CELEBRITY INTERVIEW

dressed [as a man] one day, and then the next day I’m wearing eyeshadow. And guys, people just didn’t know how to handle it, or they didn’t want to handle it. They were embarrassed. And I was pushed to the side. Phone calls weren’t returned, emails weren’t returned, and I just stopped working. And in less than two years, I completely went broke.

Do you feel there’s an undercurrent of internalized homophobia in the hiphop world? Even outside that world, there’s a lot of homophobia and transphobia, period. And it sounds like you experienced that.

Oh yeah. Firsthand. But what’s so crazy is that your music has nothing to do with how you present yourself. So the fact that people stopped working with me musically because of the way I started to look as if it affected my music… it actually enhanced my music, because I started to feel more like myself. And it backfired. People literally just stopped calling me for work and caused me to be homeless. So [I’m] kind of getting on my feet now.

And now you’re here at Sundance with your directorial debut. What’re you feeling right now? Oh, I feel… and this sounds cliché, but I feel tremendously empowered. I also am very aware of my position and I respect it, but I’ve also worked very hard for it. But I just want to use this energy, this moment where I am, to just keep telling great stories and creating music.

When you say position, what do you mean? Because to me, it seems like even with this movie, you being at Sundance, this was not an easy film to get made. No, no. I mean, I made it by myself. By position, I mean, I’m being acknowledged for my work. How can I say this without sounding arrogant? I did it by myself, most of it. And that took a lot of my life, my time. And nothing’s guaranteed, right?

So to be acknowledged for something that I’ve done with my talent, my God-given talent… that’s what I mean by my position. I don’t take it for granted, and I understand where I am right now in my life. So I just want to maximize