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NoLa is the place to be these days--Tremé is the new Wire, Yasiin Bey has an album with Mannie Fresh and even Solange Knowles has taken up residence in the Big Easy we're told (no 'be easy' jokes, please). The magnet for all this love and attention seems to be a certain post-Katrina renaissance of culture and creativity in the city, along with the world-famous gumbo of art, culture and magic that has made New Orleans famous for centuries. At the center of that story of survival and celebration is the genre of NoLa Bounce (Sissy Bounce if you're nasty). And at the center of the story of Bounce is NoLa Bounce OG Sissy Nobby, who helped define the genre with hits like "Beat It Out The Frame."
We happened to be in New Orleans ourselves recently--accompanying some of New York's finest vogue dancers on a clash/cultural exchange with their counterparts in the bounce scene curated by New Orleans Airlift x 1MSQFT (if you're not down with the One Million Square Feet of Culture project, it is a Microsoft initiative that's pretty much what it sounds like; a vast survey of progressive culture that provides creative space for everything from film to food to visual art to…well, bounce music). Since we were in the 'hood, we took advantage of Sissy Nobby's southern hospitality, receiving a comprehensive guided tour of the city, sissy bounce-style. On our Day Out, Nobby took us to "a couple key places bounce done got famous" and nobody could be a better guide to the clubs, housing projects and open air ampitheatres that gave birth to bounce. Nobby's narration comes with a full history of the evolution of bounce, pre-and post-Katrina, and there's not a little bit of extremely personal history in there as well. Along with remembrance of things lost Nobby provides some striking insight into the positive ways bounce has changed the way the good people of NoLa address and express their sexuality. Get prepared to express yourself and keep it low (not to mention beat it out the frame) with Sissy Nobby's official guide to the geography of NoLa bounce below:
Videographers: Lance Steagall + Jake Remington
Editor: Jake Remington
Music by: Sissy Nobby
