She also has a small towel in her pocket to wipe her brow every so often. She’s wearing her long hair down, but she uses her whole arm to sweep it off her neck every few minutes. She has long multi-colored fingernails.īF: They're bad right now. He.'īF: You're trying to get these people to wake up.īF: That's just always been my thing since small and before I even became Big Freedia, like I was known just for that all over New Orleans.įreedia is in head-to-toe denim - a sleeveless button down shirt and ripped jeans - with black and white high-top sneakers. They'd be like, 'Oh that's Freddie in the club. She tells me, as we stand on this quiet residential street, that she’s been working on her act for a long time.īF: You know, I had a signature call that I would just be hollering around everywhere and everybody knew me by this signature call. She says she's comfortable using either pronoun, but usually uses 'she,' because, she says, that seems to be what her fans seem to use the most. When she started performing, she picked the name Big Freedia, in part because she liked the way it rhymed with 'Queen Diva.' Freedia doesn’t identify as trans.

It just - I guess it was destined to happen but it just was never in the plan.īig Freedia was born Freddie Ross. And as she and other artists moved outside New Orleans in the years after Katrina, so did bounce.īF: It just be like so surreal that I'm just like even a bounce artist. In the late '90s, Big Freedia was among a new crop of queer performers who started dominating the local bounce scene. It’s a New Orleans brand of thumping, bass-heavy, hip hop that you move your hips to.īF: Oh yeah. It's windy and it's hot.ĪS: How do you introduce yourself? Will you just introduce yourself into the microphone?īF: Big Freedia, the Queen Diva, the Dick Eater, ya besta believe her.īig Freedia is one of the biggest stars of New Orleans bounce music.īounce started in the late '80s and early '90s.

I’m Anna Sale, and I'm standing on Painters Street in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot, and need to talk about more. This is Death, Sex & Money, in New Orleans. Brother, sister, uncles, aunties - none of them didn't matter if they accepted me or not long as mom did. This interview is from 2015, when we made a series about New Orleans on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina….īig Freedia’s been on my mind because she’s been in my ears a lot this summer…I hope you enjoy getting to know her, her family, and the place that made her.īig Freedia: Once, you know, it was approved by mom, there was no other worries. Hey it’s Anna…This week we’re sharing one of our favorites: a conversation with Bounce music sensation Big Freedia.

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