Connections Mix Tape March 2025
The Christianity Can Be a Real Drag: March 2025 Connections Mix Tape can be found on Spotify. Listen in-blog below for a more rich experience, or on Spotify for uninterrupted music. Please note below each song is a link to song lyrics for accessibility. Check out more details on how to best enjoy mix tapes.
Good day! You’re listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy, and I am stoked for this week’s connections mix tape: Christianity Can Be a Real Drag.
In last week’s theme mix tape, I’ve Been Wondering If You’re Listening For Quite a While, as we explored songs dealing with questioning your beliefs, I stated that questioning does not always lead to rejecting your faith entirely. Today, we explore artists who have deconstructed their faith without losing it.
I’m excited, as I have so many fantastic songs and artists to share with you today!
Our anchor artist for this month’s connections mix tape is a truly unique one. Matthew Blake Lovegood is a Christian drag queen singer-songwriter who performs as Flamy Grant, writing songs that draw on his experience of growing up heavily involved in the Christian church in the southern United States.
Let’s jump right in with the first track off Flamy’s first album, 2022’s Bible Belt Baby, “What Did You Drag Me Into?” on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
What Did You Drag Me Into? Lyrics
I am sore impressed with this artist. The lyrics he writes are absolutely brilliant and so insightful. I truly wish I had space to include every single song from both their albums on this tape, but alas. You simply must explore the rest of Flamy’s music after listening to this tape.
Adeem the Artist is a non-binary pansexual country music artist who also grew up in a Christian family in the South. Adeem uses they/them pronouns and writes incredible music. Here they join Flamy Grant to collaborate on a celebration of women in the Bible, “Esther, Ruth, and Rahab”.
Esther, Ruth, and Rahab Lyrics
As much as I adore this next song, I’m afraid most Christians are absolutely incapable of empathy, walking a mile in another’s shoes, forgiving 70×7, humbling themselves by washing others’ feet, loving their enemies, or even pretending to love their neighbor as themselves (all things they are called to do in their own holy book 🤷♂️), and thus will completely miss the point of our next song.
I hope I’m wrong, but unfortunately the last several years have proven me right again and again. From 2024’s Anniversary, Adeem the Artist with “Nightmare” on KMTJ-DB – Denver.
Active since 1994, Jennifer Knapp is a well-known American-Australian folk rock and contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter who in 2010 came out as a lesbian, revealing in interviews she had been in a relationship with a woman since 2002, sparking controversy by becoming one of the first and most-well-known Christian artists to come out of the closet. She continues to record and release Christian contemporary music.
I am DJ Ponyboy, reminding you the biggest weapon Christians use against everyone (even themselves) is shame. Flamy Grant identifies as a “shame-slaying, hip-swaying, singing-songwriting drag queen from North Carolina”. Together with amazing unknown artist The Girl Rapper, Knapp collaborates with Flamy to reject shame and claim their place in the Church on “I Will Not Be Ashamed”.
I am beyond excited to share this new artist with you all. Her flow and voice (especially on the track we just heard) remind me of Jean Grae (one of my favourite women rappers); on another of her tracks I get Missy Elliot vibes; ultimately, she manages to nail down a unique style entirely her own.
Turn up for this next track, a scintillating celebration of TGR’s relationship with her wife, reminding us that, “It’s worth the wait ’til that somebody is found. When you find yourself, they’ll find you”.
Off her 2022 album of the same name, The Girl Rapper with “Somebody” on KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m DJ Ponyboy, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to, loving every minute of sharing the amazing tracks on this month’s connections mix tape with you!
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Sometimes breakthroughs can come from unusual places. Flamy Grant was a complete unknown who was lucky enough to get the chance to partner with Derek Webb, another Christian musician, formerly of the Christian contemporary music group Caedmon’s Call.
When professional intolerance advocate, former scripture-spitting stage hog at scandal-ridden Bethel Church, and failed congressional candidate Sean Feucht saw this collaboration, it angered him, prompting him to throw a hissy fit on social media. His outburst launched Flamy’s career overnight and sent her new album to the top of the Christian charts! How poetic!
Furthermore, Flamy was able to convert Feucht’s hate into art, re-contextualizing his jab about a Christian drag queen indicating the “last days” into a powerful anthem that calls out the church for its bigotry, hate, and hypocrisy.
To quote a queen, “I know you’re afraid – your supremacy is coming to an end – ‘cause these are the last days and I am here to usher them in, oh. Don’t run away from the apocalypse, she’s carrying justice on her hips. Freedom can only begin when the last days end”.
Flamy Grant and Chris Housman collaborate on “Last Days” here on KMTJ-DB, Denver!
Chris Housman is a gay American country singer-songwriter from Kansas who came out of the closet at eighteen. He broke on the scene in 2020 with his single “Nobody”, a breakup song that declined to gender the other lover.
We just heard Chris and Flamy Grant perform “Last Days”. Next, enjoy my favourite solo track of Housman’s, off his 2024 album Blueneck, here is “Drag Queen”.
Flamy Grant’s name is, of course, a reference to the influential Christian music artist Amy Grant, who Flamy credits as her diva, saying, “I wasn’t allowed to listen to anything that was secular, so while my peers were listening to, you know, Britney and Spice Girls, I was jamming to Amy”.
Ya know, as a child I was not allowed to listen to secular music either. All my musical knowledge has been gained since leaving home, and today I am more well-listened than most people I’ve met.
If you are interested in learning how I did it and how you can build your own musical knowledge, please check out my guide Chasing Sunshine on the products page of the Mix Tape Journey website.
Continuing the music, here is Flamy Grant with queer artist Semler covering an Amy Grant tune originally released in 1997 – “Takes A Little Time”, on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
Semler is a non-binary American host and alt-Christian singer-songwriter active since 2021; their first EP, Preacher’s Kid, with themes of living as a queer Christian, went to the top of the Christian charts on iTunes shortly after its release.
A preacher’s kid myself, I discovered Semler’s album the week it came out and fell in love with the lyrics and their sound.
Without further ado, please enjoy my favourite Semler track; off their 2021 Preacher’s Kid EP, here is “Youth Group”.
Remember, “A loser in a button-up can’t send you to hell”.
Ya know, this is a perfect time to point out that children and young adults are and always have been safe around drag queens; unfortunately, the same cannot be said for faith leaders, with dozens being arrested every year for sexual predation.
Additionally, these numbers fail to take into account the hundreds of faith leaders every single year who are caught engaging in this type of activity without ever being held accountable for it. Churches work very hard to protect their leaders from prosecution, preferring to send them to another church to continue their predation.
I’m DJ Ponyboy. I hope you’re enjoying this mix tape, as we explore the many queer and alternative Christian music artists who still profess faith in god and are willing to continue putting up with the hatred and injustices of the Christian church in order to speak the truth.
In an interview, Flamy Grant notes, “I didn’t set out to be an activist singer-songwriter, but I’m queer in America in 2024, so by default I’m an activist … I’ll be the modern-day prophetess, standing in drag in the town square, pointing out this hypocrisy”.
In another interview Flamy talks about the importance of representation, “I’m here in my church or holding on to my faith or trying to reconcile these things because I know if I leave, I’m gonna leave a void and a vacuum and it’s just gonna be filled with more shame, more hate. It’s just gonna make it harder for the next queer kid coming up in my church”.
I will close out this week’s mix tape with a tribute to someone very special who was an icon of queer Christian representation beginning in the 1990’s.
The Del Shores play Sordid Lives (1996) is a dark comedy about a dysfunctional Texas family dealing with the death of their matriarch; later made into a film (2000), the play explores themes of love, family secrets, and acceptance through eccentric characters and over-the-top situations.
Leslie Jordan played the role of Brother Boy, a flamboyant, cross-dressing gay man who has been institutionalized for 23 years by his conservative Southern family in an attempt to “de-homosexualise” him. Though Jordan played other characters during his career, his hilarious and heartfelt performance as Brother Boy holds a special place in the hearts of those who grew up in the church.
Closing out this week’s tape, from 2024’s album Church, please enjoy Flamy Grant’s touching tribute, “Leslie” on KMTJ-DB – Denver, Colorado.
I’m DJ Ponyboy and I’m not crying – you’re crying!
“Can you see my pussy now?!”
Thank you so much for joining me today and every week for music, laughter, love, and tears.
You have been listening to KMTJ-DB – Your Mix Tape Journey – Denver, Colorado.
I’m your host, DJ Ponyboy, reminding you to stay gold.