Moi Renée

Moi Renée
Performer with bright green sculpted wig singing into microphone onstage flanked by two backup dancers against purple curtain backdrop
Moi Renée performing "Miss Honey"
Background information
Born
Jamaica
OriginNew York City, U.S.
Died1997 (1998)
GenresHouse music
Occupations
  • Singer
  • performer
Years activeEarly 1990s–1997
Labels
  • Project X Records
  • Slip 'n' Slide Records

Moi Renée (died 1997) was a Jamaican-born singer and performer active in New York City's underground queer nightlife scene in the early 1990s.[1][2] Renée released the 1992 dance single "Miss Honey", one of the earliest "bitch tracks", a subgenre of house music.[2][3] "Miss Honey" was later sampled by Beyoncé in her 2022 song "Pure/Honey".[4]

Early life

Renée was born in Jamaica.[1] As a child, he[a] was known as Sam.[6] He faced anti-gay harassment from a young age.[1]

In 1971, Renée and his family emigrated to the US, settling in Philadelphia, where he was known as Peanut.[1][6] In junior high school, he was physically and sexually assaulted.[1] His first crush, a classmate named Keith, was shot and killed by a relative.[1]

He moved to New York City in 1979,[1] where he became known as Renée.[6] His jobs included window designer at B. Dalton.[1] By the early 1990s, he was studying at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.[2][6]

Career

Renée was openly gay and visible in Flatbush, Brooklyn, a predominantly West Indian neighborhood: "If I feel like walking with a switch or behaving openly effeminate I do it... I feel proud to go out and be myself."[1]

Renée appeared on the cover of a 1993 Village Voice issue; the accompanying story described him as a "singer, songwriter, dancer, actor, and comedian."[1] He became a regular performer on New York City's queer club circuit, appearing at venues including Better Days, Midtown 43, One Hot Spot, and Tracks.[2][6] Renée was the "reigning diva" of The Shelter, known for his camp late-night sets.[7][2]

His personal style blended designer labels like Calvin Klein and Emilio Pucci, colorful barrettes, and Rasta colors with do-it-yourself creations like outfits made from caution tape.[1][8] Renée performed in wigs and women's clothing, but rejected the drag queen label that later sources would apply to him: "I am not a drag queen."[1]

"Miss Honey"

In 1992, Renée released "Miss Honey", a spoken-word dance track produced by Franklin Fuentes. The 12-inch single was released on Project X Records in the United States, followed by a UK pressing on Slip 'n' Slide Records in 1993.[2][9] The track was widely played at gay clubs, tea dances, and balls.[2]

The single has been described as one of the earliest "bitch tracks", a subgenre of house music built on boastful, confrontational vocals, often used for solo showcasing and voguing at balls.[2][3][6] In February 1993, Billboard reviewed "Miss Honey" among a group of tracks with "a finger-snappin' female impersonator with talent for nasty 'bitch-talk'" which also included "Supermodel (You Better Work)" by RuPaul and "Get Her" by The Ride Committee Featuring Roxy.[10]

Renée appeared on Stonewall Place After Dark, a late-night talk show on the Gay Cable Network, where he was interviewed and performed the song.[2][5][6][11] He wore white lipstick, a towering green wig, and a black bodysuit by Douglas Says; two uninterested backup dancers flanked him onstage.[5][6][12][13] Writing in 2008, Village Voice columnist Michael Musto called the clip "a tiny piece of gay history" and described the track as having become "a cult classic."[13]

Death

In 1997, Moi Renée was found dead in a hotel room.[2][6] Authorities ruled the death a suicide, though some who knew him disputed that finding.[2][6]

Legacy

In 2003, house producers the Ride Committee released "Curtains for You (A Tribute to Moi Renée)" on Wave Music.[14]

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, "Miss Honey" was remixed and sampled by DJs, including Eats Everything, whose 2020 "Honey" used Renée's vocals.[2][15]

In 2022, Beyoncé sampled "Miss Honey" in "Pure/Honey" on her album Renaissance and credited Renée as a songwriter.[6] The Fader wrote that the sample "[ties] it all together at the end".[16] Beyoncé paid tribute to Renée's performance of "Miss Honey" in a montage of different looks from a visual teaser for the album.[17]

Renée is the subject of several collage works by mixed-media artist Beau McCall, which were exhibited at the Wallach Art Gallery and the Stonewall National Museum and Archives.[18][19][20]

Miss Honey: The Catsuit (2024), a short documentary directed by Brandon R. Nicholas, traces the creation of the bodysuit Renée wore on Stonewall Place After Dark. It premiered at the aGLIFF Film Festival in Austin, Texas.[5][21] Nicholas is developing a feature-length documentary about Renée.[8][21]

Discography

Singles
YearTitleLabelCat. No.Format
1992"Miss Honey"Project X Records (US),[22]
Slip 'n' Slide Records (UK, 1993)[9]		PX 10016,
Kick 33		12"
Unknown"Cum 4 Me ... Bitch !!!"[23]Joy Luv RecordsJL-800412"

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The 1993 Village Voice profile, the only substantial source from Renée's lifetime, uses he/him pronouns. This article follows that usage. Friends and later commentators use she/her or they/them pronouns.[1][5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Noel, Peter; Marriott, Robert (12 January 1993). "Batty Boys in Babylon: Can Gay West Indians Survive the 'Boom Bye Bye' Posses?". The Village Voice. Vol. 38, no. 2. pp. 29–36. ISSN 0042-6180. Excerpted in Ressler, Paula (2002). Dramatic Changes: Talking About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with High School Students Through Drama. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-0-325-00414-3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Mahale, Jenna (16 April 2021). "Everything You Need to Know About 90s Drag Legend Moi Renee". i-D. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021.
  3. 1 2 Ruff, Rivea (29 July 2022). "The Samples That Shaped Beyoncé's Renaissance". Essence.
  4. ↑ Daw, Stephen (3 August 2022). "Drag Icon Kevin Aviance on the 'Validation of Being Heard' With His Sample on Beyoncé's 'Renaissance'". Billboard. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Miss Honey: The Catsuit (trailer) (short documentary trailer). 2024 – via Vimeo.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hudson, David (30 July 2022). "Who Was Moi Renée, the Late Drag Queen Sampled on Beyoncé's New Album?". Queerty. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
  7. ↑ Jones, Andy (28 August 1992). "Long Night's Journey Into Day". Newsday. pp. 64–65, 91. ISSN 0278-5587. But the real differences, says the club's reigning diva, Moi Renee, 'are like night and day. You come here to be shelterized.' Shelterized? 'To be shelterized is to be complete.'
  8. 1 2 Nicholas, Brandon R. (20 May 2025). "How Miss Honey Helped Me Reconnect with My Trini Family". INTO.
  9. 1 2 "Moi Renée – Miss Honey (UK release)". Discogs. 1993. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
  10. ↑ "Flip Your Wig". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 6. 6 February 1993. p. 26.
  11. ↑ Closs, Larry (1999). "I Want My Gay TV". In Gross, Larry P.; Woods, James D. (eds.). The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 468. ISBN 978-0-231-10446-3.
  12. ↑ Tyson, Taylor (10 February 2016). "Remixers: The Blurring of Gender and the Feminization of Electronic Music". Lambda Literary.
  13. 1 2 Musto, Michael (6 February 2008). "Another Treasure from the YouTube Vaults: 'Miss Honey'!". The Village Voice. ISSN 0042-6180.
  14. ↑ "The Ride Committee Featuring Roxy – Curtains for You (A Tribute to Moi Renée)". Discogs. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
  15. ↑ DJ Brenda Black (17 March 2006). "Will J.Lo Leave Her Man?". HX Magazine. p. 28, Chip Chop Top 10.
  16. ↑ Darville, Jordan (1 August 2022). "Song You Need: Beyoncé Brings Us to Her Ballroom on 'PURE/HONEY'". The Fader. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
  17. ↑ Munzenrieder, Kyle (12 August 2022). "Did Beyoncé Just Tease All Her 'Renaissance' Visual Album Looks?". W Magazine. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
  18. ↑ "Artist Beau McCall—'The Button Man'—Celebrates Pride Month with Nostalgic Collage". Ebony. 2 June 2023.
  19. ↑ Miss Rosen (12 July 2021). "Beau McCall's Beautiful Collages Celebrate the Black LGBTQ Community's Lost". Dazed.
  20. ↑ "Beau McCall". Wallach Art Gallery. Columbia University. 2023.
  21. 1 2 Thompson, Kayla (3 September 2024). "Voices of the Industry: In Conversation with Filmmaker and Creative Brandon Nicholas". GLAAD.
  22. ↑ "Moi Renée – Miss Honey (US release)". Discogs.
  23. ↑ "Moi Rene – Cum 4 Me ... Bitch !!!". Discogs.
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