Big Freedia discusses appearing on Drake's bounce-inspired "Nice For What"

New Orleans bounce queen Big Freedia continues to cross over to mainstream pop music in a big and awesome way. After appearing on Beyonce’s “Formation” in 2016, Freedia is now on the new Drake single “Nice For What” that came out over the weekend. The whole song is inspired by New Orleans bounce, and it was produced by New Orleans bounce producer BlaqNmilD and also features New Orleans bounce artist 5th Ward Weebie. Freedia talked to The FADER about the opportunity to be part of a Drake project:

They reached out to my team and they wanted me to be a part of the project. Once they told me, I was like, “You gotta be kidding me.” I was super excited about my voice being at the beginning of the song. They sent the track for me to approve it and I was like, “Shit, I don’t care what I say on it, long as I’m on it.”

About the increased attention that bounce music has been getting outside of New Orleans, Freedia added:

We’re steady moving forward to get the bounce culture even further out there and, as you can see, other artists are recognizing our music and our talent down here in New Orleans. One day we might get our category at these awards or on the charts. I’ve worked tremendously hard to make things happen for New Orleans culture. I just want us to get the proper recognition and the proper credit that we deserve.

The song is also an ode to female empowerment and it samples Lauryn Hill’s ’90s hit “Ex-Factor”, and was released just one week after Cardi B’s “Be Careful,” which samples the same song. The video, directed by Karena Evans, also has an all-star cast of women, including Insecure‘s Issa Rae, the increasingly omnipresent Tiffany Haddish, The Internet’s Syd, actress Rashida Jones, actress Olivia Wilde, ballet dancer Misty Copeland, Black-ish and Girlfriends‘ Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish‘s Yara Shahidi, actress Zoe Saldana, and more. If you haven’t seen/heard it yet, check out the song and its video below.

“Nice For What” follows Drake’s 2018 singles “God’s Plan” and “Diplomatic Immunity.” It seems very likely that more Drake music is on the way this year.

Freedia also recently released her own new single, “Rent,” and you can watch the video for that below too. She’ll be in NYC for Pride Island in June.