… do you think of “gender bending rap“? Well, if you’re into in-your-face, loud, and electronic-tinged hip-hop (redubbed “bounce”), you’ll be oddly attracted to the genderqueer artist Big Freedia. Full disclosure: she’s not new, by any sense of the word, to the industry, and neither is she something you’d want to share with your parents. If anyone has even jokingly referred to you as a “prude”, avoid her albums like the plague.
Performing at the sports bar “Sports Vue” in New Orleans, the transgendered artist is visually as bombastic as her music. By day, Big Freedia runs an interior decorating business. If that strikes you as strange, that’s hardly the most bizarre thing about the artist: the video for her new single (which I’ve decided, for purposes of remaining PG-13, will remain unnamed) features a live performance in an, ahem, “gentleman’s club”, accompanied by fans and exotic dancers that hop on stage.
Big Freedia, however, isn’t only known for her music. She has created an artistic haven for members of the LGBT community in New Orleans, where they feel free to express themselves without constraints, as she has obviously been doing since 1999, and is considered a “superstar” by fans of the bounce scene.
by Drew Kozusko
I watched on e of the videos, and I find it rather one-dimensional. The fact that it focuses on the one dimension that will attract an audience, is perhaps the reason for its success?
I think it’s one-dimensional, but takes that one dimension and runs with it as far as possible. It’s similar to the electroclash movement, with artists like Amanda Blank and Peaches. I don’t know about most people, but I thought the provocativeness and extremes are what I loved.