In my Master's Report entitled "Black LGBTQ+ Aesthetics and the Politics of Illegitmated Language:
Ballroom Soundscapes, Mixes and Beyond", I argue the need to establish a politics of language, sound and performance that represents and pays reverence to the sonic labor, the epistemological and ontological fullness of Black LGBTQ+ cultural history. Through a sound study of record samples and surrogated performances in the 21st century, I choose to annotate Black LGBTQ+ expressive cultural moments that have been perpetuated in sampling and mixing, emphasizing the queer form of remixing, the sonic culture and systems that have developed and sustained around these vocalized and performative practices like ballroom. The penultimate song on Beyoncé’s Renaissance album: “PURE/HONEY,” is a mainstream cultural product deriving from a robust Black LGBTQ+ epistemology and literacy in performance, soundscaping practices, and sonic maintenance of an intellectual and creative history. I will compare the sonic content of the samples from "PURE/HONEY", in effort to create understanding around Black queer and trans expressive cultures that can be perpetuated, diluted or completely lost by sampling and subsequent appropriations by mainstream society. Ultimately, these annotations open up the questioning, if the sampling and remixing of Black LGBTQ+ voices can repatriate and offer reverence to the community and its individuals or if it only serves to further encourage appropriation, abstraction, and dispossession by mainstream society.