Spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist and playwright Kae Tempest , is the next guest on The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny, out today. It’s an insightful chat in which Kae reflects on their battle with gender dysphoria, coming out as non-binary and the time they rapped their way into Method Man’s dressing room.
On rapping their way into Method Man’s dressing room and to food stands at festivals
“I was at this time in my life when I was starting out, I was obsessed. When I was intent on getting my break I thought that every single opportunity to tell rhymes to people might suddenly open up an opportunity where I could do this…I was obsessed and had no fear. I had so much conviction and ego, I just couldn’t shut up”
“So once I get into his dressing room, M was just in the dressing room with a white robe on, a platinum M medallion and white socks and sitting in a chair and there were all these French women, he was clearly trying to enjoy himself and then I turned up looking like a state, I used to wear 3-4 hoodies and he was just like why are you here, what do you want, who let this person in…I got about two bars into the wrap and he wasn’t having it”
“I used to wrap my way into venues because I was too young to get in, once all the queue had gone in and the gig had started, I’d just stand outside with the bouncers and eventually they’d let me in”
[…]
“There was a time where I would go up to food stands at festivals and do a little rap for them to try and get some chips”
On secretly listening to James Blake in the studio
“When I was in Malibu a few years ago working on The Book of Traps and Lessons me and Dan Kerry were working on demos and in the main studio James Blake was working on an album and I sat outside the window of that studio and listened to him playing the piano without him knowing”
“He would do these classical warms downs at the end of the day, I don’t know if they were improvised or if he was playing pieces but at that time you could just sit outside the window and just listen, it was amazing”
On growing up in South London
“When I was younger, rhyming was how I socialised, it was fun and how I established my friendships even. I became closer with people because we were hanging out all the time making music”
“Where I was growing up in South London there were so many musicians around, now there are people listening to them all over the world”
On coming out as non-binary, hiding their truth and how music has helped this process
“I’m on a journey, like we all are, to accepting myself and living more truthfully and although I have had gender dysphoria since I was born, that journey began at the beginning of my life but it’s also a journey that begins right now. Yes I’ve come out a couple of years ago and I’m trying to live more truthfully and begin a journey of transition but you know, it’s not over it’s just beginning.
“I do feel more comfortable in my skin, I feel huge relief about finally being more truthful about my experience but also unfortunately it’s not an easy resolution, it continues.”
“People are many many things, in one day, in one lifetime, so many things. The beautiful thing about music is that the same song can be so profoundly important to people that are very different, people who have very different experiences and have grown up in very different ways but the same piece of music can be profoundly moving for different reasons.”
“There’s something about the prospect of going out on the road again, everything it reveals to you and everything you find out about the deeper things, the eternal things …the things that make us who we are…playing music it takes me to that place and it’s amazing to experience that in front of loads of people you know”
“The lived experience of someone that exists really comfortably within the binary can somehow be challenged if you say oh I don’t exist there, that doesn’t suit me, I don’t feel successful in that binary and in fact I as born this way and me being like this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be like you, it’s beautiful if you are successfully female or successfully male, I’m glad for you but actually there is something beyond that. There always has been…this idea of the binary is a construct which is useful in maintaining a status quo and sometimes to try and open the mind beyond that is challenging and frightening, then things get really confusing and the reality gets mixed up…when the reality is it’s just asking for some consideration that there are other ways, not just your ways.”
“All my life I’ve had to understand there are other ways because my way wasn’t available, I suppose it’s just about trying to settle the discussion…people are so tyrannised about the idea of trans bodies, it’s a huge topic to bring up…because people get really triggered”
The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny is available on all podcast providers.
