If you've been looking for a gay rap artist to quench your thirst both musically and artistically, then FD Bordeaux should definitely be in your playlist! Alexander Harris, known professionally as FD Bordeaux: (bor · doe), is a 22-year-old rapper from Philadelphia who recently dropped his first EP titled, "Black Americana Manifesto".
FD is taking the world by storm with his catchy and out of this world lyrics, letting everyone know what's on his mind and how he feels, all while being unapologetically black and gay.
His latest music video includes a combination of songs, "Gun Smoke", "Summer Rain" and "Julian", ingeniously showcasing young, black gay men in tighty whities and pink durags. The symbolism and imagery displayed throughout the video creates a thought provoking experience for the audience. An experience so profound that we know it'll definitely rustle the feathers of all the homophobes.
FD exclusively shares with us his thought process behind his visually artistic masterpiece. But before you dive into his brain, check out the video below.
How long have you been making music?
"I've been making music for longer than I could recount, but I started taking my music seriously only two years ago. When I was 14, I used to do music, but it wasn't mine it was other peoples, it was covers. I would do singing, and I just happened upon some great opportunities."
How did you come up with your name?
"When I was in high school my sister had this alter ego named Madam Bordeaux, and she used to walk around with with these hats and gloves, and you know she use to do it up and ever since then I use to love the word Bordeaux and the fact that it was a type of wine. FD I also made that in high school and it stood for fashion demon because I was heavy into fashion, and I was like I'm going to be a fashion icon, a fashion mogul. I'm going to change the game and it became FD Bordeaux, and I just stuck with it.
Explain the concept behind your video?
"The real concept behind the video was the birth of a new king, there are kings of all different sorts and there are gods of all different sorts that represent all different types of people. One thing gay black men don't have is a king or a god. It was more about sacrifice, about offering, about self investigation and coming together and building something. I feel like a lot of us are like loose change."
Why did you name your album "Black Americana Manifesto"?
"I think that quite often Manifesto describes something hidden or truthful or seeker or significant because that is what lays in the word manifesto, and I think one thing about black America is that gay people and queer people are the hidden glory of the culture, [which] we continue to make money off of, and by we I mean America. I think black America [has] all these things that we created and developed but somehow they are ashamed of being surrounded by our existence. So I really named it Black Americana Manifesto because it's the truth. We the ones who made this shit! Us along with other queer people of course, it wasn't all gay black men. We have trans people and people of all sorts. The shame surrounding our community is ridiculous for the amount of culture we contribute to pop and mainstream media and black culture as a whole. One year 'throwing shade' is drag lingo and the next year you got rappers talking about throwing shade, it's so many examples of that."
How did you overcome not being comfortable with your sexuality?
"I really embraced my sexuality when I came to college because that's when I was certain about it, explored a little bit when I was in high school, but when I came to college on the first day my roommate was sucking my dick that day, and I was like alright. That's when I wanted to know more about myself and know what gay blackness is, and I just couldn't find it, and I felt like okay I need to do this.
In your video you seem to embrace your sexuality unapologetically, was it always so easy for you to be open about your sexuality in your music?
"Oh my God no, no! When I first started making music with my producer here I definitely, out of no where, just summoned the power to start speaking about that, and I loved how I [was] perceived for speaking out about [the] gay homosexuality experience. It wasn't easy at first, at first I was really scared, and when I did have a couple of venues to perform at I was told I couldn't sing those things. I had to change my set around twice, and I had to change the he pronouns to she. That's why you don't see me performing all over the place because the one time I did get the chance to perform I didn't feel too bad [because] it was at Out Fest in Philadelphia, but then I felt like there was weird racial shade going on there because the people who organized that platform they are a panel of white people, and they were giving me, I felt unfair treatment during that."
What are some obstacles you face as an artist, and do you think any of those obstacles have to do anything with your sexuality?
"I think most of the obstacles I face have to do with my sexuality, there is no space for me. Where I am right now, I'm in Philadelphia, and I'm just looking for spaces to perform, spaces to get my work out there, and for some reason gayness and queerness is age restricted now. I am inappropriate for a family setting because I'm a gay black man rapping about gay black men or speaking directly to gay black men because that's what I love. It immediately makes it inappropriate and that's an issue for me, and when you talk about things like pride and things like that, I also don't fit the molds that the gays are used to. You know you usually have your high fems doing it like Saucy Santana, and I'm very happy that it's something that's making its way. Popping pussy isn't the only art form we have to offer. I think that's what people expect me to be, and when I'm not the all exaggerated type of being black and gay, it's kind of like disappointing to some."
How did the LGBT community react to your video? Was it what you expected?
"I didn't know what to expect because I think my video definitely had some things that we are all at the end of the day not use to. Definitely the scene in the tub with the shaking of the ass and the flowers, and of course you have your mean gays that say certain things, someone said them flowers dead and that water look gray, but the majority of people they loved it, and I think everyone was really taken back because the song that I came out with at first was "Something in Mind" and it was super happy and joyful. I just wanted to take a hiatus from that and really dive into the guts of what the mental health was like, what the spirit is like as a developing gay black man. It's just really hard, and I think it just connected with people and everybody loved it. I'm hoping they will like my next project coming really soon."
In your song "Gun Smoke", what did you mean by "little black boys spinning around"?
"One of the things that my mom really got upset about when I was a kid was the fact that I was a boy and I would love to twirl. I think the image of little black boys spinning around is really something that is contentious for a black parent. It immediately makes parents alert about any type of issue, whether or not their kid is going to be the strange kid or bullied. Little black boys are also spinning around because there are so many different people giving them directions on who and what to be, which person should we be, the person the white people are telling them to be or the person the black people are telling them to be. The person all the homophobic people are telling them to be, it's just really hard."
In your music video what does the pink durags and pearls symbolize?
"Everything in the music video symbolizes something. Men can be fem. There is a toxic thing in the gay community that's like no fems so that's where the pearls came in. I love fem men. I'm not saying I'm not attracted to masculine men, but I prefer feminine men. It's something magical about the position of a man and the way that his hips move and how delicate he is and how vulnerable he is. It's just what I love and it's a love that doesn't get any type of play. I like me some fem bottoms and people need to give them more love and everybody wants a masc this, a masc that. I want people to know it's respected that [that's] someone I'm looking to spend the rest of my life with, so that is what the pearls are for and the durags.
At the end of "Summer Rain" you said, "I don't care if you're positive". Explain what made you include that at the end of the song?
"This song is about an experience I had with someone where we were having a romance, and we had been having sex, and we had been having unprotected sex and it was [an] ongoing thing for awhile, and then one day he just dropped that bomb on me that he was positive, and I felt like with the amount of times I asked him at the beginning of the situation he could have just told me. The whole song is about the fact that he could have told me, and I wouldn't have cared.
One of the songs on your album is named "Creamsicle". For those who might not know could you explain what it means?
"When I was writing "Creamsicle" it was kind of one of those things I was there and my producer played the track, and I was like, "oh shit, it's fire," and i just started singing, and I really didn't know what I was singing about so I just started saying you ain't never seen a nigga like this, but I really think that Creamsicle is not really anything in a song as much as I want it to be something sexy.
What would you like for people to take from your music?
"I want them to be okay with gay black men and it was a reason in my bio I have 'Therapy for Contentious Fruit'. I really think the word contentious is [an] important word to describe us because it feels [like that] no matter where we're placed and proof of that is in recent posts of the image "Black Americana Manifesto", that's been on like Ten Magazine, We the Urban and other Instagram's. If you look in the comments you just see horrible things, people are like we're blaming black women for creating this and this. I want the video to be therapy for little boys and adolescence and gay men of color for very time their mom or father or whoever is telling them not to be themselves. They can retreat into this universe where it is okay for that."
Who and what inspires you?
"I love Moses Sumney. I love him, of course I love Solange, Beyoncé . When I was an adolescent it was St. Vincent. I was heavy into Azalea Banks as a teenage. I was [also] really into Linkin Park, and as I got older it was people like Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator, I was big on that.
What can we be looking forward to in the near future from you?
"I have a new single I'm going to be dropping and it's going to be done by March and its going to have visuals and it's called "So Free", that's one thing that's coming. I'm not going to spill too much about my new EP, but I'm working on that as well, but your boy is independent so y'all have to give me some time."
Where do you see yourself in five years with your music career?Are you looking to get signed or are you going to remain independent?
"I would love to be signed. I am not the independent type of artist, I am not the type of artist to be handling my own finances and doing all this shit by myself. I don't want to deal with this anymore, it is very hard you know working my nine to five and then somehow figuring out what I'm going to do for Alexander, and what I'm going to do for FD Bordeaux,. I don't want to have to deal with this, I just want to make my money and make my art and make a living off my art, it's not about being rich, I just want to help the community and be a great representation of gay blackness. In my opinion, I'm tired of white people referencing toxic representation of gay black life and gay black culture. I want them to know gay black love is beautiful, gay black sex is beautiful."
If you would like to hear more from this up and coming rising star, you can follow him on Instagram: @FdBordeaux. Be sure to check out and stream his EP "Black Americana Manifesto", available now on all platforms.
Check out another one of FD's music videos below: "Something in Mind".