After a few days of Open Letters about Pride, I thought it might be nice to take a little break and give you a mini playlist of pride-filled tunes, all of which are made for dancing, and maybe a little bit of ballroom posing.
First and foremost, a little disco:
Loleatta Holloway’s “Love Sensation” is probably one of the greatest records to be put out by Salsoul Records, arguably the most prolific and important disco label out there. The record is full of show-stopping shouting, but since the record’s release, it has been sampled by countless house DJs, and even Marky Mark hit it up for a great sample or two. A classic, made for walking and prancing.
Up in the ‘80s, Malcolm McLaren put out “Deep in Vogue,” the first record to really break into the whole fad of voguing.
The original video, which you can see here, featured the legendary New York ball-scene maestro Willi Ninja doing what he did best: strike a pose.
Speaking of voguing and the ball scene, there were some records that came out in the early ‘90s that were tailor made for it. Masters at Work’s “The Ha Dance” is one of those records. Played on a big system, it challenges you NOT to duck walk across the floor.
On a more contemporary tip, queers still rule the dancefloor, but the beats are a little phatter, a little more on the R&B and hip-hop tip. Azealia Bank’s “212,” which was released under a year ago, is still a great record. “I guess that cunt gettin’ eaten” indeed.
One of Azealia’s fave records of the past year (she played it when she DJed at a Mugler fashion show and even created her own version for a mixtape) is Zebra Katz’s “Ima Read,” a flashback to those ballroom floor records of the ‘90s, only this time the 808 is punching out harder than perhaps ever before.
Strut your stuff, Halifax.
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