Paris Is Burning

... it's just, like, a lot of musicians, not even that album, but, like, there's albums-

Burn- Paris is Burning for a person that has gone RuPaul's Drag Race.

Exactly.

[laughs]

And he's a first generation immigrant, and it's just th- this kid shooting his own life and talking about it from behind the camera.

Even as a jaded teenager who h- had seen Paris Is Burning at, at the Roxy Theater-

[laughs]

.. and whatever happened to be playing at the Roxy Theater three blocks from my house I still remember how powerful it felt to see someone like me, different from me in many ways, but like an actual teenager who had real voice and agency in a film on-

You know what I mean? And so there were no role models or anything.

I do remember going to the premiere of Paris is Burning in Los Angeles.

And Madonna and Willie Ninja were there.

And I was in my highest drag at the time possible in the early 90s.

Well, I was impressed when I came across a mixtape that Houston dropped while still a college student.

at Belmont, and I thought, oh, the voice, the ideas, I mean, the melodic sensibility, the vocal range, and also the fact that he sampled a little piece of audio from the documentary Paris is Burning on that mixtape, and I was like, this is a thinker, and I am going to, I want to dive in, and I want to follow and see where this goes, because to see that kind of Those kind of possibilities and ideas coming from someone who is still in college is just, I didn't take it for granted.

You don't just see that every day.

So yeah, when I helped launch WNXP and the Nashville Artist of the Month franchise, Houston luckily was preparing to release his very first affiliate.

You demand to be seen.

Have you seen the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning?

Yes.

It's essential viewing for this topic.

It was inducted to the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

It was used on the soundtrack for the documentary film Paris is Burning, and has been noted as echoing the different themes presented within it.

It was sampled by Father MC's 1990 rap hit, I'll Do For You.

In 1998, Patti LaBelle featured Mariah Carey on a live duet that got to be revealed during a recording of LaBelle's live one-night-only performance at the Harris Line Ballroom in New York City.

Probably I would burn onto it.

Paris is Burning.

Rent.

Pose.

Um-

Paris is Burning, of course.

Par- oh, watch Paris is Burning.

You need to watch Paris is Burning.

I mean, you gotta watch Paris is Burning.

I'm sure you've already seen it.

Do it early because at some point you're gonna be reprimanded for not having seen it.