Unearthing 'Diamonds': Lil Peep Collaborator ILoveMakonnen Shares The Story Behind Their Long-Awaited Album | GRAMMY.com (2024)

To ILoveMakonnen, diamonds are not just forever — they're for healing.

"We wanted to be able to heal our broken hearts and heal our fans with this music," rapper and producer ILoveMakonnen tells GRAMMY.com. "That was the whole mission behind Diamonds, to let everybody know that they are a diamond and they're waiting to be found."

Diamonds, ILoveMakonnen's newly-released album with the late Lil Peep, was recorded in the summer of 2017 and wrapped just months before 21-year-old Peep’s death from an accidental overdose. How the record came about, and why it took so long to be released, is a story of a sudden and intense friendship, internet leakers, lawsuits, and a long-delayed happy, if bittersweet, ending.

Makonnen first became aware of Lil Peep towards the end of 2016. Makonnen was at that point best known for his 2014 hit song "Tuesday," which benefited from a viral Drake remix. But his association with Drake’s OVO label, which started in the wake of "Tuesday," had ended and he was searching for something new.

"I was looking online and saw some of [Peep’s] videos, and I thought that he was really intriguing and cool," Makonnen remembers. "We had some mutual friends. People would tell us, 'oh, you should check out this guy.'"

Peep was at that point a popular, if still somewhat underground, emo rap star. (Just weeks later, he would be proclaimed "the future of emo" by Pitchfork.) It took Makonnen making a dramatic announcement for the two to finally connect.

"I came out as gay in 2017, in January, and Lil Peep was one of the first people to reach out to me and tell me, ‘Thank you. I love you. You're so brave for this. I always support you. I want to meet you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I'm in L.A. right now. We should meet up.’"

The artists met at a mutual friend's house and "really hit it off,"Makonnen explains. "We became best friends as soon as we met. And then we got to start talking to each other more, and we would be on the phone all day."

The two already had business ties — Makonnen's manager at the time was business partner’s with Peep’s manager — so doing an album together seemed like the natural next step.

They began sessions in July 2017 in Los Angeles, but getting work done proved difficult.

"Everybody in L.A. knows where we’re at and everybody’s pulling up to the studio and wants to get on the song," Makonnen recalls. "It’s just too much going on, to where me and Lil Peep can’t focus."

The duo decamped to somewhere quieter, and brought a few trusted collaborators to Eastcote Studios in London.

Somewhere in the middle of this process, Peep came out as bisexual. Makonnen recalls that Peep felt two openly queer artists teaming up could make a huge impact on their young fanbases.

"He said, ‘I feel like we can really make a change in the world by showing this because so many of us young fans and young people are dealing with all types of things,’" Makonnen remembers. "That was the start of everything that bonded us together."

The two artists were inseparable during the London sessions, staying in the same hotel and doing everything together.

"We really lived together like best friends, if not more. We were wearing each other’s clothes," Makonnen says. "It was truly special and fun. It just felt surreal. It felt like a dream. We were having so much fun and smiling and laughing the whole time."

Throughout, Makonnen and Peep were dead-set on combining their styles. They typically began improvising melodies, while discussing what topics they wanted to talk about on each track. They addressed problems in their own lives, with hopes that fans would be able to relate.

There was a specific mission for the sound of the record as well. Peep had always loved Makonnen's songs with sad lyrics and happy-sounding music. That gave Makonnen an idea.

"I was like, ‘And your songs sound very sad!’" Makonnen says, laughing at the memory. "So I was like, we need to give that same emotion, but make it sound a little happier and friendlier so that the listener can have that sense of celebration, crying, transformation — where this music is hitting me and allowing me to let things go, but also to uplift the things in my life that have been bearing down."

As the record neared completion, Peep and Makonnen visualized what would come next: a joint tour, a merch line. Makonnen says he planned to perform some of the new tunes in a Vegas-style live act where he would play piano and a suit-clad Peep would sing.

"I was telling Peep, you’re going to be like Frank Sinatra," Makonnen says.

Makonnen and Peep split after London, with plans to reconvene and mix the album after their respective tours wound down. That never happened, and after Peep’s death fans wondered about the fate of the album that he once proclaimed the best of the century.

In spring 2020, after conflicting reports about whether the album would ever be released, it leaked to the internet. Makonnen recalls how it happened: People involved in the album got emails from someone claiming to be him, asking for its contents.

That wasn’t the end of the hacking. Many of Makonnen’s other unreleased songs — he claims about 500 in total — were stolen by hackers as well.

"After that happened, I literally had a nervous breakdown," he says. "I was shaking and sweating and got sick for three days. I felt doomed and destroyed. My mom had to really help talk me back up."

Following that debacle, Makonnen tried to put Diamonds out of his mind. "I didn’t even like listening to it," he says. "It just brings back too many memories."

But in early 2023, Peep’s mother Liza won back control of her son’s music following a lawsuit settlement with his record label. That cleared the way for the album to be finished, at long last. The entire Diamonds team reconvened in Los Angeles to mix the album.

The project is 22 songs long, reflecting pretty much all the finished material from the sessions. But that wasn’t Makonnen and Peep’s original vision.

"We had a lot of songs," Makonnen admits. "We maybe weren’t going to put out all of these songs if he was still alive and we were down to edit it. But since he passed and we didn’t get to that point, I felt it would be best to show all that we did. We had a lot of fun creating this stuff."

The release of Diamonds is bittersweet for iLoveMakonnen. On one hand, he’s still extremely proud of the music. On the other, he’s reminded of the loss of his best friend.

"A lot of emotions I’ve had buried down in my subconscious and in my heart that I haven’t been able to express because I never felt like the time was right, I’m happy to be able to speak about now," he says.

"It’s a weird feeling in your throat. I’m happy, I want to laugh, but I feel like crying."

Listen To GRAMMY.com's 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Playlist: 50 Songs That Show The Genre's Evolution

There was a time in the not so distant past when hip-hop was likened to disco. A flash in the pan genre defined by its hyperbolic expression of sound and style, disco fizzled out in the early '80s once the fashion and sonic trends attached to it expired.

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Hip-hop was presumably following in its footsteps, especially when so many break records were layered with disco samples to create the early framework of hip-hop's sound — think the Sugarhill Gang's 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight" (GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, 2014), which sampled Chic's 1979 No. 1 smash, "Good Times."

But hip-hop persevered and brought with it an evolution of the R&B genre as well. Combined, the two genres became unstoppable, eclipsing a flimsy stigma of being confined to an "urban" box. Now, four and a half decades since hip-hop's inception, the genre has seemingly taken the music industry over along with R&B, beating rock at its own game. How did we get here?

Theoretically, the move has been gradual, though 2017 marked a quantifiable shift leaning in hip-hop and R&B's favor. First, there are the sales figures: Hip-hop and R&B accounted for 25 percent of music consumption in 2017, with rock trailing at 23 percent. Add to that an uptick in audio streaming in 2017 by 72 percent — with 29 percent of music streamed online being hip-hop and R&B combined, matching rock and pop, which also combined for 29 percent of music streamed online. The two previously gigantic leaders in major genres are now neck-and-neck with the "underdogs" of R&B and hip-hop.

But per Nielsen's 2017 year-end report, eight of the top 10 albums were, in fact, hip-hop or R&B albums, including Drake and Kendrick Lamar for More Life and DAMN., respectively. Meanwhile, Drake and Lamar held down the top two spots on the list of most popular artists based on total consumption (sales and streaming), while Bruno Mars, Eminem, Future, The Weeknd, and Lil Uzi Vert were also among the other artists that proved hip-hop and R&B were the most widely consumed collective genres this past year.

The 60th GRAMMY Awards further punctuated that claim, as artists like Jay-Z and SZA found homes in the General Four categories, with Mars — who earned Record, Album and Song Of The Year — and Lamar sweeping wins across the board.

Phrases like "the death of rock and roll" have been continually tossed around since this cycle of news arrived. The latest strike against rock came when Coachella announced that for the first time in its 19-year existence there wouldn't be a rock act headlining the festival. The three headliners for the 2018 installment will be Beyoncé, Eminem and The Weeknd.

"I think it speaks to the strength of the music and the strength of the fan base," explains Jeriel Johnson, Executive Director of the Recording Academy Washington, D.C. Chapter. "The fans dictate who shows up on those stages."

While the 2017 tallies may suggest that sales and streams have finally caught up, industry insiders have seen the trends shifting over the last 5 to 10 years.

"Now so, even more than ever, music can be created and put out so much more quickly so when something is happening, urban music is reflecting that really quickly."

"R&B and hip-hop have always had a huge influence and impact on our culture, regardless of the time period — from fashion to slang to our tastes in music [and] cars," says GRAMMY-nominated producer Harvey Mason Jr.

However, with rap artists growing into cross-cultural icons, hip-hop poured into rock and vice versa.

"I immediately think of artists like Run-DMC, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Kid Cudi. These are a few of the pioneers who helped lay down the foundation for artists like Post Malone, Lil Uzi, [the late] Lil Peep, and Lil Pump to become the new generation of artists to continue the push forward the borders of hip-hop," explains Matthew Bernal manager of media for Republic Records. "From their trend-setting fashion, genre-bending sounds and riot-like live performances, millennials grew up watching these icons and the influence is clear in their music today."

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Artists such as Rae Sremmurd, who released the groundbreaking "Black Beatles" with Gucci Mane in 2016, extended that aesthetic — the music video for the hit single showed the duo breaking TV sets with electric guitars.

"Post Malone's 'Rockstar,' which was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight consecutive weeks last year, is a strong indication of how today's hip-hop artists view themselves: as rock stars," continues Bernal.

"Urban culture is the new rock," adds GRAMMY-winning producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. "[In] every era there's a change that takes place, and right now Migos, Kendrick Lamar — they're the new rock stars."

"I feel like it was bound to happen," says Nicole Johnson, industry relations at music streaming service Pandora. "Back in the day, rock and roll was started by an urban genre and urban people. But then it became 'sex, drugs, and rock and roll' and, now, isn't that what these hip-hop [artists] are now talking about? Here are rappers just living their best lives, being themselves, tattooing their faces if they feel like it, wearing dresses on the cover of their album if they feel like it. It's all about self-expression."

Johnson adds that Pandora's Next Big Sound has been driven by hip-hop and R&B as of late, leading to the service's launch of the weekly urban station, The Sauce. "There are now so many [sub]genres within hip-hop, of course, it's gonna take over.”

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But in the wake of hip-hop and R&B's takeover, so was the digital boom. Urban music jumped onboard streaming services early, with platforms like SoundCloud birthing its own scene, SoundCloud rap, which has given way to artists such as Chance The Rapper and Rico Nasty who have equally dominated the space as other hip-hop artists.

"I think R&B/hip-hop is benefitting from changes in technology," says Mason, underscoring how today's fast turnaround in music creation has placed hip-hop and R&B at a unique vantage point, especially when it comes to topical music. "R&B and hip-hop really seem to have their ear to the ground culturally and in society with everything our country is going through.

"It just seems to be such a transparent outlet for people with feelings and opinions, and now so, even more than ever, music can be created and put out so much more quickly so when something is happening, urban music is reflecting that really quickly."

So where will we go from here? Is rock really fading away? And, if so, can it come back? While the cyclical nature of music would reflect an inevitable return, perhaps rock will have to once again evolve the way hip-hop and R&B had to in order to rise up.

"It'll rebound in a different kind of way, I believe," says Jerkins. "Someone will come along and do it in a newer and cooler way. But right now? Hip-hop, R&B— that's pop. Because pop music is anything that's popular."

(Kathy Iandolihas penned pieces for Pitchfork, VICE, Maxim, O, Cosmopolitan, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and more. She co-authored the book Commissary Kitchen with Mobb Deep's late Albert "Prodigy" Johnson, and is a professor of music business at select universities throughout New York and New Jersey.)

American rapper, singer, and producer Lil Peep — née Gustav Åhr — died Nov. 16 prior to a tour appearance in Tucson, Ariz. A spokesperson for the Tucson Police Department has confirmed that evidence was found on the rapper's tour bus indicating the cause of death to be a drug overdose, according to The New York Times.

The SoundCloud rapper and rising alt-pop star was on tour in support of his debut album, Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1. He died just two weeks following his 21st birthday.

Best known for his self-produced bedroom-recorded tracks such as "Crybaby" and "Hellboy," Lil Peep built a rabid online fanbase through his unique blend of emo-rock hooks and trap-inspired rapping. References to heavy drug use as self-medication to deal with severe depression were a staple of the young rapper's songwriting, and his soul-baring acknowledgement of his real-life trials and mood swings forged a powerful connection with a fanbase built almost entirely via SoundCloud and Instagram.

"I suffer from depression and some days I wake up and I’m like, 'F***, I wish I didn’t wake up,'" he said in an interview with Pitchfork. "That's the side of myself that I express through music. That's my channel for letting all that s*** out."

Lil Peep began his career in music after leaving high school early and earning his degree via online courses. He began releasing self-produced music on YouTube and SoundCloud, where he discovered an unexpectedly fervent fanbase, prompting him to release his first mixtape Lil Peep Part One in 2015.

Though ostensibly a rapper, Lil Peep drew acclaim from his fans and music critics alike for his refusal to be pinned down by the conventions of any one genre, often sampling artists such as Underoath, Brand New, the Postal Service, Oasis, and the Microphones to build the sonic bed for his Southern-rap inspired vocal deliveries. His lyrical content — touching equally on themes of relationships, revenge, angst, and self-harm — prompted Pitchfork to label him as an artist who was "reinventing heart-on-sleeve agony for a new generation."

Lil Peep was vocal on social media and in his songwriting about his close relationship with his mother. She has released a statement through a representative of First Access Entertainment, stating she remains "very, very proud of him and everything he was able to achieve in his short life," and that she is "truly grateful to the fans and the people who have supported and loved him."

CyHi The Prynce Gives The Scoop Behind 'No Dope On Sundays'

In a time where pop balances between intimate vulnerability and brazen confidence, queer pop stars like Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, Reneé Rapp, FLETCHER, and girl in red are spearheading a movement of their own: the lesbian pop renaissance.

The unofficially coined cultural craze has seen a number of queer women sing openly and explicitly about their same-sex relationships. And they're not holding back: "She was a Playboy, Brigitte Bardot/ She showed me things I didn't know," swoons Roan in "Red Wine Supernova," while Eilish gushes "she dances on my tongue" in "Lunch," and FLETCHER confesses in "girls, girls, girls" that she "kissed a girl and…really, really liked it."

This era of openly sapphic joy follows a history of hardships, with decades of queer artists defying prejudice and hom*ophobia to sing openly about their desires and emotions. It's not been an easy journey — and struggles are still painfully evident. When grilled about her sexuality last year, Eilish declared on Instagram, "I like boys and girls leave me alone about it"; it echoed Dusty Springfield's 1970s interview when she revealed, "I'm perfectly capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy... and I don't see why I shouldn't."

Some have defined sapphic pop as a subgenre of indie or bedroom pop, and others have celebrated the more anthemic, upbeat "sapphic bops." But in reality, no one style of music encapsulates lesbian/sapphic songs; these artists are united by loving and desiring other women — some openly, while others were restrained due to societal pressures.

The current wave of unapologetic queer stars marks a pivotal moment in music history, where sapphic pop is no longer cornered in lesbian circles and gay clubs, but dominating mainstream airwaves, and influencing global pop trends while being rightfully celebrated by the masses. So as the current queer female stars continue to thrive, it's important to pay homage to all of the artists that paved the way.

Read on for a history of defiantly queer women and nonbinary people in music — a celebration of who they are, how they have loved and their remarkable musical imprint.

1950s: A Ranchera Folk Queer Pioneer

Costa Rican artist Chavela Vargas began singing in Mexican cantinas as a teenager in the 1950s, becoming a key figure of Mexico City's bohemian artistic boom. With slick, short hair and a powerful presence, Vargas sang regional Mexican music with hoarse fragility in her songs, including "Las simples cosas" and the haunting "La Llorona" (which means "The Weeping Woman"); her sobbing voice echoing the song's grieving protagonist.

With love songs addressed to women and an androgynous sense of style, Vargas never hid her sexuality, but first openly spoke about her lesbianism when she was 81. Before her death in 2012 at the age of 93, she lived a fascinating and exuberant life, was a friend and lover of Frida Kahlo and is rumored to have had flings with the likes of Ava Gardner. With her heart-wrenching vocal command, she is considered one of the most important artists in Latin American folk, and remains a towering figure in Latin American queer history.

1960s: A Fearless Pop Star

Decades before female musicians began openly embracing their sexuality, Dusty Springfield cooly shrugged at rumors about her own — her aforementioned 1970 "coming out" interview solidifies her status as one of the first openly queer female pop stars.

Rising to fame in the 1960s with her blonde beehive and dark eye makeup, Springfield frequented London gay clubs at the height of the Swinging Sixties (which, ironically, didn’t have anything to do with queerness). With hits including "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" and "Son of a Preacher Man," her powerful voice channeled emotion with unnerving vulnerability. Though her music was never quite as frank as she was in the public eye, a few of Springfield's later releases touched on queer themes (1979's "Closet Man" and her 1989 collab with Pet Shop Boys, "In Private").

1970s: Feminist Folk & Funk

The second-wave feminist movement in the U.S. pushed gender issues to the core of the country's socio-politico agenda, including fights for abortion rights (Roe v. Wade in 1973) and the ferocious push to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Women artists were showing they were more than pop glam, picking up guitars and refusing to dress up for the cameras, favoring casual attire; sapphic pop was entering an era of authenticity and emotional honesty. Along the way, a group of feminist lesbians set up Olivia Records.

In 1975, Olivia's co-founder Cris Williamson released her politically charged folk album, The Changer and The Changed, one of the highest-selling independent records of the time; two years later, Linda Tillery's funk-soul track "Womanly Way" explored the sensual side of sapphic love: "I think I'd like to get to know you in a special kind of womanly way" she croons. Pioneering trans sound engineer Sandy Stone was an integral part of the Olivia team until she was forced to leave after receiving harrowing threats from separatist groups, sadly marking the steady decline of the groundbreaking label.

In the UK, Joan Armatradingattracted buzz after performing gigs around her native Birmingham, earning fans for her slick guitar, melodic piano and powerful vocals. Though her lyrics were gender-neutral, Armatrading's music was largely embraced by the lesbian community — including the 1978 song "Taking My Baby Up Town," which celebrates queer love despite the prejudice and hom*ophobia of the time ("You kissed me/ And then all the people started to stare/ We started a commotion/ Someone making comments, morals/ The state of affairs and I said, "What we got is the best"). In 2008, she performed on Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour, which raised funds for LGBTQIA+ charities; she has spoken openly about her sexuality in the past decade, and has been in a civil partnership with Maggie Butler since 2011.

1980s: Love, Lust & Rock and Roll

The '80s brought a spirit of punk into the mainstream, and queer circles were attracted to the music's rebellion and rage. British-Canadian singer Carole Pope was part of the rock band Rough Trade, characteristically clad in leather and singing raunchy songs dedicated to the joys of BDSM and girl-on-girl eroticism. Rough Trade's lustful 1980 song "High School Confidential" shocked listeners at the time: "It makes me cream my jeans when she comes my way," swoons Pope. In 1981, she had a brief (but intense) relationship with Dusty Springfield.

A new folk movement was quietly brewing in the hushed tones and poignant strums of Tracy Chapman. Though she has never spoken publicly about her sexuality, her GRAMMY-winning hit "Fast Car" has been embraced as a lesbian anthem for its ideals of escapism and unhinged freedom. (Chapman's sexuality was later confirmed by her former lover, author Alice Walker, who spoke about their mid-90s relationship in 2006, though there's no disclosed relation to "Fast Car.")

Folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, who are both openly lesbian, formed in 1985 and immediately cultivated a cult queer following that led to a major label deal in 1988. Their 1989 self-titled album — which spawned the celebrated queer anthem "Closer to Fine" — went double platinum in the U.S. and won a GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Folk Recording in 1990. Just this year, the duo released a documentary, It's Only Life After All, which charts their journey, revealing the hom*ophobic snubs they've stoically endured throughout their career.

Meanwhile, South AfricanBrenda Fassie began making music with her band the Big Dudes in the early 1980s, combining pop with hip-hop and kwaito. While Fassie did not explicitly sing about being queer, she often referred to herself as a lesbian and never hid her relationships with women. A staunch anti-apartheid campaigner, Fassie made pop with powerful social commentary; she was even hailed as the "Madonna of the Townships" for her brazen lyrics. Thought to be Africa's first openly queer pop star, Fassie remains a beacon of acceptance and tolerance in a region where hom*ophobia is still rife — even two decades after her passing.

1990s: Intimacy Resonates

Building on the folk origins of Chapman and Indigo Girls, k.d. lang initially broke through with several country hits in the late '80s, but ruffled feathers with country radio when she came out as a lesbian in 1992. Nonetheless, she never backed down from who she was, and it launched her to sapphic pop stardom. Lang's alluring stage presence and a sensual masc charm helped her score a global hit with 1992's "Constant Craving," which has been cited as an ode to lesbian love. The song won a GRAMMY for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1993 — the same year she posed for a steamy Vanity Fair photoshoot with Cindy Crawford, which goes down in the lesbian history books.

In the late '90s, teenage twins Tegan and Sara picked up guitars and began performing confessional acoustic songs with big pop hooks and grunge elements (1999 track "Proud" features empowering lines such as "Freedom and blood/ I make my mark and fight for tomorrow… I'm proud to be me"). Their unapologetically queer music videos were intentional in their push for inclusion, complete with same-sex make-out scenes featuring LGBTQIA+ actors. The sisters, both openly lesbian, had a cameo in the cult lesbian series "The L Word," and their nonprofit Tegan and Sara Foundation promotes for LGBTQIA+ equality by raising funds for health care programs, summer camp and more.

2000s: Pop Gets Gayer

The 2000s marked a shift away from the acoustic confessionals of the decades prior, with a move into club beats and big pop hooks. Queer band the Gossip, starring charismatic, rebellious frontwoman Beth Ditto, broke all expectations of what pop could be and look like, with punk chords, disco beats and a belting voice. Their 2005 smash hit album, Standing in the Way of Control, confronted the marginalization and fear experienced by the queer community. The album's titular song was written in resistance to George Bush's attempt to outlaw same-sex marriage; "Standing in the way of control/ You live your life/ Survive the only way that you know," screamed Ditto.

Before developing a synth-pop sound on later albums, Chile's Javiera Mena carved emotional, melodic songs on her keyboard with her 2006 debut, Esquemas Juveniles; the album featured heartfelt love songs like "Camera Lenta," which eschewed pronouns to sing about "the different paths to your eyes" in Spanish. Though she became more explicit with her sexuality in the 2010s — particularly on the lesbo-erotic hit "Espada" — Mena has been recognized as one of the pioneers in Latin America's LGBTQIA+ movement, alongside Ricky Martin, Kany Garcia and Pabllo Vittar.

London teenager Elly Jackson, better known as La Roux, immediately broke onto the pop scene with her smash "Bulletproof," and attracted a queer following for her androgynous looks — a refreshing anecdote to the chart dominance of hyper femme pop-stars of the time. While Jackson initially eschewed any labels, not wanting to be confined to queer audiences and baffled by the public speculation on her sexuality, she later embraced her place as an LGBTQIA+ icon (her 2014 track "Cruel Sexuality" appears to address her own journey: "Cruel sexuality / Am I a fool to let you trouble me?").

2010s: Mainstream Breakthrough

The 2010s marked a significant push for marriage equality, with same-sex marriage rights being awarded in countries like the U.S., UK, Argentina, Germany, and Australia, among others. This movement for equality was paralleled by a growing visibility of LGBTQ+ representation in pop culture — and sapphic pop was beginning to resonate more than ever before.

L.A.-bred trio MUNA released their indie pop debut, About You, in 2017, loaded with heartfelt songs that helped the trio quickly cultivate a die-hard following of queer fans. Listeners identified with the band's rebellion about heteronormative tropes and coming-of-age queer songs like "It's Gonna Be Okay, Baby" ("Your gonna move to New York, and experiment with communism/ Go down on a girl/ After reading her some Frantz Fanon").

Another bisexual indie darling (and MUNA's eventual "Silk Chiffon" collaborator), Phoebe Bridgers, also released her debut in 2017. Titled Stranger in the Alps, the album navigated toxic relationships, as well as Bridgers' experiences with women, with queer fans gravitating toward her unprecedented bisexual representation.

A year later, Bridgers teamed up with fellow LGBTQIA+ stars Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus to form the supergroup boygenius. The trio has flipped the "boy band" trope on its head, showing that masculine heartthrobs can emerge from feminine fluidity. With lyrics that delve into queer love and heartbreak — and live shows featuring plenty of onstage making out — the band has had a seismic impact on the sapphic pop landscape (and won three GRAMMYs in the process).

In the mid-aughts, U.S. pop star Hayley Kiyoko was experimenting with her artistry following the split of being in girl group The Stunners. Reintroducing herself as a solo star in 2013, Kiyoko had the freedom to explore lyrical themes that were more true to her own experience — like her 2015 breakthrough hit, "Girls Like Girls." The song, and accompanying music video, cemented her place in the queer pop canon; which Kiyoko has followed up with several songs about queer love and relationships, including "What I Need" featuring Kehlani (who came out as lesbian in 2021 and has since explored her own sapphic narratives, like 2020's "Tangerine.")

After hinting at their sexuality with the breakup song "Talia" in 2017, King Princess, who is genderqueer, went all-in on their queerness with the laid-back indie love song "puss* is God" in 2018. Since then, they've built a cult following with songs marked by blatant honesty in a shifting age of gender identity and sexual expression — like 2022's "Sex Shop," which contemplates the use of strap-ons and binders.

Meanwhile, pansexual and nonbinary artist Janelle Monaédonned vagin*-shaped pants for their symbolic video "Pynk," their 2018 sapphic sex anthem from Dirty Computer — a queer afro-futurist album that rebelled against the conservative policies of the then-incumbent Trump administration ("If you try to grab my puss* cat/ This puss* cat grab you back" they spit on "I Got The Juice"). The album's accompanying science-fiction film featured Monaé playing an android on the run with a lover, played by Tessa Thompson. Monaé's went even more explicitly queer in follow-up album The Age of Pleasure, a hedonistic kaleidoscope of funk, pop and reggae ("I like lipstick on my neck, leave a ticky hickey in a place I won't forget," they flirt on "Lipstick Lover").

2020s: Sapphic Pop Explosion

Though we're only four years into the 2020s, the decade has been marked by an explosion of sapphic pop. New Jersey pop star FLETCHER helped kick off the movement in 2020 with her EP The S(ex) Tapes, which navigated the end of a lesbian relationship through dark pop hooks loaded with sensual energy. Two years later, she doubled down on the lesbian narrative with her debut album, Girl Of My Dreams, which spawned one of the most viral queer songs of the decade this far, "Becky's So Hot." (In between, she delivered another lesbian bop alongside Kiyoko with 2021's "Cherry.")

Norwegian indie star girl in red, who is openly queer, cultivated a huge online following after the release of standalone early singles (in the track "i wanna be your girlfriend," she sings, "Oh Hannah… I don't wanna be your friend/ I wanna kiss your lips"), before releasing her highly anticipated debut if i could make it go quiet in 2021, featuring songs like "Did You Come?" ("Did you do the things you know I like? Roll your tongue, make her cum 20 times?"). Her connection to lesbians and bisexual women was so strong that the term "do you listen to girl in red?" evolved into a code to identify fellow queers on Sapphic TikTok.

In the Latin urban scene, openly gay Puerto Rican star

Eilish was one of many Coachella 2024 performers who brought sapphic pop to the desert. Reneé Rapp's set was introduced by the cast of "The L Word," Ludmilla's shared a tender onstage kiss with her wife during love song "Maldivas", and of course, Chappell Roan — decked in her Eat Me tee — had thousands to sing along with her unabashedly kinky hits.

Roan herself is redefining pop, with outfits inspired by drag aesthetic and lyrics that are unapologetically sapphic ("Knee deep in the passenger's seat and you're eating me out/ Are we casual now?" she sings in country pop ballad "Casual"). In August, Roan broke records for attracting Lollapalooza's largest-ever crowd, and her rapidly rising fame helped her 2023 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, reach No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 (and a UK No. 1) nearly a year after its release.

Lesbian and queer artists have been making music for decades — and with artists more openly celebrating their sexuality than ever before, it's an undeniably exciting and historic time for the LGBTQIA+ music community. A new era of sapphic pop is upon us, and it's hot, explicit and gleefully unrestrained. You could even call it a femininomenon.

Ghana has been home to some of the most recognizable musical exports from the African continent, contributing heavily to the globalization and development of the continent's sound. While highlife is regarded as the country’s biggest sonic export, the introduction of hiplife some 30 years ago invigorated the Ghanaian music scene and birthed some of the country's most important artists.

Hiplife music blends hip-hop from the West with Ghanaian highlife sounds like Jama and Kpanlogo — a sound and dance by the Ga people, who make use of nono (metal bell), fao (gourd rattle), and local drums to play beats. These elements were fused with funk, bass, and boom-bap to create hiplife. Hiplife and hip-hop have aural similarities and both use rapping; both genres also reflect a larger culture.

While Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is considered one of the earliest rappers, as demonstrated on his 1973 song "Simigwa-Do," the term "hiplife" was only coined in the late 1990s by genre pioneer Reggie Rockstone. Still, American hip-hop had arrived in the Ghanaian capital of Accra by the early '90s and local rappers began to release their own music soon after. Duo Talking Drum were among this early cohort, and their single "Aden" was an underground hit in 1993.

As a movement and culture, hiplife is also an identity, created to encourage people to be daring in their exploration of sound. Pioneering hiplife artists like Root Eye Samini and Shatta Wale (then known as Bandana) fused dancehall and highlife in the early '90s to make music which could connect with local audiences.

Collaborations between artists and producers have been crucial in defining the sound, evolution, and amplification of hiplife. Just as hip-hop has developed a plethora of subgenres, hiplife has birthed other sounds such as azonto and asakaa. An offshoot of asakaa, Ghanaian drill, was among the elements in the new Best African Music Performance Category at the 2024 GRAMMYs.

The story of hiplife includes many important producers, artists and labels, including Kassa Records, DJ Rab, Zap Mallet, Akyeame, Panji Anoff, JayQ, Hammer, Ex Doe, Chicago, and Okomfour Kwadee. Going forward, the mantle will fall on artists like TicTac, Abrewa Nana, Appietus, and much later a younger generation including Asem, Richie Mensah, and Beeztrap KOTM continue to amplify hiplife. Afrobeats artists have also taken notice; Tic Tac and Tony Tetuila’s "Fefe Ne Fe" was sampled on the 2019 song "Gbese" by DJ Tunez feat. Wizkid and Blaqjerzee.

With African music continuing to gain global recognition, the rich sounds emanating from the African continent are ripe for exploration. Read on for 10 artists who have been essential to the story of hiplife music.

Reggie Rockstone

Reggie Rockstone is regarded by many Ghanaians as the godfather of hiplife, having paved the path for many to pursue rapping as a career. Working with producers like the late Rab Bakari (DJ Rab Bakari), Reggie set the ball rolling for hiplife through songs like "Tsooboi."

His 1997 album Makaa Maka offered an early template for the sound, fusing Western-influenced hip-hop with traditional Ghanaian highlife sounds. The linguistically adept Reggie Rockstone — a Ghanaian boy who was raised in the UK and New York — rapped in both English and impeccable Ghanaian Twi to the shock and admiration of many. By this singular act, he proved that it was cool to rap in your own dialect and not necessarily in English, like American rappers of the '90s.

Reggie's will to make Ghanaian rap music stand out via releases like Me Na Me Kae, and Me Ka did not go unrewarded. He also scored hits with his singles "Keep Your Eyes on the Road," "Plan Ben," and "AH." He has also collaborated withdancehall giant Beenie Man and Nigerian legend 2Face.

Lord Kenya

Lord Kenya rose to fame when he joined Slip Music, one of Ghana’s celebrated music labels of the late '90s and mid-2000s. His musicality was undeniable, and his hardcore rap style was adored by many for its energetic flow and delivery. Likened to Tupac Shakur, Kenya was very direct whenever he was on the mic. He never shied away from any lyrical battle thus earning him the title "rap heavyweight." His swagger on and off the mic made him a star, with many eager to catch him anytime he performed.

Lord Kenya's street affinity, coupled with great stage performances, left a mark on Ghanaian audiences. His albums — including 1998's Sika Card, Yesom Sika, and Sika Baa — solidified his position as one of hiplife’s most important artists. Kenya's hit singles "Enyomo," "Medo" and "Sika Mpo Mfa Neho" as well as his verse on the late Daseebre Dwamena’s song, "Kookoo" ushered in a street approach to the rap scene, as seen in the careers of rappers like Kwaw Kese and Kweku Smoke in later years.

Obrafour

Revered, celebrated, and crowned by music rap purists in Ghana as "Rap Sofo" (high priest of rap), Obrafour influenced multiple generations of rappers in Ghana. The artist first gained popularity in the late '90s with his cadence and mastery over his mother tongue, Twi, as well as his storytelling, lyricism, and wisdom.

Obrafour’s flow complemented the work of legendary producer Hammer, who brought hard-hitting drums, horns, and legendary sharp chords to Obrafour’s 1999 album Pae Mu Ka. The album is regarded as the bridge that connected older audiences who dismissed hiplife as a passing fad and the youth, who regarded hiplife as the future of Ghanaian music. Today, Pae Mu Ka is as important to hiplife as Nas’ Illmatic is to hip-hop.

Pae Mu Ka was the first of several collaborations between Obrafour and Hammer. Together, they created a sound that would influence generations of rappers. Obrafour is held in high regard by rappers such as M.anifest, Guru, Ko-Jo Cue, and Pappy Kojo.

VIP

Established in Nima, a suburb of Accra, VIP underwent significant personnel changes but never let their commitment to hiplife music falter. Original member Friction later onboarded Promzy, Prodigal, and Lazzy (who later changed his name to Zeal), and Bone championed the vision of the group for over a decade (as well as the departure of Friction, Bone and Promzy).

Backed by the group's diverse personalities, VIP quickly became one of the biggest music exports of the country, winning six awards at the Ghana Music Awards in (2004), including Song Of The Year for the 2003 hit title track "Ahomka Wo Mu." Over a two-decade period, the group released albums and scored several hits and collaborated with some of the continent's finest, including 2Face, Patoranking and a host of others. Vision in Progress (VIP) epitomized the cultural ethos of hiplife: raw energy, passion and talent.

When Reggie Rockstone, a longtime admirer of the group, arrived in 2014, the group became VVIP. The group’s success would be further cemented as they crossed over into Nigeria and other parts of the world. "Ahomka Wo Mu" has been sampled and interpolated by various musicians, including songs by MUT4Y & Wizkid and Kida Kudz.

Tinny

While Twi rapping artists dominated the hiplife music industry, very few artists were successfully making music in other local dialects. Tinny — a rapper who raps in Ga, a language spoken by the people of Accra — rose to the occasion with both rap and fashion. Another product of Hammer’s Last Two record label, Tinny had an unmatched aura that earned him the moniker "Sexy Man Tinny." Early aughts albums such as Makola Kwakwe, Aletse (Akwe Polo), and Kaa Bu Ame still echo in today’s industry. His later works with record producer Richie Mensah on singles like "Ringtone" and "Now I Know" further entrenched his name in Ghana’s hiplife history.

Tinny’s will to pursue rap music in Ga laid the foundation for artists such as Edem, who raps predominantly in Ewe and to a degree music duo Blackstone who performed in Dagbani. Tinny also featured in the BET Hiphop Awards International Cypher (Ghana) alongside Reggie Rockstone, Sarkodie, D Black, Edem, Kwaku-T and Baby G (2010).

Mzbel

In a male-dominated industry, Mzbel created change that still reverberates today through the careers of women like Amaarae, Wendy Shay, Sister Afia and Gyakie. Following in the footsteps of those before her, like Abrewa Nana (a household name in the early 2000s for her role as one of the leading female artists in hiplife), Mzbel's singing and rap skills were not just catchy, but thought-provoking with themes of love, sex, body positivity, and addressing abuse.

Mzbel's non-conformity made her a target by some aspects of the industry. The general public who felt she was a bad influence on younger girls, due to the sensuality in her lyrics and imagery. Yet she was unphased. Mzbel scored national hits with her albums Awosome, and 2005's 16 Years, and touched on issues many regarded as controversial. The rapper stood up for women’s rights and encouraged women to be vocal about things society heavily criticizes women for. She ensured that women were not bullied into silence but instead express themselves fully through art. Her hit single "16 Years" with the late Castro touched on the issue of sexual harassment and abuse young girls face at the hands of older men and, as such, became a national topic.

Sarkodie

Since bursting onto the scene in 2008, Sarkodie has churned out multiple hits year after year with a unique flow and delivery. His records touch on multiple subjects, including friendship, family, love, heartbreak, and bad governance. His hold over rap in Ghana has been extended across the continent, making him one of the most influential rappers in Africa.

In 2012, Sarkodie played a pivotal role in the amplification of azonto music (an offshoot of hiplife that melds dance music genre from the early 2010s with upbeat fast-paced sounds and witty comical lyrics) with his song "U Go Kill Me" with fellow rapper E.L. Winning "Artist Of The Decade at the" Ghana Music Awards (2019), cemented his influence and status.

Rapping predominantly in Twi, Sarkodie’s ability to find pockets on the beat has made him a frequent featured artist by the likes of Mr. Eazi, Ice Prince, Flavour, Victoria Kimani, Patoranking and a host of other important artists in Africa. Sarkodie won Best International Act: Africa (2012) and the inaugural Best International Flow at the BET Hiphop Awards in 2019.

Asakaa Boys

In a time when hiplife had taken a back seat to Afrobeats and amapiano on the Ghanaian market, a group of artists from Kumasi (Kumerica) — a slang used to describe people of Kumasi who enthusiasts of American music and culture — burst onto the scene via asakaa, or Ghanaian drill. Inspired by Pop Smoke’s drill music, the sound reflects their lifestyle on the streets of Kumasi, hiplife elements, and American hip-hop culture such as fashion.

The name asakaa originates from the word saka, a flipped slang of the Twi word kasa, which means to speak. Saka, a style of speaking where words are pronounced backwards, was heard in the songs that were released by the Asakaa Boys. The asakaa sound is credited to the Kumasi-based Life Living Records, and signees Jay Bahd, Kawabanga, O’Kenneth, City Boy, Kwaku DMC, Reggie, Sean Lifer, Braa Benk and Skyface SDW under the moniker The Asakaa Boys.

With songs like "Akatafoc", "Sore," and "Agyeiwaa," and leading the charge, Asakaa (Ghanaian Drill) has gained recognition locally and internationally in the 2020s.

Black Sherif

Black Sherif may be young, but he has already charted a path of success for himself in Ghana’s music industry which many are yet to match. Black Sherif’s sound, writing, fashion, and mannerisms have earned him admiration. He first tasted popularity when his song "Money" went viral in 2019; two years later he regained public attention in 2021 with his First and Second Sermon songs and after a Burna Boy cosign on "Second Sermon Remix," Black Sherif's popularity soared.

The artist has gone on to deliver multiple hit songs such as "Kweku The Traveller," "Soja," and a monstrous guest verse on Odumodu Blvck’s "Wotowoto Seasoning." In 2023 he won Artiste of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards and aBET Awards Best International Award. Additionally, he has performed on global stages atMOBO Awards, Wireless Festival, and 2023's AfroNation.

King Paluta

With a charisma like that of Lord Kenya, King Paluta is an energetic rapper with some "thugness" in his delivery influenced by life on the streets of Kumasi. As a young man, he often slept in the studio, where he learned how to operate the equipment in the studio and dropped his first official single in 2015.

Despite releasing music and being popular in Kumasi, he would only gain national attention in 2023 for "Yahitte," which earned him the award as the Best New Artist at The Ghana Music Awards in 2024. In the 2024 alone, he has scored two charting-topping singles, "Aseda" and "Makoma," making him arguably the hottest artist in Ghana.

As a student of hiplife, King Paluta has fully embodied the genre as evident in his music. He has positioned himself to carry on the legacy of those before him as far as hiplife is concerned, and he is on track thus far.