Happy Birthday, Big Freedia!
John Dunlop
Rapper Big Freedia (Freddie Ross Jr.) was born in New Orleans on January 28, 1978, and is known for 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.
Freedia started singing in the choir of her neighborhood Baptist church, and started her professional performance career around 1999. In 2003, she released the studio album Queen Diva, and first gained mainstream exposure in 2009. In 2011, his 2010 album Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1 was re-released, and she was named Best Emerging Artist and Best Hip-Hop/Rap Artist in January's "Best of the Beat Awards," and was nominated for the 2011 22nd GLAAD Media Awards. 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. 2020 saw a collaboration 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 pandemic, and the video for which was shot on everyone's cell phones. 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 was going on tour with Kesha in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But nothing can keep this energetic artist down! And today we celebrate Big Freedia’s birthday with her!
excerpted from Wikipedia
Photo: Kowarski