What is bigger than big? That's easy, it's Big Freedia. Big personality, big vocals, and a big ass badonka to shake for the masses. Stage persona aside, Freedia is dishing a lot of her life on Fuse with Freedia: Queen of Bounce and with the finale episode coming up this Wednesday, we got the New Orleans-bred bounce rapper on the horn to talk about all things regarding the show, her life, and of course, on dat azz.
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OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): What's a question you get asked again and again but you're over talking about? I just want to cut that shit right now.
Big Freedia: [Laughs.] Well there are a couple of those so we're not going to worry about that.
I like it. Fair game. I saw you at this years Festival Supreme and it was my first time ever seeing you. No joke, I was mesmerized.
Oh my god, don't do that. [Laughs.] Thank you!
True story, I couldn't move. I was legit trying to twerk by the end of your set. I also binged watched your show and since the finale is this week and I love you so much, any chance on a spoiler?
Oh you want me to give you something? OK, I got this. Well it's going to be very interesting because people are going to see me on my international tour so they'll see me in a different forum and see how I brought it. I think people will definitely be glued to their TV especially because it's an hour long episode.
Did you use any of the German you learned while in Germany?
Oh girl, it was kinda complicated but we tried. [Laughs.] You'll see that in the show. “Ass everywhere” translated to something like, “In my ass.” It was very funny. It didn't translate but the fans got it because you know, they know English too so, they definitely was on it. They watch the videos so they knew what was to be expected.
Ha!! So great. When you reconnected with your dad on the show, was that something you wanted to do anyway or did the show give you that extra push that you needed?
Oh no, it's something that I wanted to do. We were reconnecting a little bit before and he started coming around a little bit before my mom had passed so he was really trying to start to be a father figure. So yeah, I've always wanted to be a lot closer to him and know him a lot better than I knew him in the past. But yeah, I've always wanted to have my real father in my life so it was very easy to do that for me.
I totally vibed with what you were going through and I'm so glad you shared it with the viewers.
Well good! I'm glad that people can relate to my story in their everyday life to help them overcome something. If I can help people go at a situation better, that's good. I don't usually know how to go at a situation so I just do it and whatever the outcome is, I take those consequences. So definitely for you, work on your relationship and rebuild. There are many more people that want the same connection so we should keep encouraging it.
Oh for sure! I also watched the Love N Hip Hop “Out in Hip Hop” and it was really powerful. As we all know, haters gonna hate but, I have to assume that you got some really great feedback from doing it.
Oh yes. It was a good look on me and on the moves that I'm making and definitely the LGBT community is supporting the whole panel that spoke on behalf of the community that I represent. It was a good panel, it was a good look, and I'm glad I did it.
Random question but in the song “Y'all Get Back Now” you say “dribble” and “shoot it up.” You a fan of the NBA?
Oh yeah, I love basketball! It's one of my favorite sports over every other sport. I always love looking at those guys in their cute little basketball shorts. Football boys are fine but the basketball boys show more. [Laughs.]
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Oh we definitely have that in common! Football boys wear pads and I can't even tell if that's their ass or padding.
Right? They be looking all fine but their asses be looking all big! You can tell who has a bigger butt than the others but you can for sure see more skin on the basketball players. I also like the physicality of basketball. Football is also so dangerous! I'm so over it. My boyfriend watches it all day and I'm sick of it! [Laughs.]
Ha! I'm so with you. I know bounce music comes from New Orleans and you grew up on it but as someone who didn't, was the dancing always part of it?
Oh yeah! The dancing was always part of it. The pioneers that came before me had dancing in all of the songs. They'd have these moves and the people in the clubs would do it all at the same time. Yeah, dancing has always been a part of the culture.
So how old were you when you realized that you could shake your ass like that?
I was like thirteen or fourteen.
OK, where are the home videos? I smell a “deleted scenes” episode…
I wish girl! All of that was destroyed in Katrina! I wish I had it because it's like, where is my little talent show video? All of that, I wish I just had a secret room I could've kept all of that stuff in. It all went underwater so that's the whole problem.
Damn you Katrina! I was looking at your tour dates and I know you were just in LA for Festival Supreme but do you have any plans of coming back out?
I'm always going to LA because that is one of my home bases so I'll be back there soon. Unfortunately I couldn't put LA back on my tour and I know my LA fans are upset I couldn't put it on there. But, I will be back in LA no doubt. It won't be until 2016 for another Big Freedia show but I will be back out there! It's not that long of a wait honey, it's just around the corner.
OK before I let you go, where's the weirdest place you've given an autograph?
Oh people ask me to write all over them. Of course, it's not weird to me but, I autograph asses all of the time! [Laughs.] You know, people want their little cheeks autographed by the Queen Diva. They're odd places that I wouldn't ask somebody to autograph in public but you know, that's a part of the Freedia nation so now, I'm just used to autographing asses!
Be sure to tune into “Freedia: Queen of Bounce” on Fuse Wednesday night at 11pm. You can also get your Big Freedia fix by going to her website www.BigFreedia.com, becoming a fan on Facebook, grabbing her book “God Save the Queen Diva,” and by following her on Twitter @BigFreedia.
See also:
The 50 Best Things About the OC Music Scene
The 50 Worst Things About the OC Music Scene
The 25 Greatest OC Bands of All Time: The Complete List
Follow us on Twitter @OCWeeklyMusic and like us on Facebook at Heard Mentality and follow the author on Twitter @AliNotAlli.
Ali Lerman knows much about comedy, basketball, and celebrating Wu-Tang Wednesday. She’s been writing for sixteen years and still calls her mom with grammatical questions.