Taylor Gray: Bullies, Addiction & Black AF

<p>Taylor Gray is this week’s guest. He is an R&amp;B artist based in Los Angeles and curator of the popular playlist "Flavor Waves" on <a href="https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/flavor-waves/pl.u-MDeJCJRNmo9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Music</a> and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3CC4uQRDk8fBtHG5kj1h1D?si=4148636a16f34700" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, which has garnered the attention of artists such as Victoria Monét and Ro James.&nbsp;</p><ul><li>(1:22) <a href="https://player.captivate.fm/episode/7c85b45a-bb5f-446f-b5df-f2a13a14b7e8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Highlight</a> - Gray talks about his childhood musical influences, growing up in a house playing neverending Prince, Chaka Kahn, Michael Jackson, Toni Braxton, Anita Baker and Luther Vandross. And of course the wonderful Miss Whitney Houston.</li><li>(15:23) <a href="https://player.captivate.fm/episode/7c85b45a-bb5f-446f-b5df-f2a13a14b7e8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Highlight</a> - But childhood wasn’t all perfect as Gray reveals the frequent bullying he experienced at school and how this affected his self-esteem even outside of the school gates.&nbsp;</li><li>(7:14) <a href="https://player.captivate.fm/episode/7c85b45a-bb5f-446f-b5df-f2a13a14b7e8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Highlight</a> - We chat about how mainstream music still wants “The Gays” to be either sex-crazed EDM dance-heads, or castrated shame-muffins. And how at the point of Black and Queer intersectionality there is often an outside fetishisation of race. Reference is made here to The IZM whose episode can be heard <a href="https://player.captivate.fm/episode/41f02736-d8b7-4902-8adf-b5183d4c8540" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</li><li>(16:42) <a href="https://player.captivate.fm/episode/7c85b45a-bb5f-446f-b5df-f2a13a14b7e8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Highlight</a> - Anxiety and addiction are <a href="https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/resources/lgbtq-