Meet the independent sapphic artists redefining queer music.
Sapphic music is known for its stripped-back, melancholic sound. These two independent artists are shaking up the genre.
collage by Jina Jeon.
2024 has been a massive year for sapphic music. With Chappell Roan to Reneé Rapp rising to pop stardom, queer music has become increasingly prominent. Remarkably, the aforementioned artists contradict previous notions of sapphic music, which has consistently been a sad, indie or bedroom pop aesthetic. Roan and Rapp boast upbeat, campy hits, including “HOT TO GO” by Roan and “Not My Fault” by Rapp featuring Megan Thee Stallion, adding energy and optimism to the music landscape.
While these artists completely deserve the praise and success they have received, there are also independent, underground sapphic musicians who deserve credit for broadening the scene. Enter cr1tter and Déyyess. These musicians contribute to the queer music scene by introducing sounds that are not typically associated with the subgenre like blunt lyrics and experimental production. Though these two artists’ styles contradict each other in more ways than they intersect, but they both offer a breath of fresh air to the sapphic music community.
Independent singer cr1tter is an up-and-coming artist who has exhibited a hyperpop-adjacent, SoundCloud rap-inspired sound since 2023. Her music draws comparisons to mid-2010s rappers such as 6 Dogs and Lil Peep, sharing the same atmospheric, mulled synths and ruminating beat. Her music is a fusion of genres, bridging glitchcore, hip-hop, and electronic pop elements into a cohesive discography.
One of the biggest standouts in cr1tter’s music is her lyricism. The majority of her songs are about drugs, sex, and money. She combines bold, ironic lyrics (“Your girlfriend said she liked me 'cause I'm tatted/And I'm funnier than you any day bitch” in “solo mission”) with heartfelt messages (“Pretty face angel, you're too good for me/Lost my halo, she's lookin' for the good in me” in “pls don’t forget me”), sweeping all corners of her experience. In this way, cr1tter breaks the boundaries that mainstream sapphic music has set up, disregarding the stereotype of lesbian relationships as “soft” or “wholesome” and showing it for what it can also be: messy and multi-dimensional. She co-opts these traditionally masculine themes in an ironic way. In conjunction with her electronic-rap sound, she is outstandingly unique within the sapphic music scene.
Cr1tter’s music is also extremely versatile, dancing on the borders between genres. Her hyperpop tracks such as “babydoll” and “mOXy” are a stark contrast to ruminating tracks like “angels” and “500 degrees,” and she seamlessly combines melodic rapping with clever vocal chops to fuse elements of glitchcore and emo rap. My favorite song off cr1tter’s latest mixtape, “fall out,” is about losing a romantic partner and reckoning with rapid changes in life. The clever vocal rhythms, which were processed to replicate the typical cloud rap sound, initially drew me into the song. Production-wise, synth pads mingle with a high-pitched, glitchcore twinkle, while a light trap beat supports cr1tter’s melodic flow. The bass synth is nostalgic, humming like a faint conversation in a neighboring room, while the 808 provides a punch that drives the song forward. Alternatively “r u down like that?” is a hard-hitting hyperpop song drenched in autotune, glitching synths, and percussion crashes. This track is exceptionally fast-paced and upbeat, swelling with excessive vocal layers, slick synths, and hyper-processed electronic drums. Her most streamed track “Shaun White” has a stripped-back, liminal production style with a slight beeping synth, a heart-pounding bass, and scanty, sharp beats that turn the track into a fusion of genres. Her music style is undeniably unique and underrepresented within the sapphic music scene.
On the other side of the spectrum is singer-songwriter Déyyess, who, with only five tracks to her name, already boasts an ethereal, shoegaze-inspired atmosphere. Her music differentiates itself with intimate lyrics and intricate ethereal production.
Déyyess’s most popular song “Claire” features a gorgeous instrumental section following the first verse, complete with explosive, layered synths, guitars, and a keyboard that glides over them, eliciting the feeling of spinning in space among the stars. The production of the track swells from verse to verse, sparkling with lazy keyboards brought to life by a crunchy drum kit and Déyyess’s breathy, ethereal vocals. Lyrically, “Claire” is about yearning for a girl who may never love you the same way. Déyyess does not shy away from sensual undertones and maintains a wistful desire. “Claire” borrows shoegaze influences and weds them with dreamy bedroom pop. The combination is a supernova of passion and a scalding desire that makes the listener reminisce over the Claire in their life.
Much like “Claire,” Déyyess’s most streamed track “Bored Again” is a grungy picture of desire within a faltering relationship. It is delightfully ethereal and unabashedly pining. Reminiscent of the grungy sound of Sonic Youth and Superhaven, this song is composed of brooding, atmospheric guitars and thin, reverberating vocals that resonate as if playing from somewhere far away. It’s charged with the enchanting lull of a siren that sings not from the seas but from a rooftop overlooking a sleepy city or from the back of a pickup truck under a sprawling smattering of stars. “Bored Again” harkens back to the grimy and sensual music style of the late 80s with a sleepy sound that comes to life in the dark. Like “Claire,” the lyrics to “Bored Again” demonstrate Déyyess’s knack for combining sensual, pining lyrics with dreamy, almost surreal production. Her music is an earnest profession of unabashed desire and admiration from afar.
In a music landscape where sapphic artists are trapped into uniform, melancholic narratives, cr1tter and Déyyess are redefining queer music. Their creativity, whether through cr1tter’s hyperpop/rap fusion or Déyyess’s ethereal ballads, adds new dimensions to the sapphic experience. These artists are reminders that queer music does not have to follow a singular sound or story; it can be as diverse as the community itself. By emphasizing and celebrating music like theirs, we can expand the definition of sapphic music and explore the potential it has to connect with queer people.
edited by Greta Irvine.
collage by Jina Jeon.
album artwork believed to belong to either the publisher of the work or the artist.
