GAYLETTER

Slayyyter first pinged our radar with her standout singles “BFF” and “Mine” over the last year, in which she emerged shockingly — almost aggressively — ready to take over. With Hustlers’ pre-recession extravagance domming the box office and Normani’s “Motivation” video single-handedly rocketing the early 00s back to pop culture’s forefront, Slayyyter is our first true heir to Britney Spears’ Blackout. She reformulates the icon’s decadent sonic finale to an epoch of celebrity excess and shamelessness. The density of Blackout, its grimy pink-and-blue oversaturation, its raw desire to wield acquired power — in short, those qualities that made it critically rejected the year of its release — are spun by Slayyyter’s post-ironic revelation of all the satisfaction that darker pop can bring to light.

We still haven’t had enough of “Mine.” This level of pop ecstasy—think “Vegas Strip fantasia,” “champagne and shotgun weddings”—has had no equal this year. The simplicity of the lyrics and Slayyyter’s hyper-emotive delivery (so excessively felt it’s almost parody, but never quite) creates a dreamy space within the propulsive, Uber-to-the-club type beat. In short, it’s a hit. “BFF” (“Smoking up inside my white Jeep / with the pink seats”) and “Daddy AF” (“Playboy in the grotto / I’ve been popping bottles / All night”) stand out as other examples of Slayyyter’s approach. Their production is dense, heavy, and hyperkinetic, well-suited to SOPHIE’s world. The mixtape vacillates in mood, but what remains constant is its intensity, its excess, and Slayyyter’s hypnotic, committed vocals.

While the pop of the 2010s documented our mass adaption to the internet (like Katy Perry’s use of “epic fail” in “TGIF,” and Taylor Swift’s caption-lyric “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22”), Slayyyter feels born of the internet, molded by a newer imaginary. …

Whether you first encountered him as a smoldering Instagram model, an excitable guest on The Ellen Show, or an openly queer Division 1 footballer, Jake Bain likely left an impression. When the square-jawed athlete came out to his peers at a 2017 high school assembly, local and national media outlets quickly took notice. In a matter of months, the Missouri based footballer was launched into national relevance on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. In the midst of all this, Jake found the time to meet up with the photographer, Alex Marsh King, for a refreshing moment in Fern Glen, Illinois.

After having spent a year playing collegiate football at Indiana University, the 20 year old is currently taking a gap year to focus on activism and modelling. Though based in St. Louis, he has momentarily relocated to L.A. and from the looks of his instagram, he’s living. During our conversation, he opened up about his goals as an activist and his thoughts on the barriers faced by queer people today.

If nothing else, Jake believes in the power of positivity. During our conversation, he stressed the importance of encouraging young people to express their sexuality and accept the sexual identities of others. Through doing so, he hopes to create communities where young queer people feel comfortable coming out to their friends, family, and community. At the moment, Jake believes that the queer community’s principal challenge is the overwhelming negativity that many feel towards LGBTQ+ people. He believes positive representation in the media is the best way to fight this stigma. …