Big Freedia and Rusty Lazer Info!
From Rusty Lazer…Big Freedia’s DJ…
Links to video online:
http://blog.thenewpop.com/2009/09/23/life-glasslands-azz-everywhere/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2-b4riVABk
http://www.thefader.com/2009/10/08/interview-with-big-freedia-nola-bounce-diva/
Articles Featuring Big Freedia:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/05/AR2010020504011.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123424006
http://www.antigravitymagazine.com/antigravity_vol6_issue12.pdf
Sounds of Big Freedia:
Links to Purchase Big Freedia Tracks Online:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/big-freedia-hitz-vol-1/id351297031
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00354V99O/ref=dm_ap_alb1?ie=UTF8&qid=1264802514&sr=1-3
http://www.emusic.com/album/Big-Freedia-Big-Freedia-Hitz-Vol-1-MP3-Download/11787160.html
Big Freedia’s Bio:
Big Freedia is an accomplished “Bounce” Rapper who lives in New Orleans and performs six or more times a week in various venues throughout the city. Bounce is an original urban music rising up from the intimate and fun-loving nature of the housing projects which dominate the city’s street culture. “Sissy Bounce” is the informal name for a derivative of Bounce that has risen to prominence in recent years and features explicitly gay and cross-dressing musicians and themes. Big Freedia is at the forefront of this movement and has had several New Orleans hit singles from her albums “An Ha, Oh Yeah” (1999) and “Queen Diva” (2003). Freedia began her musical career almost 15 years ago at the Walter L. Cohen High School in Orleans Parish, where she was enlisted as choir director in her Junior and Senior years. She sees her performance as a Bounce artist as an extension of this work, often interacting in a call and response/teacher and student, fashion with her audiences. She recently developed a musical about her life entitled “Catch That Beat” with producer Lucky Johnson. The sold out first run of “Catch That Beat” featured cameo appearances by a who’s who of New Orleans Bounce artists alongside the story of Freedia’s upbringing in New Orleans 3rd Ward. She performs in various venues (often decorated by her own event production business) and has recently begun traveling outside the city with the encouragement and support of the New Orleans Airlift. Big Freedia has always acted as mentor for many younger artists, is currently recording her third record and recently returned from a stellar 6 show run in New York City, performing sold out shows with Spank Rock, Ninjasonik and many others at venues such as Santos Party House, Glasslands, and Sway. This year Freedia will be returning to South By Southwest, performing at multiple events including a retrospective Bounce Showcase and a historic second performance at Gay Bi Gay Gay after a short tour of the west coast with New Orleans collaborators Galactic.
Bounce Mixes By Rusty Lazer:
Rusty Lazer’s Bio:
Rusty Lazer is a DJ from New Orleans, Louisiana that specializes in the street music of his adopted home town.
Following in the tradition of the second line parades and block parties that make New Orleans famous, Rusty Lazer spins songs from the three hundred year old repertoire of street music this decadent city has to offer. In a single set, dancers are likely to hear the hypnotic beat of the Mardi Gras Indians, Hot Jazz from the early 20th century, Twists from the 50’s, Soul and R&B from the 1960’s and 70’s, Brass Band jams stretching across all of these eras and even the modern block party sounds of Hip Hop and Bounce Music (a particular invention of local musicians that manages to feature all of these styles rolled up together with an ass shakin’ beat!) along with mash-ups of all of the above created by Rusty Lazer himself. In addition, he moves across multiple unrelated genres (electro, bizarre 80’s, new wave, international ghetto beats, dance punk and metal) as well in a kind of “kitchen sink”, but always danceable, fashion. Other Music Records in New York calls his set “a sweaty, mega-mix crash course in the hard and nasty sound of the ‘Nolia (New Orleans). Rusty Lazer ain’t for the prudes, but it’s some of the most infectious dance music you’ll ever hear if you’re not familiar.” He has performed at clubs, art galleries, benefits, guerilla public events, and created soundtracks for circuses, plays and performance art spectacles in museums and galleries throughout Europe, the U.S., China and Japan. Rusty is currently working live with “Sissy Bounce” (queer/transgender) superstars Big Freedia,Katey Red and Sissy Nobby, whose songs are at the top of the local radio charts and heard on the streets at every block party.
In 2009 Rusty performed for Deitch Gallery at Art Basel in Miami, at multiple benefit shows for Swimming Cities of Serenissima by installation artist Swoon, at many New York clubs with Big Freedia and at SXSW events such as Gadjo Disko and Gay Bi Gay Gay in Austin.
2010 will see more of the same as Rusty and Freedia head to Los Angeles and San Fransicsco with New Orleans band Galactic, performing at the El Rey and the Fillmore. A team of talented people Rusty works with are spearheading a retrospective Bounce Showcase at SXSW, as well as a return to Gay Bi Gay Gay. In addition several documentary projects featuring Bounce artists will be released this year, foremost of which is a VBS (Vice Magazine’s Online Video Site) Produced Bounce snapshot featuring DJ Jubilee, DJ Blaqnmild, Sissy Rappers and much more.
Rusty’s impressions of his first “real” Sissy Rap show:
http://www.rustylazer.com/?p=49
An article Rusty inadvertently wrote while trying to describe Sissy Rappers to a photographer in New York:
http://www.thecouchsessions.com/2009/10/spotlight-sissy-bounce/
A link to a Sissy Rap mixtape by Rusty’s Friend Lefty Parker:
http://planarianproductions.blogspot.com/2009/02/sissy-bounce-mixtape.html
