The concert calendar has a morbid sense of humor. On a night where Tyler, the Creator headlines the House of Blues, certain to offer up as many gay slurs as snapback-wearing heads in attendance, Boston Pride Week kicks off across the river tonight with one of the next rap superstars in not just the LGBT community, but all of hip-hop.
Club Oberon in Harvard Square is teaming up with producers from Zuesdays, Controversy, and Black Pride to launch Pride Week with New Jersey rapper Cakes Da Killa.
The 23-year-old Cakes, born Rashard Bradshaw, is blowing the fuck up lately with his boom-thunder jam “I Run This Club,” joining MikeQ, Le1f, and Mykki Blanco in a new wave of artists and performers.
But for the hyper-sexual and raunchy Cakes, soon the narrative will shift from “gay rapper” to just… “rapper.”
“I have no problem talking about being an openly gay person,” Cakes tells Luke O’Neil in a solid profile for today’s Boston Globe. “Especially being a black man that went to college — I need to bring as much visibility to that, so young people can see. But for it to be the entire topic of the piece, how gay I am? Let’s talk about music. If you want to talk about the gay reference on the track, that’s a different conversation.”
He adds: “I don’t want to go down in history as a gay rapper,” he says. “I think after I release this next project, it won’t be too much of an issue, or the main topic of the article.”
That mentality falls in line with tonight’s party at Oberon, where all are welcome.
“Yes, this is billed as a Pride party, but we love straight folks, and everyone is highly encouraged to come,” says DJ Begbick, also known as Nathanael Bluhm. “Everyone can expect the #turnup of the century tonight. Or #tunup, or just plain old party, depending on your heritage. The venue is fabulous. Oberon is a beautiful theater with full club sound and lighting. Gracing its stage tonight will be one sassy rapper rhyming fast about the D., plus non-stop party jams by two of Boston’s amazingest DJ Heroes: Leah McFly and me, Begbick.”
Get the party started.
Preview some Cakes tunes below; “I Run This Club” is the third track featured in the Soundcloud spotlight.
