Big Freedia Interview

Big Freedia is entering her superstar era. In 2023 New Orleans' Queen Of Bounce will roll out her first album since she was heard on Beyoncé's Formation and BREAK MY SOUL. And Freedia is claiming her own legacy.

Purple Sneakers catches up with the Queen Diva the week of the Grammy Awards – her friend Beyoncé's house music opus RENAISSANCE nominated for 'Album Of The Year'. The rapper speaks in velvety tones down Zoom, camera off ("We are running a little late on glam today," her manager advises). 

A favourite with Australian audiences, Freedia was last here in November, headlining the touring pride festival Summer Camp alongside Olly Alexander's Years & Years and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. "Summer Camp was awesome – great crowds, great festivals, great hospitality…," Freedia purrs. She even guested on Fran Kelly's ABC talk show Frankly, alongside legendary footballer Adam Goodes. Freedia performed with a booty-shaking dance squad and Frankly's house band. 

"That was a fun gig," she recalls. "Fran was super sweet… I remember everybody was super sweet. You know, the panel was full of love and very entertaining that day."

Born Freddie Ross Jr, Freedia grew up in New Orleans – the multicultural city in Louisiana, nicknamed NOLA, nowadays predominatingly Black. Freedia identifies as a gay man – but, as she wrote in an essay for The Root, is likewise "gender nonconforming, fluid, nonbinary". Freedia prefers the pronouns she/her. 

Freedia discovered community, and liberation, in the underground bounce scene – the regional hip-hop offshoot, characterised by libidinous chants over frenetic beats, associated with twerking. She circulated club singles as early as 1999. Alas, NOLA's subcultures fractured when in 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. Relocating to Texas, Freedia continued performing, her success incremental. She published a memoir, God Save The Queen Diva!, in 2020. 

Aside from 2014's album Just Be Free, which Pitchfork's review suggested was EDM-influenced Freedia has primarily dropped mixtapes and EPs. 

Still, while one of the most omnipresent stars in contemporary Southern hip-hop, Freedia is invariably excluded from narratives extolling breakthrough female MCs. But, like the Southern icons Gangsta Boo, Trina and Khia, Florida's dirty rap princess, she presaged Houston's Megan Thee Stallion with her messages of sex-positivity, self-empowerment and community activism. Additionally, as with Yo! Majesty, Freedia brought LGBTQIA+ inclusion to a heteronormative macho hip-hop world.

Of course, Freedia was raised when pop was defined by gender fluidity and non-conformity with stars such as the disco renegade Sylvester, charting drag queen Divine and British New Wavers Boy George. In the '80s Eurythmics frontwoman Annie Lennox's androgyny unsettled conservative Americans – yet Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) has been sampled by hip-hoppers like Nas. 

"All those artists allowed me to be who I am and to be myself today, being role models for all of the generations that come after them," Freedia says. "They set the tone and set the ways to make things even easier for us today."

Freedia now enjoys a multi-faceted career, emerging as a TV personality with her reality show Big Freedia: Queen Of Bounce. She has actually landed acting parts (Freedia performed in HBO's drama Treme about post-Katrina New Orleans). 

In recent times Freedia has collaborated with a cross-spectrum of acts. She united with a pre-fame Lizzo on Karaoke off 2018's EP 3rd Ward Bounce. 

The following year, Freedia rapped on Kesha's Raising Hell – the pair meant to tour together in 2020. "We may go back on the road," she notes. "Unfortunately, the pandemic hit when we were supposed tour together, so that may come back around." 

Lady Gaga had Freedia cover Judas for her Born This Way Reimagined: The Tenth Anniversary. Currently one of Freedia's biggest songs on Spotify is Stupid Boy, Slayyyter's club banger. Freedia contributed a cut to the Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack.

Crucially, Freedia has been sampled by superstars. Drake used the rapper's voice for Nice For What, off 2018's Scorpion. Meanwhile, Beyoncé, who's previously dipped into bounce (cue her B'Day bop Get Me Bodied), similarly sampled Freedia for Formation, the lead single from 2016's event album LEMONADE and last year's comeback BREAK MY SOUL. Some believe that Queen Bey should have granted Freedia 'feature' status, especially since she centres Black womanhood. 

Yet Freedia, reticent on the topic, seems unperturbed. "Well, I'm credited on this, on BREAK MY SOUL, as a writer and so I'm getting full credit." She realises that her fans are protective. 

"Yes, they are," Freedia laughs, "and I'm nominated for a Grammy." Though RENAISSANCE contentiously loses 'AOTY' to Harry Styles, it does win "Best Dance/Electronic Album" and BREAK MY SOUL "Best Dance/Electronic Recording" – a glammed Freedia in attendance.

In the past Freedia has joined Beyoncé on stage. Is there a chance she might pop up on her forthcoming RENAISSANCE World Tour? "I hope so," Freedia says coyly. "I certainly hope so that I'd be on tour with her… Nothing's confirmed, but I would love to go and be a part."

At any rate, Freedia is busy. In January she was on the selection committee for Miss Universe, the beauty pageant held in NOLA. "Oh my God, it was such a great time, just to see all of the beautiful women from all the different countries and to sit there and be a judge and to get to perform – I had the best time. I hope to do Miss Universe every year."

However, these endeavours potentially encroach on Freedia's music activity. "I always have to find time for the studio," she admits. "The studio is what drives everything else and keeps me grounded. So I always find time for the studio. My team has definitely gone black-out for the music." And, Freedia reveals, "A full album is coming this summer," its title Central City. Freedia has just released a video for Training Day.

But Freedia is furthering her entrepreneurialism. Having already run an interior design business, she's launching Hotel Freedia, a "boutique luxury hotel" in New Orleans. "I'm moving into the hospitality world even more now," Freedia enlightens. "I will be getting ready to open my hotel some time the spring of next year. So I am working on new ventures and new things all the time. You never know what's gonna pop up with this queen, honey!"

Ironically, Freedia has herself become an industry, attracting academics interested in the intersection between culture, Blackness and queerness – and this intellectualising is a topic she warms to. "I love definitely having different conversations about different things that's going on in the world and things that need more conversations happening, and to bring more attention to certain issues that our government needs to look at or the community," Freedia states. "I definitely am all about educating and learning and teaching – and all of the things that come in between of that."

Black cultural forms have historically been co-opted by white artists – Freedia addressing Miley Cyrus' controversial twerking beside Robin Thicke at 2013's MTV Video Music Awards. ("She may be familiar with me, but she don't know I'm the Queen Of Twerking," she told Fuse TV). 

"But it's offensive to Black culture and Black women who've been twerking for years. Every time we do something, people want to snatch it and run with it and put their name on it."

Indeed, Freedia, who's presided over twerking workshops, is aware of her cachet. Nevertheless, Freedia's perspective is positive and proactive, self-care vital. "We always wanna keep our guards up in and watch out what's around us and things that's goin' on in our circle," she explains.

 "But I try to be a role model and try to look up to people who have been a role model for me and my life and just try to stay away from all the negative things that's happening out there in the world. There's so much corruption and killings and different things that's happening all over the world… And I'm definitely trying to keep the world in a better place and be at peace."

Freedia remains a loyal New Orleanian. "I spend quite a bit of time at home – you know, when I'm not on the road, I'm at home. I spend a lot of time on the road as well… So it's balanced out all over the world – LA to New York to Atlanta to everywhere… Texas. I'm all over the place, child."

New Orleans is renowned for its festive culture, being equated with jazz, brass bands and the Mardi Gras carnival parade. But the city is also recognised as "The Murder Capital Of The United States", the high levels of poverty and crime politicised. Freedia freely acknowledges the contradictions, her family experiencing the trauma of that violence. "[There's] no place like home – and sometime the feeling and the love can be bittersweet, because of the tragedy and the losses that we have and the crime rate and a lot of other things. 

"But, to balance that out it has family and friends and music and great food that always can help feed the soul and bring us to another place in our life. So it's home – there's no place like home and sometime it can be bitter and sweet."