How Bob the Drag Queen weaves hip hop and history in his new book

RuPaul does this thing whenever she shows something

at the camera shows does this. And on my season of Drag Race

she was wearing these acrylic nails. Because she normally would like be pressing them, but she was wearing acrylics the whole time

And I just remember her always going... And we're going to talk about all that today

and Bob's new book. The single out now, it's on Mashable's website

for Harriet Tubman Live in Concert. I'm curious how the concept for this came up

I love historical fiction. It's this idea of like, You take an event or a person that actually happened and you just make up stuff

Like Titanic is historical fiction. Rose was not on the Titanic. Not that I know of anyway. But they made up this woman, put her on the Titanic, and then did the story

So I was reading a historical fiction piece called The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

My partner's mom recommended it, actually. She was like, it's a good book. And it was, I could not book the book

That it was so good. It's about John Brown, who makes a brief mention in my book

this insane abolitionist, and how he kidnapped this little boy. But John Brown thought he was a girl

This little boy has to live as a girl for years, even through his puberty

And he's kind of nervous. It's so absurd. I love this absurd notion put onto an actual real-life event

So then I was like, I've always had an obsession with Harriet Tubman. I think she's just my favorite person who I think has ever roamed the Earth

Her story is just so remarkable. The more you hear about her story, the more you're like, this can't be real

Like you literally like there no way this happened But then there so many historians who are corroborating these stories And they just like no this happened It real Like it These things really really did happen She is that phenomenal And I blame the two things I love I love hip hop and I love Harriet Tubman

So I was like, I remember thinking and Harriet Tubman actually did use music in her work. So it wouldn't be too far fetched to imagine if Harriet Tubman were working today

She was like, you know, as an abolitionist today, she would not be using music in her work

And what better way to reach people than one of the most popular music forms to ever come out of America, which is hip hop and rap

100%. Yeah. I listened to the audio book, which I found really engaging

One, because you do the performance. Yes, yes. And you have, I mean, like, you know, obviously you have a great voice

Like we've established. Oh, thank you. Yeah. I bubble a little bit. I listen to a lot of audio books and I get very annoyed where certain people speak in a specific cadence no matter what is happening in the story

And it honestly makes it very hard for me to like as a reader engage. You don't do that

Well, I'm an actor. I didn't go see it for acting. I didn't graduate, but I went. I'm really proud of it. It took me four years to write this book, which is kind of crazy

From the time I got the offer to the time I said the final words on the audiobook, it had been a five-year process

I mean, honestly, I think that makes sense because I feel like, one, there's certainly, it's clear there's a lot of research into Harriet Tubman and what else was going on with the abolitionists at the time

But then on top of that, I'm curious what the challenge is, because I will be honest, I watch more biopics than I read historical fiction or biographies, though I do enjoy both

And autobiographies and memoir, I love it. But within a biography when you telling someone else story a lot of filmmakers tend to be so respectful that it kind of suffocating What I appreciate about the book is it reveres Harriet but it doesn make a clown of her or something

But it also tells us parts of her story that were certainly not things I was taught in school that kind of complicates our portrait of her in a way I think makes her more human

It makes it more like, if she can accomplish this, why can't you be taking on bigger challenges

Oh, yeah. If Harriet Tubman can take 13 trips from Maryland to Philadelphia, well, about six to Maryland and then about six to Philadelphia and about six more to Canada

If she can lead a military raid, if she can found a home for formerly enslaved people, if she can become a cook, a seamstress, a community builder, all of that while being disabled

a black woman in the, not the segregated South, but in American Channel slavery South

4 foot 11, then I think you can probably get up and make it to work

on time today. Right. Another thing I thought was so interesting is that because

Darnell's perspective is coming in about talking about the music industry and there's a part where he talks about how it's

surreal to him that Harriet Tubman likes his music. I was curious how much of your

own experiences in entertainment in making music like fed into creating Darnell So I started making music I started writing music like by myself in my bedroom when I was doing drag in New York City I would write these songs

I think my first song was called Big . That was about me just being a, you know

a big tall lady up in drags. And then when I started releasing music after Drag Race

my friend Mitch Fringwell helped me release this song called Purse First. And I had written quite a few songs after that

And I've always loved like rapping and writing lyrics. And I used to do like

battle rap in high school. in the school courtyard. I had a pretty good reputation for it, too

I've always had a love for lyricism. And then I liked the idea of writing from other perspectives

which is why I wanted to write as Harriet Tubman, like, right from Harriet. And honestly, the truth is, I'm really writing

from my own perspective. Yeah. In, like, a Harriet facade. Like, it's truly, I mean, for all I know

Harriet Tubman would love hip-hop. She might be like, I'm a jazz girlie. She might like Chapel Rome

She might be in a Sabrina Carpenter. I don't know what she would be into. She might be like, I'm more of a Dolly Parton type

I have no clue what she would like. So I have to create the narrative in my own mind

Anything else you want to tell people about your book or your next show? Listen, if you want to get my book, go to readthedragqueen.com

People always ask me, what's the best place to get the book to support you, where you make the most money

I get the question all the time. Honestly, the TikTok shop. If you go to my TikTok, click the first couple of videos

You can click the, buy it right there on the TikTok shop. And if you get the audio book, there are two original songs in the audio book

Two original songs included in the audio book. And yes, I am reading the book myself

So you can go to readthedragqueen.com and you can get a copy of my book. I love that