Drag Race star Kori King is So.Gay’s newest The Hottest Ever digital cover star — check out the full photo spread and interview below.
The queen of all queens RuPaul gave us the mantra “Losing is the new winning,” and one of her newest adopted daughters is proving that her words hold some serious weight. Kori King, who came in ninth place on the 17th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, has only continued to soar after exiting the Werk Room. From becoming an instant Cameo success story to gearing up for an Australian tour with her season-mate and partner-in-drag Lydia B. Kollins, she’s driving home Mama Ru’s words like they’re prophetic.
Arguably considered the narrator of her Drag Race season, Kori is grabbing the rhinestoned bull by the horns, turning what many may call 15 minutes of fame into a well-earned lifetime of opportunity. With her lighthearted-but-witty business acumen and infectious social media banter, this Boston queen is proving what many queens before her have said: the real work begins after Ru delivers those cryptic orders, “Sashay away.” So, if you’re looking for a masterclass in brand identity, innate showmanship and quick-witted clapbacks, there are fewer queens who can give you the rundown better than Kori King.
For So.Gay’s The Hottest Ever, Kori dished on who’s sitting pretty on her drag queen Mount Rushmore, her unique All Stars strategy should she be asked to return to the show, how her corporate background is her drag queen superpower, her advice to younger queens thinking about entering the coveted Drag Race sisterhood and more.
Read our conversation with the “Shake That Ice” performer below.
So.Gay: Hi, Kori! Fresh out the gate, you became a fan favorite on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 and was arguably the narrator of the season. Did you know, coming in, that you would become an instant viral sensation and meme queen?
Kori King: Yes, yes, yes I did! I’m not even going to lie. I just know how funny I am and my work ethic is insane, so I knew 100% that this was going to happen, for sure.
So.Gay: Who or what are your top drag influences? What inspires your drag aesthetic?
Kori: Mother Monét X Change is the one for me. That’s the drag inspo, for sure. Also, I love Trixie [Mattel’s] work ethic and the way she carries herself and makes a brand, so that’s another big one for me. Aesthetic-wise, I’d have to say that [I’m a] mix of Barbie, RuPaul, Nicki Minaj and a splash of Mariah Carey. That encompasses Kori King.
So.Gay: After seeing you lip-sync throughout your season, fans have crowned you the newest lip-sync assassin. What’s your go-to lipsync song and who would be one of your most coveted opponents from the franchise?
Kori: I’ve gotta say Suzie [Toot] because she beat me [laughs]. Technically, it’d be Suzie, but for go-to lip-sync songs, oh my gosh, that’s such a good one! Well, there’s some that I’ve done so many times. Shania Twain is going to be the easy go-to, or Kelly Clarkson. But I’d probably have to say [as far as go-to songs], anything Nicki Minaj would be some of my fave to perform. [Specifically], “Va Va Voom” is the one.
So.Gay: After your elimination, your starpower only continued to rise, and you’ve been dominating on social media ever since. You became the queen of Cameo and a viral sensation in no time. Was this plan intentional and was there a strategy in continuing to top the Cameo ranks week after week?
Kori: At first, I was just obsessed with the app. You know how old, middle-aged people play Candy Crush all day? That was my Candy Crush. So, then I was like, “OK, how am I going to top myself? How am I going to make this better?” So I was like, “Let me lower the price,” at first, because I wanted more Cameos than anyone else. I wanted to close the ranks, and then I was slowly doing characters, just regularly, [and] not even thinking about Cameo. So, for [Drag Race] press week, I was The Grinch, so I was like, “Well, I guess I’ll do Cameos as The Grinch.” And it slowly just built into this crazy thing, so I had no idea it was going to blow up into the crazy thing that it is now.
So.Gay: Several veteran drag queens like Monét X Change and Raja Gemini have praised you for your ability to use social media as the ultimate brand-building tool. What’s your secret to staying on the tip of everyone’s tongue?
Kori: For me, I would consider myself a businessman before I started drag. I was a pharmacy manager. I was running a business at a corporate level, so I knew how to do business very well. So, when I started doing drag, I just applied everything I knew about business into drag. So the business side and the numbers are what I do best, so that’s probably what allowed me to do very [well] social media-wise.
So.Gay: You’re a part of a new era of Gen Z queens that has some of the toughest skin we’ve seen since the show first premiered. What advice would you give to even younger queens coming behind you who want to make a name for themselves outside of the Drag Race bubble?
Kori: The biggest thing is that you have to have fun, but treat it like a job and take it very seriously. Also, you can’t read the comments. The comments honestly mean nothing, and if you’re getting no hate comments, that means that no one’s talking about you, which is a bad thing. If you’re getting only good comments, that means only your little bubble is seeing you. If you’re getting bad [ones], that means you’re spreading to a wider range of people.
So.Gay: Speaking of Drag Race, if you got the call, would you consider All Stars?
Kori: Oh, absolutely! In a heartbeat — yes! It was like a vacation to me. Drag Race was [a] vacation. Of course I’ll go on vacation again.
So.Gay: If you were to compete in an All Stars season, what would you do differently than your first time around?
Kori: I would bring better drag [laughs]. I would have to step up the sickening level of drag for sure. So, I would bring a much better wardrobe.
So.Gay: Would there be any strategy at play and if there’s another bracket or pair theme, who would you want to team up with?
Kori: At first, I’d said I’d want someone I’m friends with, but no. I’d want [to pair] with someone who can do something that I can’t do so that we can half-and-half the points. I’d want someone that can sew. Or I’d want someone that would just keep on flopping, because if she keeps flopping, she can just keep giving me points, and I can go to the top. So, I want Joella! Where’s Joella at? Give me Joella! [laughs]
So.Gay: Who’s on your drag queen Mount Rushmore?
Kori: It’s Bob [The Drag Queen], Monét [X Change] and probably Trixie [Mattel] and Alaska. That’s my drag Mount Rushmore.
So.Gay: So, we hear you’re going on the ButtTootKing tour with Lydia B. Kollins and Suzie Toot later this year. Can you tell us a bit more about how that came to be and what we can expect?
Kori: It’s going to be a lot! It’s going to be kind of crazy because all of our styles are so different from each other, and it’ll be so interesting to see our styles that are from different eras and lands of drag come together. It’s going to be very sickening.
So.Gay: It’s Pride Month, and many would consider drag queens to be one of the pillars of LGBTQ+ Pride. So what does Pride mean to you as a Black Drag Queen today?
Kori: For me, Pride is art. It’s passion, it’s about having fun and just being yourself.
So.Gay: Before you go, is there anything you have coming up that we need to know about?
Kori: I have some amazing things coming up other than our tour. Me and Lydia [B. Collins] are also doing a tour in Australia which is going to be very fun and very sickening. It’s [called] the “Kiss Me Deadly Tour” and we’ll be doing a lot of duet numbers and a lot of awesome, cool stuff that we can’t spoil just yet, but it’s going to be very, very good. It’s in September. [Also, be on the lookout for] the many, many different characters on my YouTube channel.
So.Gay: It’s been such a pleasure chatting with you, Kori!
Kori: You too! Thank you so much.
Check out every single photo from Kori King’s So.Gay Digital cover below!
