Eliza Rose honours Hackney's queer nightlife scene in new music video

Eliza Rose pays tribute to Hackney's queer nightlife scene in the new music video for her track 'B.O.T.A (Baddest Of Them All)'.

Collaborating with queer art collective Faboo TV, Eliza is shining a light on the bustling community that exists in East London, one which is defying modernisation and gentrification.

'B.O.T.A.' is a bouncy yet suave, 4x4 track with witty lyricism matched with seductive vocals and lyrics that linger with you. It came out yesterday (June 15) on the same day as the music video.

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The video mixes sexuality, gender, pleasure, fantasy, oddity and comedy, as well as a subconscious and daring homage to a renowned Lewis Caroll novel.

Filmed on the streets of Hackney, the video takes viewers into some renowned venues including Dalston Superstore and The Karaoke Hole.

Eliza Rose is the main character in this all-star video cast, who is led underground into an alternative world by performer and dancer Novaya Shey to meet drag icon Ms Sharon Le Grand, Vogue Ball founder Taboo, speaker, model and dancer Sakeema Peng Crook, Drag & Movement artist Wet Mess.

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The video was made with Eliza's long-standing friend and co-founder of Faboo TV, Jeanie Crystal - the two have seen various stages of gentrification try to take over Hackney throughout their years of being involved in the scene.

Speaking about Hackney, Eliza Rose says: "This community in Hackney means so much to me, and collaboration is what’s given me purpose, community, joy, and so much art. It’s hard for working class Black women and marginalised people to break through, so we have to support each other's art, and lift each other up, or it becomes impossible.

"Showing these worlds on screen is also integral to the development of open mind sets, and showing young people that there are different ways of living out here!”

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Adding to this, Jeanie Crystal says: "The scene of Eliza going down into the basement summarises what Hackney’s all about. It is a rabbit hole! You discover a new basement club and get dragged down it, and it opens up a new world and community to you and you never look back.

"As soon as I came to Hackney I met Eliza, I met all these amazing performance artists, and now there’s no way I can get out of it, and there’s no way I wanna get out of it! It gives joy, it gives identity, and for me personally, it gives me so much of my art.

"I don’t really exist without Eliza or any of the other people in this video. We’ve centred it in a Queer world as a homage to this side of Hackney’s nightlife, and it was really important to be an authentic and accurate representation and a real lived experience by all involved.”

You can check out the vibrant, surrealist video below.

Aneesa Ahmed is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter