I’ve seen this topic a lot on my Twitter timeline and I wanted to bring it to the forefront. Hip-hop music has been around for ages, and bounce music has had a lot of influence. At one point in time, New Orleans Bounce was a small genre within hip-hop that was specifically reserved for New Orleans, Louisiana. Since it’s early beginnings in the New Orleans projects in the 1980s, Bounce music has become a very hot commodity.

In 1991, MC T Tucker and DJ Irv recorded the track Where Dey At which is credited by many with being the first bounce recording. Since then, bounce has “bounced” it’s way into mainstream music. Bounce is closely linked to hip-hop, being the fast paced beats, and the speed at which lyrics are played. Some bounce music is rooted in music samples, where DJ’s speed up the beats of songs that are in current radio rotations.

Beginning around 2000, bounce experienced an emergence of openly gay artists, such as Big Freedia, one of the biggest names in New Orleans bounce music today. Big Freedia, DJ Jubilee, Magnolia Shorty, among a few others set the foundation for what bounce music is today. Along with artists such as Sissy Nobby and Vockah Redu, Big Freedia shattered stereotypes in hip-hop and has helped the genre become the progressive style it is today. These artists not only broke the mold, but because of their significant strides in music, Big Freedia also has other streams of income, being on a nationally syndicated tv show.

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, bounce music spread around the country as many artists were dispersed to other major cities. Today, elements of bounce can be found in music across the charts.

What’s most surprising to me is, as a hip-hop enthusiast, and a graduate of a 4 year university in New Orleans, Louisiana, how much influence that bounce music has, and how much artists of today have bit off of the culture. Chance the Rapper and Drake both have bit off some of the New Orleans culture, without giving it the credit that is due. While New Orleans appreciates the notoriety of being recognized by bigger artists, it’s still about paying homage to the root of where the music comes from.

New Orleans can be regarded as the birthplace of a lot of different music genres. Some of you may have seen in some of my previous posts how I’ve discussed why Louisiana rappers need more credit, and I will probably die on that hill. Louisiana, and it’s major cities have produced some of the best music that still gets sampled today, and credit isn’t given appropriately. In the bounce music arena, Game Ova Reedy is the creator of the For That D Freestyle. Many of you may remember, a while back, other artists in the industry and other celebrities made “For That D” challenges on both Instagram and Twitter, and Reedy didn’t receive credit as the originator. This is just another example of the rest of the country biting onto the culture of Louisiana, and never actually giving that credit back.