Originally from the Caribbean, Black Peppa – AKA Akeem Adams – is a Birmingham-based drag performer who has been working on the local scene since 2019. They were the winner of 2019’s Church of Yshee (hosted by Birmingham’s Yshee Black), and they also won EuroDrag England in 2020.
Their drag name comes from a combination of things – celebrating their blackness, a friend obsessed with Peppa Pig and a love of spiced food. They told Midlands Zone back in 2019: “For anyone who knows me, I literally cannot have food without there being some form of chilli or spice. And when thinking of the name with my fellow drag queens, Dixie Pop and Fleur Deschamps, it was a eureka moment when they said ‘Black Pepper’. I wasn’t too fond of it to begin with, as it had the word ‘black’ in there, which is cliché as I’m obviously black, but then it grew on me.
“I then thought that, as there weren’t many queens of colour on the drag scene in Birmingham – apart from Yshee Black, of course – I’d rather stand proud and true to the coloured representation and keep ‘black’ in there. My best friend Luchiano is obsessed with Peppa Pig, and I later decided to change ‘pepper’ to ‘peppa’. So now it’s Black Peppa – and that’s final!”
Those from the local LGBTQ+ scene will know Black Peppa as a model and dancer who can frequently be found performing at the Nightingale Club – to music by the likes of Beyoncé – which is where they first began gogo dancing and hosting, before their foray into drag.
However, those from outside of the West Midlands may know Black Peppa already from several tours across the UK and Europe including Throne Events‘ Tales of the Condemned Tour, curated by Drag Race alumni Cherry Valentine, Drag Fest Ibiza, as well as performances at venues such as London’s iconic Heaven nightclub. What’s more, they also recently starred in Pistols, a docu-drama series about the punk band The Sex Pistols, directed by Danny Boyle and streaming on Disney Plus.
Describing her drag aesthetic in an Instagram post, Black Peppa explained: “My style is very hard to put into one sentence but I can best describe it as fetish punk glamour meets Futurism, with a sophisticated twist of haute couture in there.”
Black Peppa will be joining the cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4 which is due to air on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer on Thursday, September 22. They will be joined by a cast that includes Baby, Cheddar Gorgeous, Copper Topp, Dakota Schiffer, Danny Beard, Jonbers Blonde, Just May, Le Fil, Pixie Polite, Sminty Drop and Starlet.