Celebrating Black Music Month, Bounce and Hip-Hop in The Big Easy

As we bid goodbye to Black Music Month 2023, we are reminded that New Orleans and Louisiana continue to play a prominent role in the music industry worldwide.

When it comes to New Orleans and music, this little prominent place is known for its rhythmic and unique style.  Its genre can’t be placed in any other music class but the one it created on its own.  The unique elements of its formula were born with its traditional roots running from the veins of the yet most colorful essence of music we know as jazz and the down south blues. 

With a sample taste of the snap kick-snare drum here and there, allowing a witness to the 808s is a sure promise for cadence and high tunes at its best. 

In general, the music created by New Orleans-born artists is in a class all its own and defies description. For quite some time, the Grammy organization didn’t know how to categorize the sounds of New Orleans. However, over the last decade, the music awards given to some New Orleans and Louisiana artists, primarily the brass bands, are called “Regional Roots Music.”

While musical contributions from some famous New Orleans recording artists have been defined as hip-hop – Percy “Master P” Miller, son Romeo, Lil Wayne, Juvenile, the Hot Boys, and Big Freedia – locals call their sounds “Bounce Music.” It’s a fusion of New Orleans’ traditional music genres that preceded it, including R&B, Rap, Funk, and the blues.

DJ Jubilee is a prime example of bounce hip-hop in the Big Easy.  We can all agree that DJ Jubilee would be considered something like the reason for Tony in Chachere’s because, after all, it’s the Original Creole Seasoning.  DJ Jubilee began his legacy behind the turning tables of local clubs in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Not long after he decided to start making music, 1992 became a stepping stone in expanding his music career in a different direction.  Local hit singles such as “Get it Ready, Ready,” “Hot Boy, Hot Girl,” and “Walk it Like Ronald,” just to name a few, outlined the famous New Orleans Bounce scene. 

Another artist that has to be included with an honorary tribute to the evolving of a genre on its own would be no other than Mr. “Walk Like Ronald” himself.  Hot Boy Ronald is responsible for many of the mid-90s top bounce songs like “Wobble For Me,” which was one end of the ground wire that gave a spark to full-out bounce music.  Not too far in the background, there were artists like Sissy Nobby and Katey Red, who were responsible for adding the original hot & spicy sauces to the New Orleans Bounce Music recipe.

Isn’t it funny how a small place could have such an enormous impact on the imprint it has created for itself within the music industry, not to mention the hip-hop culture in its entirety?  Well, thanks to rap groups like Partners-N-Crime, aka PNC Original, and very talented hip-hop artists from our very own, the N.O. could present melody with a ‘lil touch of bounce without completely losing the foundation of real hip-hop.

The Duel hip-hop group Kango Slimm (born Walter Williams) and Mr. Meana (run by Michael Patterson) are legendary for epic songs like “Pump The Party” and “Really Want You” featuring 5th Ward Weebie. 

The truth is that whatever label is put on the music coming out of New Orleans, one fact is true, the music is uniquely New Orleans.

This article originally published in the July 3, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.