Spray What?!? Queer Hip-Hop Grows Roots in Baltimore

Emerging hip-hop artist Mzery wants your company.

Whew! The big, kitschy cloud of aerosol from all this talk about the Hairspray movie is enough to get one’s woozy brain dreaming about Baltimore. Is it really the land of loving mammas in drag, plus-size passion and sassy, civil rights-minded MCs?

As a native of John Waters territory, I searched to find out what queer-tastic musical things are happening in Charm City right now. It turns out that lesbians and their friends are adding their voices to the growing chorus of women in Baltimore’s rather grassroots hip-hop scene.

WAHHT! Oh, don’t act so surprised. That’s just the acronym for We Are Hip Hop Too!, a networking organization for LGBT hip-hop, neo-soul and spoken word artists founded in March by K Love the Infinite. K Love, who describes herself as “an out masculine gay female,” plans to release an EP of her songs in October.

One of the female MC’s featured with K Love’s group is Mzery, a spitfire of a poet whose rhymes and rich rhythms are due for release soon on her new album, Herstory 101. She also appears in an upcoming documentary about the “femcees” of the Baltimore hip-hop community, called, Even A Man Can Do This.

But can a man do this? This dance step, known as "the SpongeBob," was inspired by the sounds of Baltimore Club. That’s the frantic, sometimes lewd blend of hip-hop and house music popular in the city.

Hey, even the Corny Collins Show had its fancy footwork, the Madison.