QBoy: Bullies, HIV & Victoria Wood

Welcome to https://www.inthekeyofq.com/ (In the Key of Q) the weekly podcast where I chat with inspiring Queer musicians from around the world as they share stories, inspirations and of course their music. This week's guest is https://www.qboymusic.com/ (QBoy). Born Marcos Brito he is a DJ, music artist, producer, rapper, and dancer. He was raised in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basildon (Basildon), Essex and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Gomera (La Gomera), Canary Islands, being of half-British, half-Gomeran descent.  He has five independent releases under his belt, he has helped lead the way for diversity and inclusion within the LGBTQ community and hip-hop. At present, he is co-promoter and DJ at popular club night 'https://www.randsheclub.com/ (R & She: The Queens Of Hip-Hop)' which now in its 8th year has featured sets by https://www.instagram.com/djspinderella/?hl=en (DJ Spinderella) of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCadcBR95oU (Salt-N-Pepa) and https://www.instagram.com/melanieblatt/?hl=en (Mel Blatt) of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVNdTXEJv1A (All Saints). QBoy also has a weekly residency at London's megaclub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVNdTXEJv1A (Heaven) and also plays regularly for https://www.thened.com/ (The Ned and Ace Hotel )London. In the episode, QBoy chats about his love of rapping, how he loves that it carries the visceral energy of youth. We touch on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk8YrrMVAaY (Section 28) and the negative impact it had on his schooling as he experienced the dark cloud of classroom homophobic bullying. Passions for music and dancing carried him through those tough times, as did indeed a love of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QnpyVzigng (Five Star) and the wonderful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFI5Jl_IqsE (Victoria Wood.) Launching himself into the hip hop scene of the early 2000s, QBoy chats about joining gayhiphop.com and finding himself at the centre of a Queer hip hop collective with the likes o