bimini: Yeah, of course!

Peppa: I know a lot of girls don’t wanna admit that they don’t want more money but I wanted more money, period. I was working hard and I wanted to make more money. I don’t wanna be arrogant with it, but I was like, “I’m talented. I’m that girl. I have an eye for things.” I didn’t go to fashion or dance school, but I know I have something that’s just different. What’s funny about my story is that it really resonated on the show. I never thought that it would. I remember people telling me, “Oh, because you have a Jamaican accent, no one is going to understand what you’re saying, you’re not gonna make it far.” I had to, like, learn how to speak proper English or whatever you want to call it. I had to watch American television to change the way that I spoke English. It’s funny now because I can still hear it. I mean some people would hear the Caribbean accent, but I’ve been trying to change the way I speak for so long because I just was scared people wouldn’t understand me, and I was scared that it was a bad thing. When I was in University, that was the determining factor. I was like, “I wanna go on Drag Race to just really tell people like me, there’s hope.” You can be in a claustrophobic, homophobic upbringing and there is light at the end of that tunnel. You can literally turn your life around and you can make the best of it. You can make lemonade outta lemons and have the best time ever. I’ve lived to see me turn my life around, which I’m not gonna lie to you, I didn’t think I would live it to this age. And I’m just so happy that I was able to do that.

Pride backlash and allyship

Bimini: Right now, there’s a backlash to Pride. Unfortunately, Pride isn’t a brunch. Pride isn’t just entertainment. If you are coming to those places, which obviously people are welcome to, it is about having entertainment and fun, but it is deeper than that. Day to day, it’s not the same for queer people. Pride is about a celebration and empowerment and saying that we are here and we need you to stand up. But if you’re coming to those spaces and then you’re not showing up when we really need it, then we don’t want your allyship. I’d rather you just say that you’re not into it and that you’re just there for the entertainment. If you’re gonna be an ally, you’ve gotta stand up for us. And right now, there’s backlash with corporations that are refusing to put the flag up because people on Twitter and people on social media are now saying a certain thing. Most queer people just want acceptance. We just had a conversation about our experiences growing up and how difficult it was being queer and not being able to be out. We don’t want that. They use this argument about grooming the children, it ain’t grooming the children. There are gonna be queer kids no matter what happens. It’s about making life easier for them. That’s what Pride is about. And that’s just how it comes down. I think allyship is what we need. Not just on the surface level. It needs to be deep-rooted into it. And if you’re gonna be come to a brunch, you better be there at the parade, and you better be standing up for us by all means.

Peppa: That was very well said. Being queer is not just for pride season, it’s the everyday experience. There’s fear in my heart whenever I leave the house and I don’t have to be wearing boots, I don’t have to be wearing a skirt, I just have to exist – and it’s a struggle, you know? I’ve said this in many Pride shows, don’t forget to be there for your queer family and your queer friends, especially if you’re an ally. Don’t just come to Pride and use that time of the year to be an ally. Go to the protest, go to the march. Educate yourself as well because our battle is an every-single-day battle. I think nothing could be more amazing than having people understand what we go through and be there for us when we need it the most, because we’re in crazy times. With all the things happening in the States, people are trying to say that we’re grooming children. I remember being at a Pride event and there was a child that was just so enamoured by me and was just smiling and so happy that I was there and the mum was like, “Oh my god, they love you so much Peppa!” I inspired this child that saw me on television and something was just so magical about that to this child. I was just so happy and I wish more of this could be seen because people wanna use the bad aspects, which are not even bad aspects, to be honest. We’re really unprotected if you want to put it that way. A lot of violence is happening. I look on social media and I’m seeing more and more queer people being beaten up. I’m seeing more trans people being killed and it is getting increasingly scary. Not only am I feeling a lot of hurt on the inside, I’m getting more and more scared every single day that goes by. 

I’m thinking, “What’s gonna happen in the next month, or a year from now? How is life gonna get any better while I’m still having to live my life and keep my head up every single day and not let that get to me?” It’s really difficult. I didn’t ask to be queer. There are gonna be queer people no matter what. Now, in the future, forevermore, it’s gonna happen. I think right now what we can do as far as being present in this time that we’re living in is to go to every march we can be, and be as vocal as we can be, and share stuff on our stories. We have so many things that we can do to educate people. Every chance that I get, I use my voice, I use my platform, I tell people, I educate them and if I don’t understand, I read up on it myself, and then I share it with them because I think we can only help change what’s gonna come up in the future. 

There are trans marches, there are trans protests, which sometimes might be a bit scary because you have the police there on their horses and stuff like that. And we’ve seen the news and what’s funny is a lot of these things don’t make the headlines. 

Bimini: Of course!

Peppa: They’re very selective with what they put in the papers. There are so many of us out there that are in danger of being killed, and that doesn’t make any headlines. It’s funny because the other day there was a submarine that was imploded and then there was a ship of refugees. Can you guess what was in the headlines? It’s really difficult to see that there are lives that are just being erased. This is probably what happened in history with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. There were amazing, incredible people that never got to live on and they were just erased. We don’t know about them because being queer and trans once again is something that people couldn’t seem to comprehend. It just really hurts my heart to know that even now in 2023, we are still going through that. 

Future work

Bimini: My new EP just dropped on the 14th of July. I’ll be dropping a new song on Manchester Pride too because I’m headlining that. I’ve then got my next EP, basically. I think there are enough tunes that are ready to go. I’m just hustling and working on music and doing lots of little bits. I’m excited for people to finally actually hear the EP.

Peppa: Is the single going to be “Narcissist?”

Bimini: “Narcissist” is one of the six on the EP. But the song that will be out for Manchester Pride is called “I Love It.” That one was written actually in retaliation to kind of what was going on currently in America with the drag ban. It’s a song that’s positive, it’s uplifting, it’s about being yourself and celebrating that and being unique and being queer and fab and not having it as too much of a negative because people get too afraid. I think especially with what’s going on, it’s hard to stand up and be yourself. This song is just like, “No, fuck you, we are great.” 

Peppa: I’m excited to hear that!

Bimini: It’s a disco tune!

Peppa: I think music for me, it’s just a really good way to escape. I see what you do Bimini with your music, which is really inspiring to me in the way that you’re able to write about current situations happening and find a way to put that in music to express yourself. I want my music to always make people happy. I feel like all the songs I’ve released, my main thing was I just wanna be like, “Woooo!” Look, times are hard and I feel like music should make you feel really good and that is always what I wanted to accomplish with anything that I’ve released. When you listen to it, you can get ready, you can be in a show, you can be on the road. It just brings you the mood straight up. For the next song that I wanna have out, I want it to be a summer banger and for it to be really upbeat. I want to make people feel uplifted because that is something that I really do enjoy feeling when I’m going through my days, whether it’s a good day or a bad day.  I wanna do more creative stuff. I want to do some more visual things with the music coming up that I have and show people what I’ve been curating. I showed [my manager] a little bit of it the other day, but there’s some other stuff that I have working on. I’ll be going to Berlin in the next few days and I’ll be working on some stuff there. I just wanna have some stuff made up so that when the music comes out I can tie it all together. I’m really excited for the future and I’m excited for Manchester Pride, to see you Bimini as well.

Bimini: Yay! What’s great about music, it’s a universal language. Like you can listen to anything and find something from it. I’m excited to hear more of your music and I’m excited for people to just hear more queer artistry. There’s a lack of that and I think it’s important to hear queer voices in music especially. 

Peppa: Genuinely, I’ve been watching you for such a long time, prior to Drag Race and all that. I just see the way you navigate life and I think it’s really admirable. I think you’re a very intelligent person and I feel like stuff like that is good to see from an outsider. When doing the shoot yesterday, there was a moment I was like, “Wow, I’m shooting with Bimini!” Thank you so much!

Bimini: No, thank you for being you as well. I’ve always been in awe of everything you do. I remember seeing you before and just thinking about how kind and sweet you were then. Seeing how you rocketed into this superstardom to become a name on the scene and how everyone was talking about Black Peppa was incredible to see and seeing everything you’re doing now, I’m very proud.

Follow Bimini / Follow Black Peppa