GAYLETTER

Jay Boogie’s name may sound familiar but it’s time you got to know him better. Maybe you’ve seen his name on a party flyer or in the video for trabajo. Maybe his name rings a bell as it brings together two iconic but unlikely divas — Lauryn Hill, otherwise known as L Boogie and Liberace who gave us the song Boogie Woogie Nights. Getting to know Jay Boogie means getting to know an artist confident in who he is — someone who smoks blunts in Jordans while  carrying multiple Louis Vuitton pieces.

It’s in his Louis V duffle bag that Jay Boogie brings the looks for the shoot. He’s working with some pieces from Luar Zepol’s new line and 5 or so pairs of sneakers. Jay takes his makeup and we begin talking about his sound, where it comes from and where it’s going: “My first two eps were laying the groundwork, giving gay kids growing up in the hood the tools they need to survive. For this project, it was more like this is my idea of what living in the now looks like. As a result I got futuristic, Afro, detailed and just a feisty nasty mouth.”

Confidence is what propels Jay through multiple contexts, switching codes while maintaining a sense of self built on never sitting still. Moving between East New York and the Dominican Republic, with a history in New York’s vogue scene and an ear for DR’s ‘dem bow’ sound, Jay Boogie carries it all with him. What unifies the disparate pieces is a bravado bred out of necessity. “Anywhere somebody looked at her or said something, it was a rap, I was just that girl: boisterous. Is there a problem? What’s the problem?” Pulling together the driving beats of the DR, the flair of the Ball scene and his own conversational rap style, Jay Boogie’s music flows with a confidence that conceals the need for aggression.

When he describes his sound and performance he calls it a plush aggression: It’s the idea that if you carry yourself confidently you can do anything, including move between cultures, languages, regions and genders without losing yourself. “Plush aggression appeals to my perception of progression, it’s very realistic to how I’ve ended up dealing with my experiences. For me, progression is the idea of embracing what you go through and allowing it to be a staple and a building block for everything you do in the future.” It’s by building off a past that lays in so many different places that Jay creates something new. Whether it’s outcast shows in the DR or performing for club kids downtown, Jay Boogie gives softness a layered and serrated edge.

This image and below: Outfit by Luar zepol, necklace by Armour

When you go home to the DR what do you bring back with you? I always bring back my confidence 2.0, because out there to be yourself you have to be so secure. People always ask oh isn’t there gay bashing? and to me it’s so interesting because I noticed in the DR, the community feeds off of your confidence. So when all the straight boys see you loving yourself they have no choice but to love you. Because I’m smiling, I’m laughing, I’m carrying, like why would you be upset with me having a good time? But Americans beg to differ… Boys out here are so insecure.

Where does that difference come from? I think it’s because America as a whole has a lack of definite culture, we’re just a melting pot of people’s concepts of culture, people’s concepts of race, and then when you go to these countries or islands and everyone’s just for themselves and for the sun and for the water they just learn how to live with themselves, whereas us in America we’re always just hustling and trying to make that next move and never really taking a minute to breathe so as soon as someone comes in your situation they’re like hold up girl where are you trying to fit in this deck of cards. SO back at home [in the DR], there’s room for everybody, everybody is like come eat in my house come live in my world, whereas the men out here they feel threatened, so if they see me in a crop top they feel like I’m coming for their sexuality, I’m coming for their being as a man.

In the DR you don’t feel like being yourself is intruding on anyone else? No, out there it’s like oh you’re happy? I’m happy that you’re happy lets drink this beer. So I’m out there crop top, G String it’s whatever you want.

What’s the gay scene like in the DR? Well it varies from town to town because it’s not a cosmo country, so each city has their own little gay set up. So my favorite setup is Santiago because that’s where the cunts are more liberal, you find armies and crop top gangs and extensions, they have this genre of Dembow in the DR and they have the first openly gay Dembow artist down there. My town, it’s very behind so it’s more like if we’re having sex we’re having sex like after dark down by the river behind a tree, you won’t see us. But in Santiago it’s like that’s the men I like, that’s the men I want, that’s the men I love, that’s the men I have. In the capital it’s like pinky up, socialite gay, the elite kind of situation.

This image and below: Outfit by Luar zepol, necklace by Armour

How do you feel you fit in when you go back to the DR? You kind of have this dual place where you’re partially out in Brooklyn and partially out in the DR. I try and leave everything here [in NY when I go to the DR] because my point when I go out there is to get clarity and inspiration.

So is the DR your clarity? Definitely, this trip in particular I found a lot of clarity. There was a lot of serenity involved and it helped me put a lot of stuff in perspective about life and the album. And as far as fitting in out there I don’t feel like I fit in. I feel like part of my mission when I go to the DR is to give outcast shows, because it’s my duty as someone that was raised out there to go back and let them know that life goes on beyond what they’re experiencing. There’s life beyond this. One example was when I had on this nike spandex situation, like a nasty yoga pant, and my grandma was like you’re wearing underwear don’t leave the house like that. She was like ‘muchacho que seso’ and I was like grandma, girl this is what I give in America this is it, living healthy.

What’s your take on NY nightlife and the kinds of interconnections it has with fashion, art, music and other cultural spaces? Hard to tell, believe it or not I’m not involved in nightlife as much as people think. If my presence is called upon I’m in the building. I have a job and tons of responsibilities as an adult so I can’t just be at functions to be at them. I’m just not that into New York’s nightlife.

I saw on your facebook and Instagram that you had a leaked sex tape. Did you get caught up in the recent hacking situation? HA! Well it’s a real goal of mine, however that was just a video to an old song. My confidant Torr Love and I ended up fooling around, got in some looks, stepped outside, I performed, stormed the neighborhood and paid it. The usual. All captured on this sony handy cam from like 2007. Literal sex tape coming soon though.

What should we expect from your new album Allure? The sounds of my youth, the sounds of self-motivation and elevation, the sounds of confidence… The mission has been to speak to younger versions of myself and provide them with tools to fight against the GURLZ who try it and how to get by as a young queen. In my music I share my survival tactics, my fitness tactics, my coin getting strategies and face serving techniques. The only thing that has changed for ALLURE is the sonic experience as far as compassion goes. That shall remain a mystery until it ever so gently travels through your headphones. Shout out to my producer Flex Lang.

Can you tell me a little about your fragrance? BODY BY JOEL is my signature fragrance designed to celebrate the body a.k.a. a pheromone enhancer. Coins, lust, luxury, dim lights, winter dinners, mystique, million dollar pussy, fab trade… These are all the things that BODY embraces and attracts. Visit www.JOELNEWYORK.com for more information

This image: Pants by Luar zepol, top by Whatever 21

Jay Boogie’s Allure is available to stream on December 12 on the Opening Ceremony website.