Big Freedia - "Rent"

Normally during PRIDE month (June) I do my best to post only or mainly LGBTQIA+ Artists. In light of the civil unrest around the nation and the injustices that have been forced upon the Black Community through years of enslavement, systemic racism, widespread oppression, and a set of generational socioeconomic traps, I thought this year it would be important to spotlight just how many QUEER BLACK ARTISTS changed and shaped the world through music, arts, culture, and activism.

So this June I will spotlight all Queer Black Artists to show you one more way in which we should be grateful for to the Queer Black Community and how without them we would not have the world or nation that we love so much. We should be grateful and proud.

BLACK LIVES MATTER + PRIDE (LGTBQIA+ Allies)

Who that? The Queen of Bounce, your honor. Big Freedia, the internationally acclaimed bounce musician, hailing from New Orleans, has released her own music and provided some of the most memorable features of the 2010s. On "Formation," the lead single off Beyoncé's Lemonade, Big Freedia emphasizes the fact that regular isn't in her genes. Perpetually carrying the stories of your people can become burdensome, but Freedia finds solace in redistributing remnants of culture across the globe. 

Freddie Ross[2] (born January 28, 1978), better known by her stage name Big Freedia (/ˈfriːdə/ FREE-də), is an American musician known for her work in the New Orleans genre of hip hop called bounce music. Freedia has been credited with helping popularize the genre, which was largely underground since developing in the early 1990s.[3] Freedia identifies herself as a gay man and has stated that she does not care which pronoun is used to refer to her.[4][5]

Freedia started singing in the choir of her neighborhood Baptist church, Pressing Onward M.B.C., and started her professional performance career around 1999. In 2003, she released the studio album Queen Diva.[6] She first gained mainstream exposure in 2009, and her 2010 album Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1 was re-released on Scion A/V in March 2011, as well as a number of music videos.[7]

Freedia has been featured in publications such as Village Voice and The New York Times, and has performed on Last Call with Carson Daly, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and at SXSW, where she received a positive review from Rolling Stone. In 2011, she was named Best Emerging Artist and Best Hip-Hop/Rap Artist in January's "Best of the Beat Awards,"[8] and was nominated for the 2011 22nd GLAAD Media Awards.[9] In 2013, she got her own reality show on the Fuse Channel, which chronicles her life on tour and at home. On July 7, 2015, she released her autobiography God Save the Queen Diva!.

In 2016 Beyonce released a surprise single Formation sampling Freedia's voice. At the end of 2016, Freedia was featured in a local New Orleans television ad for Juan LaFonta Law Office, in which she is shown rapping with bounce music and dancers. In 2018, she released the EP Third Ward Bounce.

April 2020 collaborated with New Kids on the Block, Jordin Sparks, Naughty by Nature and Boyz II Men in their Song "House Party", a song written during social distancing during Covid-19. The Video for "House Party" was shot on everyone's cell phone.

She also provided additional vocals for Drake's 2018 number-one hit "Nice for What", though she is not credited as a featured artist. In the late 2010s she befriended Kesha with the two collaborating on each others’ projects. Freedia has a new album coming out in 2020.

So today, with a little more bounce, I choose Big Freedia’s “Rent” as my, make them pay, shake it down, work it out, song for a, never be afraid to be you, daring is what you are, fearless is what we can be together, Friday.