Share

Killa Kel, Queer Hop from Iraq

Killa Kel, Queer Hop from Iraq

If there is one thing you need you need to know is the ladies love Killa Kel. Like many African American artist, Kel got her start in the church, but was heavily influenced by MTV and BET as a teen.

At first, Kel imitated the artists on TV before creating her own music. "One day I just started writing my own raps to see if I could actually rhyme and I enjoyed doing it more and more every time. I didn’t start going to the studio until later while I was in College. Just fell in love with the whole process of creating in my head, writing and then recording," Kel told me.

Inspired by artist like MC Lyte, LL Cool J and Jay-Z Kel began taking her music seriously by going into the studio creating a more polished sound. If you asked her now who inspires her, Kel would say her fans. In the age of Facebook and Twitter, social networks give fans direct access to artists, and for Kel the feedback and interaction informs her music.

You can find Killa Kel's music online. Her mixtape "D.O.A Volume 1" hit the streets and went viral earlier this year building her fan base even further. As with any good hip-hop music, people noticed. "I’ve been contacted by Lotus Monk, which is a California based Hip-Hop show for the lgbt community, to be on their show. So I will be in the California area in August as well," said Kel.

Her roster of performances extends from Texas to Louisiana, but her big gig came when she preformed in Iraq. Now that is impressive. Kel said, "I also got the opportunity to perform in Iraq for the soldiers. I work in Iraq, and an artist by the name of Baby Bash was coming out here to perform — so I got the opportunity to perform before he went on stage. Very exciting for me."

One of the biggest challenges for Kel is to get her music to a larger fan base within the LGBT community. "Even in the mainstream world fans aren’t buying albums, they are downloading it for free. Also being an LGBT artist and talking about the things that I talk about, a lot of the heterosexual music listeners aren’t going to rock with you. But I’m just focusing on LGBT for now and I’ll worry about them later. They will have to take notice sooner or later... " Kel concluded.

You can find Kel on Twitter and Reverb Nation