New Orleans bounce artist Big Freedia is having a hot queen summer

Even if you've never heard of New Orleans bounce artist Big Freedia, you've heard her booming vocals on the radio, at the grocery store or in the club.

Featuring on tracks including Lizzo's 'Karaoke,' Beyonce's 'Formation,' or Drake's 'Nice For What', Freedia has had a busy few years. The artist has been collaborated with icons, hosted Vogue's red carpet show at the Met Gala and now, she's working on a stage play about her fascinating life.

Insider caught up with the hip hop superstar when Freedia returned to her hometown to appear at the Red Bull Dance Your Style competition at Generations Hall, bringing her inimitable yell to the dance floor.

When Freedia is in town (she tours constantly), she opts for simplicity: soul food at Neyow’s, beignets from Cafe du Monde and oysters from The Hangover Bar. The day we met, she was on her way to Gene's Po-Boys before they closed down for good, proclaiming, "I gotta have that last historic moment."

The 'Karaoke' singer opened up about what twerking really entails, what it's like to be embraced by Anna Wintour and the next popstar she wants to collaborate with.

“Everybody in the world now wants to twerk," Big Freedia explains. "We don’t twerk here in New Orleans, we bounce, we wiggle, we wobble, we shake, we bust it open, bend it over, we do it all. Twerking is just limited to a certain, specific dance where it’s hand on the knees and you’re busting open."

"With bounce music, we do a whole lot more and everyone is so unique in the way that they move and their personality. All of that plays a big part in the culture here of the style of dancing," Freedia says while wearing a bedazzled black tee-shirt, crystallized nails and shimmering eyeshadow.

Bounce music originated in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 1980s, when local rappers began using a call and response format based on the chants of Mardi Gras Indians. It's dance-heavy music, with those onstage performing what some would call twerking today - but as Freedia explains, it's about so much more than that. (Freedia uses she/her pronouns and identifies as a gay man.)

These days, Freedia isn't only a local celebrity.

She's embraced by the fashion world, which makes sense, as her stage costumes involve an enviable amount of sequins and sparkles. Not everyone can pull off a colorful cape quite like the queen of bounce. Freedia works with designers and styles herself, as well as her dance crew.

"I got my style from my mom, she was a classy lady," Freedia says about her mother, Vera Ross, who passed away in 2014 after a long battle with cancer. The devastating loss was documented on the Fuse TV show, Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce.

Earlier this year, the 'Explode' singer turned up on the Met Gala red carpet, doing coverage for Vogue and opening the show with Ciara by her side.

“I was very nervous because the Met Gala is huge. I was happy to be there and very proud to represent," Freedia tells Insider about the experience.

“I was excited to see everybody - just all of the looks all of the people that came down the carpet, and child, just Lady Gaga with her show. That was a performance, that was an entrance, honey. Billy Porter, Serena, everybody was just hot, it was awesome. And then me and Ciara opened up the show, so that was the most fun part.”

Freedia began her career as a backup singer and dancer for the legendary transgender New Orleans "sissy-bounce" artist Katey Red. "Sissy-bounce" is a sub-genre, with the term originated by New Orleans music journalist Alison Fensterstock, referring to gay and gender-nonconforming artists making bounce music. Now, bounce can be heard in plenty of pop hits, whether it's a Beyonce or Drake song (even when Freedia's not lending them her vocals).

“It was this race of who got the hottest song and who’s representing the different neighborhoods," Freedia said about the genre, which has recently exploded. “We didn’t have all of these social media platforms and outlets to put the music out. It was music that was stuck in New Orleans for a very long time and then it started spreading outside of New Orleans...It had to grow at home first before the world could catch on."

Freedia's catchphrase is "you already know," but even mega-fans might not know about her secret side hustle. "Before I was rapping, I was an interior designer and decorator. I did weddings, parties and funerals...I still do only selected people’s parties where I put these hands to work now, all in New Orleans. I’ve decorated for the mayor’s office, I’ve worked at all of his events," she said - so perhaps you've been to a Big Freedia party.

"I’m very multi-talented when it comes to a lot of different things. People may not know but I’m a hustler," she continued.

And when it comes to performing, whether at a Red Bull party or Brooklyn Bowl, her shows are always high energy. “My process is just go hard or go home, go Duffy like my song says.”

Even though bounce has taken over the airwaves, Freedia isn't worried about the genre losing its magic. “What I’m seeing right now is a lot of people are definitely coming to take from the sound. It’s up to us in New Orleans that we keep it raw and we keep it authentic to New Orleans. I can only do so much but everybody’s coming for the sound.”

What's next for Freedia after hitting the Met Gala and collaborating with pop idols? She wants to "continue to represent for my culture and to represent for New Orleans. And also to keep wearing my crown and letting them know that I’ve been making people aware of this style of dancing for years, before everybody so-called now wanting to twerk. I’ve been doing this for the last twenty years."

She's also working on pitching a new reality TV show and a stage play about her life which she says is "powerful and will touch a lot of people."

Her future collaborator bucket list includes Fantasia, Kelly Price, Patti LaBelle, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. Perhaps Freedia can get a Nicki and Cardi collab to happen.

Megan thee Stallion is another possibility: “Meg’s working on something now but hopefully she’ll come for the queen with the bounce.”

Meg is also the celebrity who would be in Freedia’s a** shaking hall of fame, as she said, “Meg would probably get the title right now. It sure ain’t the City Girls - they just don’t twerk. They’ve got a hot song, but they don’t twerk. I love Cardi, she twerks down too, though, that’s my girl."

But unlike Meg, Freedia isn't having a hot girl summer.

“I’m not a hot girl - I’m having a hot queen summer," Big Freedia said, cementing her place as New Orleans royalty.