LISTEN: Before becoming the cultural juggernaut he is today, RuPaul was a total ‘Sex Freak’

Before RuPaul’s Drag Race, before his multiple Emmy nominations and wins, and before becoming the cultural juggernaut he is today, RuPaul Andre Charles was a “sex freak” scraping together a living in New York City with a dream of music superstardom.

One of his earliest recorded tracks, “Sex Freak,” off his 1985 LP of the same name and released through FunTone USA, served to establish him as a musical and sexually androgynous oddity.

The music video for the spoken-word techno song had no band and no budget, just RuPaul’s raw charisma, a killer outfit, and some flashy lighting effects. Yet little did audiences know that they were indeed watching someone who would change the culture of entertainment forever.

The lyrics for the song are hilariously trite and go something like this: “On the street people stare at me/And I give them what they wanna see/I serve it up nice and hot, Ouh Girl! You are a star.” And in other places like this: “Free the law, dance insane/Free the flow and work that thang!”

“Boom shang-a-lang, work that thang!”

Frankly, it’s exactly the kind of song you might hear from a Drag Race musical challenge, but that didn’t stop RuPaul from using his contagiously freaky personality to sell it. He got the opportunity to perform the single live on Atlanta’s cable access program, American Music Show, in 1986.

The performance sees Ru mime being in a canoe before dancing with an oar, a penguin, shaking a fishing pole, and then putting a gun in his mouth—all while he moans and speaks bits of lyrics while a backing track does the rest. Needless to say, the performance was freaky. But it was clear there was something there. 

In a revealing interview with ​​TV host Spencer Thornton on the show “Tracking” for Atlanta TV, sometime in the mid-1980s, Ru talked about his new album with great enthusiasm and takes questions from the host and callers about his style and persona like a professional.

A bright moment comes when Thorton asks the then 24-year-old where he sees himself in 10 years. 

“Hopefully I will be producing other people. I would have made billions of dollars selling records like my brand new record ‘Sex Freak,’” he said with no bit of sarcasm in his voice.

He also explained that he is in Georgia because he is in rehearsals for the “Rocky Horror Show” and delved into his life in New York as a go-go dancer, dancing in jockstraps, and doing whatever it takes to  “let everyone find out about him.” 

After some laughing and joking around, another poignant moment comes when a caller who describes herself as a ’60s hippie asks if the freedom of sexual expression that she fought for, and that Ru now enjoys, is in good hands with the new generation. 

“I feel it’s in good hands,” began Ru, “I really am, all joking aside, I am totally positive. I am totally for being good and wonderful. I feel like a hippie of the ’80s, in fact. I think it’s in good hands. I’m going to show these kids how to have some fun and not take life too seriously.” 

If Drag Race has taught the world anything, it’s to not take life too seriously. Experience RuPaul’s “Sex Freak” below.   

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