Moi Renée

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. Renée released the 1992 dance single "Miss Honey", one of the earliest "bitch tracks", a subgenre of house music. "Miss Honey" was later sampled by Beyoncé in her 2022 song "Pure/Honey".

Early life

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

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

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

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."

Renée appeared on the cover of a 1993 Village Voice issue; the accompanying...

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