I got my style from my mom, she was a classy lady.
Big Freedia
Everyone has a butt. No matter what size it is, you can work it.
I love Red Bull, they support everything that I do. They always support music and they're always pushing music.
Me and Drake and all his people hung out. I had the whole club jumping.
Everybody in the world now wants to twerk. We don't twerk here in New Orleans, we bounce, we wiggle, we wobble, we shake, we bust it open, bend it over, we do it all.
I create music for myself first of all because if I'm not happy with the music I create, I can't make anybody else happy.
I've worked tremendously hard to make things happen for New Orleans culture.
Duffy is go hard or go home. It's just a concept that I wanted to have when we're doing different things. When me and my dancers go in, we usually go hard or we go home. We're not here to play. We go duffy.
Twerking is definitely from New Orleans.
It has to do a lot more than just twerking. It's feel good music; it makes people have a good time. It doesn't matter what type of situation they're in, we bounce all around New Orleans. Weddings, birthday parties, funerals. The whole nine yards, and it's a happy music, it turns people from a frown to a happy smile.
Housing vouchers are a vital lifeline for many people I know in New Orleans and around the country, including struggling artists.
Real twerkers can use their knees for support.
When I go shopping, I try to specify certain things for certain events, but most of the time, I have so much stuff to pull from at home in the closet.
I feel very accepted, like I never have any slander. I never have any issues. You know, like, when people see me, they respect me. It's all about how you carry yourself.
We have a dance in bounce music called 'exercising' where you just open your legs and shake your butt a little bit from side to side.
I've always liked to dance.
I've always loved to cook. It helps me to relax and gives me peace. It's my nourishment.
Being gay and coming up in New Orleans was not easy. At first I was very terrified and very timid.
Being a big kid, I was kind of fat and chubby, and I got picked on quite a bit.
Once I started rapping, I had to start dancing more. I had to really use my craft, and take everything I did for fun and put it into my professional shows.
When I was little I was into gospel music.
When something get hot, everybody want to jump on the bandwagon and act like they created it.
Bounce is a primarily call-and-response style of hip-hop over a 'Trigger Man' beat. It's a New Orleans-created hip-hop style that developed in the late '80s, early '90s.
I loved listening to music around the house with my mom on Saturday mornings when we would clean up.
I met Icona Pop by chance because we were both recording at the same studio. I was a fan so when I heard they were in the next room, I went to say hi. Next thing I knew, they were on two songs.
I'm a bounce artist, straight born and raised from New Orleans, Louisiana, and I love what I do.
People should be able to do what they want in life and not be judged or put in a box or a category.
I would love to do something with many artists, you know: Fantasia, Cardi B, Lil Wayne, J.Lo, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson. There's so many of them! All of them are iconic in their own way and to collaborate with any of those artists of that magnitude would be such an honor for me because I grew up listening to them and I love their music.
I'm always working and coming up with new and fresh ideas to keep my fans engaged and keep myself relevant.
Freedom to me can be so many things; freedom to be myself, to express myself and do the things I want to do, freedom to go in any direction I want to go in order to accomplish my goals.
Outside of Bounce, I listen to Beyonce, Sia, Rihanna.
The first club that reopened in New Orleans was Caesar's, and they called me immediately and said let's do a regular night with you here. So we started FEMA Fridays. It was the only club open in the city, and a lot of people had a lot of money from Katrina, the checks and stuff, so the joy inside that club - I don't think that'll ever come back.
Bounce music is uptempo, heavy bass, call and response.
If I'm just trying to get to different levels... and it takes levels to get to levels, and I just have to do what I have to do to keep on climbing the charts and getting where I need to be.
I'm human, just like everyone else.
You can see yourself in the mirror. You can see how you want your body to move. Everybody wants to look sexy when they're dancing, so that mirror will be, you know, that reflection of yourself of how you will look in the club, so definitely use the mirror at home.
Definitely practice in the mirror before you attempt it. You have to use your body in the upright position, you can use your knees for support and that's the only way you can twerk.
I basically go with whatever my gut tells me.
You know, being the artist and not knowing when you sometimes create a song, you don't think about whether it's gonna start controversy or whatever. Sometimes you just write and you're in the zone.
Twerking is just limited to a certain, specific dance where it's hand on the knees and you're busting open. With bounce music, we do a whole lot more and everyone is so unique in the way that they move and their personality.
About 1998, my best friend, Katey Red, was the first transsexual male to come out with bounce music. And I background Katey for about two years. And then that's when the game totally switched when me and Katey jumped in it.
I've been dying to do something with Ms. Patti LaBelle because she is so iconic. I grew up listening to her with my mom in the house. She is such a big inspiration to me.
Gay folks go to church. We pray to the Lord too.
A lot of people think that I am trans but I'm not trans. I am a gay male with hair and nails. So if you say 'he' or 'she' it doesn't matter. I know who I am.
I'm a beast in the kitchen.
I came out at a very early age. I sat my mom down at my 12th birthday party and told her in front of my friends. She said, 'Baby, mama already knows, and I'm going to love you regardless.' Once I got my mom's support, there was nothing else I needed.
Some issues just need to be dealt with - that we're still dealing with in the world, with police brutality and racism.
Bounce is taking flight all over the globe. New York especially, and L.A., Canada, Portland, Washington. It keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Beyonce has a platform; what's a better way to speak on your platform than through your music?
I get DMs all the time: kids who don't know how to come out to their parents, parents who don't know how to deal with their kids who are gay. I try to give the best advice I can.
