Quotes from Big Freedia

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.

When I first started, I was definitely reserved,. I was still trying to find myself.

I've always been indie.

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.

That was one thing my mama instilled in me: to be well trained in the kitchen. Growing up, I was always in the kitchen with her. You name it, I make it: red beans and rice, lasagna, chicken, pork. I am the queen of cooking.

My church people supported me when I made my transition from gospel to bounce and that made it a lot easier.

There's no such thing as 'sissy bounce.' We don't separate it here in New Orleans at all. It's just bounce music. Just because I'm a gay artist, they don't have to put it in a category or label it.

Everyone has a butt. No matter what size it is, you can work it.

I started travelling doing shows everywhere to make people feel like a sense of New Orleans wherever they may be.

I've grown in tremendous ways with enhancing my music, my ability to perform on stage and travel all around to spread bounce music. I've come so far from being that little black boy growing up in New Orleans to now.

I've worked tremendously hard to make things happen for New Orleans culture.

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.

People should be able to do what they want in life and not be judged or put in a box or a category.

When something get hot, everybody want to jump on the bandwagon and act like they created it.

Me and Drake and all his people hung out. I had the whole club jumping.

I'm a beast in the kitchen.

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.

Real twerkers can use their knees for support.

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 still feel like there are so many things that I have to do to really become an icon. I've done a lot and laid down a lot of groundwork, but there's so much more work to be done. There's a lot more that I want to do, LGBTQ centers that I want to open. After I leave my legacy, then I will be that icon.

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.

I loved listening to music around the house with my mom on Saturday mornings when we would clean up.

Of course, Bounce is all about the dance moves.

The first 10 years of my journey, I was still figuring out who I was, and then I had to redo it all over again when I became bigger. So instead of saying, 'I'm gay and this is me,' I started telling the story through my music.