About Big Freedia
Freddie Ross Jr. , better known by his stage name Big Freedia , is an American rapper and performer known for his work in the New Orleans genre of hip hop called bounce music. Freedia has been credited with helping popularize the genre, which had been largely underground since developing in the early 1990s.
In 2011, he was named Best Emerging Artist and Best Hip-Hop/Rap Artist in January's "Best of the Beat Awards", and was nominated for the 2011 22nd GLAAD Media Awards. In 2013, he got his own reality show on the Fuse Channel, which chronicles his life on tour and at home. On July 7, 2015, he released his autobiography God Save the Queen Diva!. At the end of 2016, Freedia was featured in a local New Orleans television ad for Juan LaFonta Law Office, in which he is shown rapping with bounce music and dancers. In 2018, he released the EP Third Ward Bounce. Freedia was scheduled to go on tour with Kesha in 2020, but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, he returned to release his second studio album Central City on June 23.
He has collaborated with artists including Beyoncé , Kesha, Lizzo, Slayyyter, New Kids on the Block, Jordin Sparks, Naughty by Nature, Boyz II Men, Jake Shears, and with Drake on his 2018 number-one hit "Nice for What".
Freedia is a gay man who also embraces his "feminine side"; he believes gender is on a spectrum and is ambivalent about pronouns, stating, "I'm gender nonconforming, fluid, nonbinary. If I had known the 'queen' in Queen Diva would cause so much confusion, I might have called myself the king!"
Freddie Ross was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child, he took piano lessons and sang in the choir of the neighborhood Baptist church, "Pressing Onward M.B.C.", and has said that music was always a part of his life. Freddie's mother exposed him to artists such as Patti LaBelle, and he was also influenced by disco singer Sylvester, Michael Jackson, and Salt-N-Pepa.
Ross attended Walter L. Cohen High School, where he continued to perform in choir and also became the choir director. This experience made him realize he could write and produce. According to Freedia, he initially suffered from stage-fright, and had to coax himself onto stage until he became comfortable performing.
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