LA-based queer rapper Big Dipper on body positivity, recovery and his new album.
BY MARK ARIEL | PHOTO BY RAKEEM CUNNINGHAM
Everyday is an uphill battle… I’m a white person making hip hop and rap music. I’m a queer person fighting to cut through a predominantly heteronormative industry. I’m a fat person sexualizing my body. These are all things that aren’t normally seen or accepted in mainstream culture,” explains LA-based queer rapper Big Dipper (BD) in an interview with THE FIGHT.
When asked if he thinks the LGBTQ community has evolved over the past few years regarding attitudes towards different body types, BD has a straightforward answer: “I think the people who like fucking fat people still like fucking fat people and the people who think we are gross still think we are gross. I find most cultural evolution is less about an actual shift in mindset, and more about a greater visibility for the alternative point of few.”
Sober for almost 7 years BD says that he links his “slow growing success of my career as an entertainer with my sobriety, so I have great reverence for my journey.”
Regarding that journey, BD reveals that “there have been easy periods and super hard moments too. I’ve been in and out of the program, had a failed sponsor or two… and spent a lot of my time chemically sober, but maybe not making good decisions. Life is fucking hard… most of the time. The more time I have the more grateful I am that my day to day decisions aren’t clouded by the bullshit of getting high.”
Nowadays, after the huge success of his recent video Lookin, an electronic-pop bop showing big men joyously dancing, celebrating their bodies, and singing in unison at a car wash in jean cut-offs, (check it out on YouTube!) BD has a lot to look forward to. His new album Late Bloomer has been receiving rave reviews (“Queer rap at its finest,” wrote Out magazine) and the future looks bright for this up and coming star.
“I’m so happy that Late Bloomer is finally out on iTunes and available everywhere. This is my first full length album project and it’s like my baby. I’ve got dope features on the album from Shea Coulée, Uncle Meg, Will Sheridan, Peppermint, Show You Suck, Rena, Divoli S’vere, and others. It really flows from start to finish and has songs for all your moods. Plus a bonus track!… I’m so super proud of this body of work. It’s my most authentic and honest collection of songs ever and I think it really represents me as a songwriter, an artist, and a person.”
Contact info: bigdipperjelly.com, youtube.com/bigdippermusic, bigdippermusic.tumblr.com, facebook.com/bigdipperjelly.
