Rusty Lazer's Top 10 NOLA Bounce Anthems of All Time: Nicky Da B
Rusty Lazer holds court (photo courtesy of Clayton Cubitt).
As we may have mentioned, Team OKP is bound for the city of New Orleans this weekend, mostly to experience the NOLA Bounce x Vogue ballroom dance clash cotillion that is happening Upstairs At the Wax Museum during Jazz Fest. In order to educate you, the Okayplayer reader, on the styles and contestants in play during the dance off (and let's be real, mostly to have our own personal soundtrack to our New Orleans road trip) we asked the experts in each respective style to run down the essential tracks associated with each in a Top 10 Bounce/Vogue Anthems of All Time.
Handling the Top 10 NOLA Bounce Anthems for us is DJ, manager and all-around lynchpin of the Bounce scene Rusty Lazer. Most visible as DJ/partner to Sissy Bounce champ Nicky Da B and sometime manager to poster queen Big Freedia, Rusty is in many ways the reason this event (and events like it) go down in New Orleans. Although preparing to participate in the event on the Bounce court side, he gave generously of his time and game to get us turnt up and enlighten the Bounce-illiterates among us. Read on for his official Top 10 Bounce Anthems:
Here's my Top 10 Bounce anthems in no particular order. This is a city of at least a million anthems! Unfortunately, I can't even begin to list all that I have to leave out to get it down to the top 10. Ms. Tee, Cheeky Blakk, Choppa, Gotty Boi Chris, Fly Boy Keno, Keedy Black, Magnolia Rhome, Killy Keys, Partners in Crime, UNLV, Juvenile, and even Baby Erin (the first 5 year old Bounce rapper!) and about 100 more, all deserve to be listed but that's another list. Thank OKP for the curiousity and the love for Nola. We certainly love y'all right back!- Rusty Lazer.
1. "Where Dey At?" - MC T Tucker & DJ Irv
Arguably the first Bounce track, this is was the song that got things in motion. Nostalgia turned up to 11.
2."Smoking Gun" - Magnolia Shorty
Magnolia Shorty's life was unfortunately and brutally cut short a few years ago, but this song is one of the hallmarks of her legacy. Rapping since 12 years old alongside Lil' Wayne and the crew at Cash Money, she was poised to take the top female spot in Bounce but sadly we lost her way too soon.
3. "Smokin' Dat Weed" - Lady Red
This is the go-to jam for the girls at any local party. And if you a lady who likes to smoke that fire it's probably gonna be your go-to jam as well.
4. "Get It Ready" - DJ Jubilee
DJ Jubilee is THE KING of Bounce and "Get it Ready" is the line dance anthem to end all anthems. Everyone who grew up with Jubilee, which is pretty much everyone that grew up in New Orleans or any city within 100 miles of here (regardless of race or class, as Jubilee has appeared at nearly every school here ever), knows all the dances he's calling out, and if you don't, watch this video and learn!
5. "Shake Fa Ya Hood" - Ricky B
This is the hood anthem to end all hood anthems. If you love where you're from you don't have to understand every reference, every housing project, every gang and ward listed, but that chorus is yours to chant until your throat bleeds. Real love, warts and all.
6. "Melpomene Block Party (Punk Under Pressure)" - Katey Red
From the opening Jackson 5 sample to the explicitly serious sexual lyrics, this is Katey's anthem, her first hit and the world's introduction to gay Bounce culture. New Orleans embraced this song, and Katey--regardless of any complicated issues around gender and identity--and never looked back. Couldn't find a better reason to be proud to call it home.
7. "Hot Potato Style" - Nicky Da B
"Welcome to the end of your career and the beginning of mine, bitch!" Need I say more?
8. "Spinnin' Top" - Sissy Nobby
Starts off with a bang and never lets up. Everyone kills it throughout the video and this song is everything we love about the new style of Bounce which is harder, faster and wilder than what came before.
9. "Gin In My System" - Big Freedia
Big Freedia broke out with this hit in 1999 and never slowed down. The opening beat is so addictive it's been repurposed as the "Na" Beat and finds its way into songs by just about every current Bounce artist.
10. "Iberville" - Messy Mya
Messy Mya passed away a couple of years ago. It was tough on everyone, as very few could put it down like Mya and this song about the "Iberville" projects is an anthem to an era that is coming an end with their demolition. Katrina cost us lots of buildings but the projects survived, only to be torn down in an effort to reshape the cultural landscape of the city. "Iberville" will, very soon, go from being an anthem for residents of the projects to a memorial for a bygone time.
