With a Grammy nomination for his debut album, Destin Conrad reflects on his biggest year yet, the queer artists who shaped him and what’s next for one of music’s brightest rising stars.
Words by Malik Haddington-Ahmed
Photography by Ryder
Cover design by Chyna Sudbury
Destin Conrad is playing at full volume. Just over a year after we last spoke for the cover of Amplify in December 2024, the R&B star has released two albums – LOVE ON DIGITAL and wHIMSY – embarked on a headline tour across the US and UK, and been nominated for his very first Grammy Award. “It’s been unreal,” Conrad tells Gay Times. “I’m still pinching myself.”
Across the sleek, early-2000s-inspired R&B of LOVE ON DIGITAL and the jazz-inflected, live-recorded wHIMSY, the past year has unlocked a new sense of possibility. Conrad’s music is offering fans a world unrestricted by expectation. And even though the two projects are poles apart sonically, together they reveal an artist following his instincts. “I can make a song today and put it out tomorrow if I want to,” Conrad says. As an independent artist, he has the freedom to release music without waiting for permission from boardrooms full of businesspeople. The result is an eclectic catalogue shaped by curiosity, immediacy and a deep love of experimentation and collaboration.
That same unabashed boldness extends to how Conrad occupies space as an openly gay Black man in R&B – a genre that hasn’t always made room for people like him. “I haven't seen anybody like me,” he admits. Still, Conrad’s queerness isn’t something he feels the need to perform or deliberately bring to the forefront; it simply exists because he does. And while he’s aware that this visibility shows younger LGBTQIA+ fans what’s possible, the 25-year-old wants to make it clear that he isn’t positioning himself as a role model: “I'm figuring this shit out, too.”
Conrad is also keen to acknowledge that he isn’t rising in isolation. He’s situated within a “renaissance” of queer Black artistry, speaking with admiration for peers and collaborators such as Khalid, kwn, Kehlani, Sasha Keable and Durand Bernarr – artists that represent a new generation reshaping what R&B can look like.
As he covers Gay Times, Destin Conrad reflects on a year that changed everything – navigating momentum, genre fluidity and well-deserved industry validation – and looks ahead with the determination of an artist who isn’t afraid to surprise his audience. The word that threads it all together? Play.
It's been unreal. I'm still pinching myself, but it's been beautiful. I feel like I've ticked a lot off the bucket list, and I'm ready to just keep throwing paint at the wall and seeing what sticks. I didn't go into this last year knowing that all these things were going to unfold the way they did, but I'm just really grateful and happy, and just learning how to navigate this new chapter of my life.
