HEE-DAA-HEE-DAA-HEE-DAA-HEE-DAA: Welcome to New Orleans Bounce Music

I am sure that if you spend time on Youtube you are aware of "The Walmart Song". If not, here is the video:

I shop at this Wal-Mart...

This ass-clapping, trance-like bass rhythm, with repetitive vocals makes up the core foundation of New Orleans 'Bounce' Music. I will never forget the first time I happened upon a Bounce concert. It was my freshman year at Tulane and I was attending Voodoo Music Festival over Halloween weekend. As we were leaving the festival on the third and final day, we heard this crazy beat coming from a huge circus tent. We followed the noise and came upon a Sissy Nobby & Big Freedia concert. What we saw was a fat black woman yelling into a microphone as ten or so women were doing lewd dance moves on the stage. Some women were straight up humping the floor, while others were just perched against the DJ table making their asses clap. View the following video to get an idea of what was going on:

As you can see it is essentially just a lot of girls shaking their asses-and hard-while Nobby DJ's/motivates the dancing. It is an absolute blast to watch and inspires the audience to dance along with the crazy beat and even crazier emcees. Another reason why it is so much fun is because of its regional unique-ness. Bounce music pervades the New Orleans music scene in the same way that Crunk swept ATL and how the Thizzle Dance is wholly Bay-Area. The Bounce scene has been around since the early eighties, arising out of the hypnotic chants of the Mardi Gras Indians (women would shake their asses to these chants).

If you find yourself bobbing to the beat of these videos, I would highly recommend checking out Diplo's new cut, "Express Yourself" featuring Jamaican dancehall singer Nicky Da B. Diplo is always a man to follow regional music trends and he borrows heavily from Bounce music in "Express Yourself". It works perfectly with Diplo's hard-hitting beats and great lyrics: "Express yourself/Release & go/Attack the floor/and work it low!" Check out the video below, it has all the same dancing as the above videos (but with Diplo smoking a joint!) to the soundtrack of a great Diplo-produced song.

If you are interested where this video takes place, it is in the Bywater... near the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. Check out the pizzeria "Pizza Delicious" if you want to see where the dancing from this video takes place.

The song is available on Spotify with a Radio Edit, Extended Mix, Acapella, Instrumental, as well as another song called "No Problem" featuring Flinch & Kay.

MAKE THAT ASS CLAP!

---Karl Ryan (@karlmcdougerson)