Louisiana

Louisiana:

Big Freedia

PHOTO: DANIELLE LEVITT

CITY: New Orleans
SONG TO DOWNLOAD: "Azz Everywhere"
WEBSITE: soundcloud.com/bigfreedia

WHY THEM: Big things are starting to happen for Freddie Ross, a/k/a Big Freedia, as the Nawlins native is finally starting to share the experience with us non–Crescent City dwellers. The sound is all about "bounce" and as hyper-repetitive as a Lightning Bolt gig, except maybe more out of control and mania-inducing. Freedia is on the forefront of the sissy-bounce world, which obliterates the judgmental posturing of the hip-hop dance scene and replaces it with a transgendered, boundary-free exorcism of skin-shaking exaltation. It might seem like the kind of thing that one would have to experience live, which is what has kept sissy bounce a local phenom for years; but BF's new record, released worldwide on the Scion A/V imprint, surprisingly finds the spastic grooves and insanity-plunging tuneage translating perfectly from overcrowded dive-bar dance floors to international headphones and sound systems — it's the first salvo in the sissy-bounce invasion.

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