Bounce Baby Bounce: New Orleans’ Homegrown Hip-Hop Tour
Beginning in the early 1990s, New Orleans put its own spin on hip-hop. The style, called bounce, used the polyrhythms, call-and-response, and emphasis on dancing that had always characterized African-American music in the city.
Though bounce lyrics were hyper-local—often referencing specific New Orleans street corners and housing projects—the sound won fans all over the country. Cash Money Records, hatched in Central City, expanded into mainstream rap and reached the heights of the music industry. Its diminutive icon, Lil Wayne, left Gerttown to become a superstar. Post-Katrina, artists like Big Freedia have continued to move bodies around the world.
Places in this Tour
- Ghost Town
- Odyssey Records
- Soulja Slim mural / Big Man Lounge
- Newton's/Guitar Joe's House of Blues/Portside Lounge
- Magnolia (C.J. Peete) Public Housing Development
- A.L. Davis Park (aka Shakespeare Park)
- John McDonogh High School
- Treme Community Center
- 5th Ward Weebie Mural
- Club Rumors / Club Discovery
- Peaches Records
- Sea-Saint Studio
- Club Whispers
Images
Promotional image of bounce progenitors TT Tucker and DJ Irv circa 2000.
Courtesy of Loren K. Phillips Fouroux. Wheretheyatnola.com.