"I'm a Punk Under Pressure."

Sissy Nobby dressed to impress

So it's been kinda dead here at the D&HHP. I believe I've said this before, but LBoogie and myself aren't just bloggers, we're also organizers and are working on a project at Delgado Community College here in New Orleans around the white supremacist character of the Louisiana education cuts. The hip-hop generation, in our opinion, is the subjective force that must fight and destroy white supremacy, and in this case, the education cuts and press for democratic control of the school by the students. New Orleans, and Louisiana in general, has very unique political and cultural traditions that we draw a lot from and which has been inspiring to us.

Of the more recent of those traditions has been hip-hop culture in New Orleans. Most outside the city are quite familiar with the sounds of Master P, Mystikal, Mannie Fresh, Juvenile, and Lil Wayne, and all of those cats deserve their dues for their contributions to a New Orleans sound and style. But a lesser known aspect of NOLA hip-hop, and because it has not become generalized across the US, is Bounce.

This is not the first time we've discussed Bounce. For the litany, check out a review of the film on Bounce, "Ya Heard Me?", a note on 10th Ward Buck's upcoming book to be released next week, and a post on Alison Fensterstock's article from the Gambit Weekly on Sissy Rappers.

This music reminds one a lot of Miami Bass because of its highly repetitive and uptempo beat where the rappers are closer to hypemen than they are MCs. In Bounce, rappers are more dependent on the music whereas the standard today is quite the opposite. Bounce goes as far back as the mid 80s so it is anything but new and damn near as old as hip-hop itself. For those who want to get acquainted with it, check out a local blog NOLA BOUNCE.

Even lesser known and far more controversial (but gaining in popularity) within Bounce are the "sissy rappers." These are queer and transsexual/transgender artists who have asserted the validity of a queer identity in hip-hop long before any others have. Katey Red's "Melpomene Block Party" (after the Melpomene projects, still standing!) first debuted in the late 90s.

It isn't enough to say that sissy rappers have carved out a place in hip-hop because queer folks are also people of color and have always been hip-hop. The point and power of sissy rappers are that they have made LGBTQ identity consistent with hip-hop; that it is okay to be queer and be hip-hop, and they have undermined the prevailing white supremacist logic that hip-hop is ultra homophobic.

We've mentioned before how the "Ya Heard Me?" film and Fensterstock's article have captured the tensions within Bounce with some being okay with sissy rappers for economistic reasons--because it brings out the ladies--while others think it has made Bounce synonymous with gay music. Regardless of the reaction, the struggle against heterosexism on a cultural level is being played out in the New Orleans hip-hop generation like nowhere else. On any given night, you'll find those who may not be completely comfortable with the sissy rappers, bangin out to their music when they perform.

Last Saturday, February 14, LBoogie and myself celebrated our Valentine's Day at a Sissy Rapper show in the Quarter with Katey Red, Big Freedia, and Sissy Nobby. We weren't quite aware of the hipster dive this place was, but the good thing is some black folks eventually showed. However, this wasn't no spectator shit; these hipsters were lovin it! L claims it was the livest hip-hop show she has ever been to. While I would dispute that (one of the livest for me was Cypress Hill back in 1996), I am obligated to say that it was off the fuckin hinges. Big Freedia and Sissy Nobby especially were some of the best live entertainers I've seen.

Katey Red performed last and ended the night with her classic joint, "Punk Under Pressure." The song isn't lyrically complicated and is essentially about the struggle of being queer, of being transsexual, but its mostly an angry embrace of that identity best exemplified in the line, "[call] KATEY RED IS A...[response] DICK SUCKA!" It's blunt, it's crude, and it's every way in step with the hip-hop tradition. And I yelled it until I was hoarse.

This post is not meant to elaborate a full perspective on queer identity, but I did want to write a couple of paragraphs about it specifically. Queer identity has a revolutionary quality (and history!) in its critique of the white supremacist State. The State has created a standard in terms of what it considers a valid relationship which is white, middle class, and hetero. It defines a family as an institution that doesn't exist en masse the way more unofficial family forms exist: single parents and children, LGBTQ couples, unmarried straight couples, friends, communes, and others that are based on mutual aid and cooperation and when taken in their totality constitute the majority. Being queer is not necessarily the opposite of being straight, and in this sense, all those who aren't white, middle class, straight couples (like those unhappy crackers in Mad Men) are queer. It means I'm queer because I don't fall into that bullshit category.

There is a sexual component to queer identity and I don't want to dilute that essential aspect. But queer identity is neither purely sexual nor is it a binary thing: you aren't either gay, straight, or bisexual. Its a fluid gradation of sexuality, masculinity, and femininity. It isn't something fixed or rigid, but is as varied as are personalities.

The reality is that queer people in the strict sense are an oppressed category of people and they have a long tradition of struggle. We've seen this most recently in the passage of Prop 8 in California which denied marriage rights for same sex couples. True indeed, a lot of those in support of it were white, liberal gay couples who are trying to prove their loyalty to the white supremacist State. This privileged strata of gay folks have seized the slogan of a black tradition, "civil rights", which rightly pissed off a lot of black folks (including queer blacks) who saw that as pure opportunism. They're okay with co-opting civil rights language, but they won't compromise their loyalty to white supremacy when the police murder black youth. There is obviously a class/racial tension with the queer community at large just as there is in the community as a whole.

Wherever people fall on this, Bounce is bringing folks together that otherwise might be in opposition. This is a fly in the face to those Northern elitist progressives who look upon the South as backwards. Clearly we're doing something right down here.