Over the past twenty years, the US-born DJ Sprinkles has been one of the most influential and outspoken figures in dance music campaigning for LGBT equality and education, mainly through deconstructing the perceived boundaries of gender and sexuality.

Although she discredits the effectiveness of transmitting these messages through it, her music has been one of the mediums used to raise awareness. Back in 1991 she was awarded the ‘underground grammy' for her residency at the notorious New York transsexual sex worker club Sally's II. From 2003 - 2006 she took up residency at Tokyo's Club Module, which hosted her monthly/bi-monthly Deeperama events. She also had regular events in Kyoto, hosted by the underground organiser and producer Napalm Tadokoro, under the name Deepa-licious and continues to perform regularly in Europe as both Terre Thaemlitz and Sprinkles (one of the later events we were lucky enough to attend at Oval Space last year).

In terms of her production, a wealth of music has been put out via her Comatonse Recordings imprint, which has been used as a platform for a multitude of her aliases; DJ Sprinkles, K-S.H.E., Social Material, G.R.R.L., Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion, and her real name Terre Thaemlitz. Her most recent project last year alongside Mark Fell, titled Fresh Insights EP 1, was also released through the label.

As one of my favourite artists, both due to her content as well as her intricate and fascinating views, I could spend hours writing about DJ Sprinkles. However, I'm sure you're dying to get to the focus of this article, her track choices and comments. Therefore here is the link to her website containing all of her past features, writings and opinions for your reading pleasure. Due to DJ Sprinkles opinion on music sharing, we have not put the YouTube or purchase links in the article.

The Smiths
I Know It's Over

"Another torch song about a boy pining over the boy he lost to a girl. So many of Morissey's lyrics only make sense if heard through a Queered ear. It's amazing how difficult it is to find reviews of his lyrics that address their real Queerness (as opposed to "Gayness"). I think this is partly because he so often sang about the negotiation of sex with men within a world of men and women. I mean, there are always women in his "Gay" world, and this is really so important. But somehow it seems confusing for people (including LGBT folk) who only think a song is "Queer" if the characters or scenarios being sung about are limited to two people of the same gender identification. With this song in particular, most reviews frame it as some kind of existential internal dialogue Morissey is having with himself, while it clearly strikes me as the recounting of catty break-up banter between two male lovers, one of whom left the other to marry a woman. For me, the core of this song is expressed in the lines, "Love is natural and real, but not for you, my love. Not tonight, my love." (a jibe at the lost male lover's impending need to repress his homosexual desires while laying with his woman-bride), followed by, "Love is natural and real, but not for such as you and I, my love." (A reference to the mainstream cultural branding of the "love"/sex the two men shared as "unnatural.")"

Nina Simone
Mississippi Goddam

"One of the most poignant civil rights songs I can think of. Although the US talks big about freedom, it remains a shit hole of systemic and institutionalized civil rights violations. Mississippi's recent "religious freedom" law is one of the latest anti-LGBT bills approved out of nearly 200 that have been proposed across the country. It basically makes it legal for anyone to deny services to LGBT individuals. That includes employers, government officials, medical workers, adoption agencies, etc. In practical terms, this means employers can legally fire someone for being out at work, doctors can legally refuse treatments for transgendered patients, state government clerks can legally refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex or trans couples, etc. I grew up in Springfield, Missouri, which is the headquarters for the Assemblies of God Church. You might say it is the buckle of the US Bible Belt. Ironically, it is also called the "Queen City of the Ozarks" - quite the misnomer, given the rampant homophobia I witnessed and experienced there. I guess it was a year or two ago that the Springfield City Council unexpectedly stated what should be obvious by now, declaring discrimination based on gender variance or sexuality illegal. Well, the religious freaks freaked and demanded the issue be put to a public vote. In an idiotic yet predictable display of Middle American Democracy, the sheeple flocked to the voting booths and overturned the City Council's ruling, protecting their right to discriminate! To quote The Simpsons' newscaster Kent Brockman, from another mythical Springfield, "I said it before and I'll say it again, democracy simply doesn't work." All the versions of this song that I have heard were recorded before primarily White, non-US audiences. There is always an interesting point of transition in the performance, where Simone's heartfelt and justified anger as a Black Woman who left the US squelches any initial "in-on-the-joke" laughter or liberal pride coming from White audience members seeking musical communion. She's so fucking fierce. A real shut-the-fuck-up-and-listen track."

Sylvester
I (Who Have Nothing)

"Probably my favorite disco track of all time. Sylvester crooning to disco drums and piano about poverty and closets... it has it all. Despite the (rather misogynist) stereotype of rich gay men with tons of money because they don't have wives or kids to take care of, poverty within queer and trans communities is both real and commonplace. The ability to find full-time employment is an impossibility for many. For example, here in Japan, even "passable" transgendered people can usually only get part-time jobs, because showing a federal ID to an employer is required when working full-time (most employers rescind their job offers if they see a discrepancy between someone's legal gender and self-presented gender). Similarly, despite the current sense that sex between men or sex between women is happening between two out and self-identified Gay men or Lesbians, globally speaking most sex between men or sex between women involves at least one person (if not both) actively self-identifying as Straight (or not-Gay/not-Lesbian). Again, here in Asia, you have the rampant notion of "Gays" being hyper femme queens and Ladyboys who they have sex with "Straight" guys (Lesbians are all but invisible). This is real Queerness with social consequence and risk, and without gender or sexual reconciliation. It is about sexuality being actualized through contradiction and hypocrisy... and closets. Not a Western academic Queerness that is reconciled with current Western LGBT agendas emphasizing Pride[TM]. Of course, there are still sex scenes like this in the West, but in the era of Pride[TM] they are almost taboo to discuss, because they are lubricated by shame. Sylvester sings of poverty, and losing his male lover to a wealthy "she" that I always imagine is a gender-reconciled woman, but it could also refer to a femme queen. Remember, most Gay disco was sung in code with lyrics about "him/her" couples reflecting the socially mandated butch/femme paradigm of queer sexual expression under homophobia. If "she" is a "woman," then I imagine the lost lover is back in the closet for the sake of material and social comfort. These kinds of ambiguities resonate with my own life and experiences, as well as what I was exposed to growing up. Back in Missouri, most Gay bars I went to were hidden dives where you'd frequently see old farmers with wedding rings catching a drink with their secret flame (often times another old farmer) before heading back home to the wife and kids. And when I moved to New York, the scene at Sally's II - the site of my first regular DJ gig - was a Transsexual sex work scene with typically Straight identified johns. Even today, I continue to constantly and actively deal with closets of all varieties. That includes closets between Queers and Trans folk, mutating as much for them as for Straight folk. This constant necessity to "negotiate" sexuality and gender can be tiring and depressing, and so devoid of "community," but I guess it's unavoidable if one doesn't buy into mythologies of "natural identities." At least this "negotiation" grounds a social-sexual exchange within the social - as opposed to framing it as a "natural outgrowth" of one's sexual and/or gender identifications. I'll take the sombre mobilities offered by sexual and gender grey zones over the homogenizing promises of mobility offered by rainbow Pride[TM] any day."

Frank Ski
Tony's Bitch Track

""Understand, I'm a man! I'm a man! I'm a man, yeah! But you know what, y'all? Sometimes I feel just like a woman... and if you don't believe me, ask your father." Ain't nothing like a little in your face, ol'school, faggoty M.C. work!"