Wendy Ho | en

Straight out of a Kansas City Trailer Park comes a true, American original: Wendy Ho. Crass, sexy, soulful, and ballsy, she is the definitive sexually liberated musical comedienne. Whether she’s spitting her own lyrical miracles, or jacking someone else’s song into her own poetic piece of perfection, Ho owns it. Her brash and undeniable musicality has drawn comparisons from Bette Midler to 2Pac. Equal parts dirty feminist rapper, soul singer, and musical parodist, Ho sounds like Lil’ Kim and Aretha eatin’ Peaches on a Lonely Island.

Ho was born in Toledo, OH and raised in Kansas City, KS by her high school sweetheart parents. A born misfit, she was drawn to all things urban while growing up surrounded by white trash, and was kicked out of high school choir for sounding “too black.” This fascination with the street moved her ass to New York City and straight up to Harlem in the summer of 2002. When life got hard, Ho turned to drugging, dealing, and running hustle to keep her afloat during the lean times. Stealing ladies’ handbags from coat rooms at parties inspired her track “Bitch, I Stole Yo Purse!,” which became the #1 Funniest Video of 2008 on the MTV/LOGO Network, and was spoofed on FX’s Nip/Tuck with Jennifer Coolidge playing their version of Wendy Ho.

Amidst the accolades for her sexy and stoopit comedy, what sets her apart from other musical comics is her undeniable vocal chops. Wendy Ho can sing. Her combination of comedy and real musical talent caught the attention of producer Craig Levy, aka Little Pioneer, in the Fall of 2004. Their collaboration birthed The Gospel According to Ho in the spring of 2007 and delivered 10 tracks including the torch song “Fuck Me,” “Cocaine,” recounting her former drug-addiction, and “The AIDS Gamble,” a PSA warning of the dangers of flossing. This irreverence and balls-out femininity struck a special chord with the gay community, inspiring drag queens around the world to perform her songs and celebrate Ho. With a rainbow hurricane of gay support behind her, Wendy Ho owned 2009, performing across North America and abroad, with venues in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Montreal, Miami, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, and her hometown of Kansas City, as well as an Atlantis gay cruise to Rome, Greece, and Egypt. She also appeared on Showtime’s series I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single, where she met the show’s director of photography Stas Tagios, who became her fiancé after he popped the question on a the cruise. Love led to relocation, with Wendy moving westward to Los Angeles, where she currently performs regularly at Hamburger Mary’s West Hollywood in The Wendy Ho “Ho Show” and continues to tour across the country.

And the music don’t stop. Working again with Little Pioneer, Ho recently dropped Number Two, a free download mixtape packed with fresh song jacks, freestyles, mashups and remixes, including the dirty disco anthem “Poop Noodle.” The “Poop Noodle” video, meanwhile, is delighting and disgusting thousands of viewers daily on YouTube. Loaded with eleven original songs (no samples this time around),, Ho’s new full-length album Yes, I’m a Ho! has recently been released to satisfied disciphos. Featuring edgy, musically and thematically diverse tracks like “I Can’t Afford It (I’m Gonna Have to Abort It)” and “Gurl, Putcho Tampon In,” Yes, I’m a Ho! is a soon-to-be-notorious classic hip-hop/r&b record combining tongue-in-cheek delivery with in-your-face prophecy. Off the leash in the studio just as much as she is on stage, Ho consistently creates outrageously raunchy, entertaining and thought-provoking experience with songs that push buttons and masterfully jump genre lines.

Ho is an artist. Ho is a state of mind. Ho redefines women in music with true liberation. She is funny and sexy, never sacrificing one for the other. A pretty bitch, a witty feminist, a self-possessed, self-assured mashup of street and trash who makes you laugh while she makes you think. The responses she evokes from audiences are as diverse as her roots, but at the core there is no question about who she is. Wendy is all woman. All Ho. .