Big Freedia

Big Freedia (Born 1978)

Freddie Ross Jr., better known by his stage name Big Freedia, is a Gay rapper and performer known for his work in the New Orleans genre of hip hop called bounce music. Freedia has been credited with helping popularize the genre, which had been largely underground since developing in the early 1990s.

In 2011, he was named Best Emerging Artist and Best Hip-Hop/Rap Artist in January's "Best of the Beat Awards” and was nominated for the 2011 22nd GLAAD Media Awards. In 2013, he got his own reality show on the Fuse Channel, which chronicles his life on tour and at home. On July 7, 2015, he released his autobiography, God Save the Queen Diva!. At the end of 2016, Freedia was featured in a local New Orleans television ad for Juan LaFonta Law Office, in which he is shown rapping with bounce music and dancers. In 2018, he released the EP Third Ward Bounce. Freedia was scheduled to go on tour with Ke$ha in 2020, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Freedia is a gay man who also embraces his feminine side; he believes gender is on a spectrum and is ambivalent about pronouns, stating, "I'm gender non-conforming, fluid, nonbinary. If I had known the 'queen' in Queen Diva would cause so much confusion, I might have called myself the king!"