Featured photo by TRAGIK & CAMRAFACE.
What do a competitive dancer, a drag king, a ballroom baddie, a third-generation Buddhist, and a student of psychology have in common? They’re all one person: Miami-born singer, rapper, and producer ROZET.
ROZET describes themself as “a cunty yogi in a mosh pit.” Their new EP HEAD takes listeners through the ups and downs of mental health and cerebral healing, coalescing their multifaceted background into one complex, revelatory musical experience. INTO sat down with ROZET to talk all things HEAD, from channeling a demigod on stage to discovering their Queen Testicle alter ego.
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Hi, ROZET! Congrats on releasing your new EP, HEAD. What would you say is the thesis statement of the project?
With regards to HEAD, it’s this cerebral journey that me — as a Black, nonbinary artist navigating PTSD and a head injury — I really felt like the best way to convey my music and my visuals was through an audiovisual experience called HEAD. It’s very literal, but within that it has this layered presentation of Afro percussion and VFX and these depictions of emotional regulation and healing in various forms.
There’s a clear ballroom influence on the EP, though it starts in a soft place before ramping up into vogue-battle territory. How did your own history with ballroom influence that sonic journey?
Growing up in Miami, it is a melting pot. But when you think of the Miami ballroom scene in this context, because I’m in Florida, there’s a lot of anti-community. I think specifically in Florida, there have been so many shootings and there’s been so much violence, it would be impossible for me to begin my project with just, like, “Let’s battle it out.” It’s like, let’s mourn, let’s heal, let’s process. I think that it really comes through in the music.
Also, when it gets into the body, you’ll feel that. It goes from the third eye into this more talkative, fast-rapping process, and then it kind of gets into the throat and down to the clavicle, where you start to feel the sub-bass shaking you.
Let’s mourn, let’s heal, let’s process. I think that it really comes through in the music.
– ROZET
It’s fascinating to hear you talk about the physical effects of your music. What led to your knowledge of how music affects the body, and how does it influence your music?
I was a competitive dancer growing up. My family was very poor, but because I was able to dance, it was kind of my way to get a scholarship, and I started to compete in dancing. And then I realized that it wasn’t really something that brought me as much joy as it did when I would just battle — vogue, all-styles, popping, locking, whacking, all styles of dance. That’s where I feel like my identity really was formed. When I turned 16, I was like, “I’m a drag king. I can’t exist anywhere else.” It just was so much a part of the way that I developed as an artist, as an educator, and that transitioned into me getting into film and studying film. I’m also a third-generation Buddhist, so there’s the spirituality aspect, film and dance, and then a lot of martial arts within that as well. So a lot of studying behind the body and spirituality.
As I got into the actual industry itself is when some of the more uncomfortable experiences happened: coming across all types of predators and manipulation, and especially here in Miami, really, really uncomfortable experiences that I went through that unfortunately are not unique to me, but did have an impact on the way that I developed as a human and as an artist. That’s why I’m getting my degree in psychology, hopefully in IO — industrial organizational psychology — so I could then work within those systems and have more screenings for these producers in the music industry.
That’s essentially what informs the physiology behind the project. It’s so important that I can feel the music in my body because I’m a dancer, but also I understand how important it was to go through that experience of feeling like my body locked up on me. To perform today, to even express today, I had to create. My name is Rose, but I had to create ROZET so that I could really imagine what life would be like without as much trauma, and then channel a demigod when performing. So it’s like, I get to really battle it without intrusion, without any interjection. It’s just a must. It’s a must.
Can you expand on what you mean by channeling a demigod?
Absolutely. When you think of the history of art, there are these ceremonial performances where people put on a mask, and they actually summon these spirits, right? And some would use that as a form of therapy. And, you know, I’m putting this really vaguely, not getting into one specifically, but I have a connection to that. When it comes to drag or ballroom, I think that there is a spiritual aspect of that that’s maybe not spoken about as much, but we all know that when we go out and when we’re preparing to present however we want to, it’s our way of combating not only a negative spirit, but bringing forth our highest good and our highest nature so that we can come together in our highest form.
I know you had a drag king persona as a teenager. Do you consider your performances as ROZET to be drag, or is that something you’ve left behind?
I feel like it’s something that I’m bringing back. You know, it’s something that I put to rest because it was associated with so much pain, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to embrace that again. And the experience itself isn’t what necessarily subtracted that from my life. It just so happened that this beautiful aspect of my presentation was interrupted by an experience in the industry that made it hard to engage with performing again. But I think now that I’ve really studied and understood how to tap into that without getting lost, it’s exciting to think about it. So yeah, it’ll come forth more now than ever.
It’s our way of combating not only a negative spirit, but bringing forth our highest good and our highest nature so that we can come together in our highest form.
– ROZET
I also wanted to talk about the “Shadow Wurk” music video, which was really, really cool, especially that alien head prosthetic.
Talk about drag king — that’s my trans-species drag king!
Totally! What were your inspirations for that video and that look?
The inflamed head has to do with emotional dysregulation, a symptom that I feel like we all experience in some capacity. But post-head injury, I started to experience it a bit more, and that essentially inspired the view of that. And shadow work itself — obviously, those who study therapy understand how crucial it is to that process. But when I thought about how to present in the music video, I actually collaborated very closely with one of my older brothers, and he was like, “I just want to see you bald, and I want to see your head enlarged.” And I was like, “I’m going to look like a testicle.” And we were like, “Yeah, Queen Testicle.” And it just started to spew out from there.
It felt incredible to have that on my head. It was so light and every time I moved it also moved at its own pace. So in a way, everything that I was working on, I embodied, I could feel it, I could sense it. [laughs] So that was the inspiration behind the giant head.
What’s your favorite song on the EP, and what song are you most excited for your fans to hear?
My favorite one would be “I’ll Manage.” It’s my fetish party song. The simplicity of it, the way that it’s mixed and mastered — I love that I say “submissive stud lesbian bro.” I say, “Stand above me with thigh-high boots,” and, “Ring the bell; I’ll bring you gluten free crackers.” It’s very detailed, and it’s about my partner too, so it’s close to home.
I would say the one that I’m excited to be out in the world would be “Adrenaline.” It’s for those who struggle with anxiety, because my partner does. I don’t experience it, and I almost feel like it’s a privilege to say that I don’t experience anxiety. And so when she told me that she loved the song and it really calms her, I was like, “This has to be the first song on the project.” So I’m really excited about that one because I’m curious to know how it affects others who may have a partner who struggles with anxiety, or they themselves are having an anxious moment, and they want to put that one on.
Forget about cohesion, forget about brand palatability, forget about consistency, and just think about the ups and downs of emotion.
– ROZET
And what do you hope that listeners feel while listening to HEAD?
Just submit, fully submit. Forget about cohesion, forget about brand palatability, forget about consistency, and just think about the ups and downs of emotion and what the head goes through from waking to resting in a day. In this project, there is this calmness, this very central nurturing aspect of it, just like there is this impulsive, misplaced rage, and I think that that’s very relatable. We go through the whole feelings wheel within 10 minutes sometimes. So it really just is, let the head do its thing.
And just believe in me, because I worked hard. I worked really hard. So I will say to just really, really, really believe in me, because I got you, and I’m going to give 100% and beyond in responding to the times and responding to listeners, responding to people. ♦
HEAD is now streaming on all platforms.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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