I want to tell you about two things today. I want to share with you Nicky Da B as well as the greater New Orleans Bounce Music scene. However, I come up against a problem when I look upon these two tasks. I only have sufficient knowledge to speak with certainty about the former so for the moment, I’m going to steer clear of the greater history of New Orleans Bounce Music as a whole and look mostly at our boy Nicky Da B right here because without question he’s a character worthy of a post unto himself. If you already know of Nicky then I’d wager it’s probably by virtue of his semi-recent collab. with Diplo which birthed into existence the absolute banger that is ‘Express Yourself’.
‘Express Yourself’ introduces you to several of the fundamentals of modern Bounce Music; twerking, highly sexualized content and a deep seat in the gay, lesbian and transgender community. Many of the more well known bounce MCs have been transgender/”sissy rappers”. All that said, sexuality and gender are not the key to Bounce despite being all up in it. For me, it’s the repetitive, drum machine heavy, trigger[man beat] happy, hectically paced nature of each tracks that makes me think bounce may be the best party mood aphrodisiac known to man. Big call, but level with me, can you imagine a party crowd not losing its collective marbles when a tune like the following tune gets dropped live? ME NEITHER.
My point to Nicky Da B awakening came, ironically, not through any true bounce track but through Sufjan Stevens’ Chopped and Scrooged Christmas Hip-Hop remix record (I know. I know.) which featured what may well be the most hyper-sexualised Christmas jam the world has yet seen.
Anyway, from there, the next stop was Nicky Da B’s Please Don’t Forget Da B (which you can stream in full right here)
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also point you toward Big Freedia who has a plethora of bounce magic to share with the uninitiated ‘Y’all Get Back Now’ may only be surpassed in awesomeness by its own video clip. Genius.
-Tommy Faith
