Deep Dickollective

Deep Dickollective (aka D/DC) started as a kind of joke or, perhaps more accurately, a drag queen of a concept. Fed up with the limits placed on their performance opportunities because of their sexuality, Juba Kalamka, Tim'm T. West, and Phillip Atiba Goff -- all Oakland-based MCs and spoken word artists -- formed the self-described "homiehop" collective in early 2000. D/DC was meant to parody the various communities (spoken word, hipsters, hip-hop) that either shut them out or tripped over each other to lay claim to the latest "BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomos." Like all good camp, however, the joke was packed with layers of clever social critique: The group's droll, heavily academic (West and Goff met in grad school at Stanford) rhymes exaggerated their sexuality and race, playing with and exacerbating the tensions that came from being what they called "oxymoronicons" -- queer, black hip-hop MCs. The group's output is released on Sugartruck Recordings, which, like D/DC itself, has gone on to become a bastion of the queer hip-hop scene and an inspiration to would-be homohoppers across the nation.