Music Sound

Bounce music is an energetic style of New Orleans Rap music, taking off in the early 1990s, but dating back to 1980s. It is characterized by call and response party chants and dance call-outs typically sung over the "Triggaman" (from the song "Drag Rap" by the Showboys) and/or "Brown Beat" samples. The genre maintains widespread popularity in New Orleans, but is relatively unknown outside of the area. MC T. Tucker is noted as an early pioneer of the genre, if not its creator. The genre evolved quickly through the 90s. Throughout this decade the Take Fo' record label dominated the scene with artists such as DJ Jubilee, Da' Sha Ra', and Willie Puckett .Katey Red, also a Take Fo' artist, contributed significantly to the genre (as well as to the larger rap world) through being its first self-proclaimed homosexual artist. Following her arrival to the scene, so-called "Sissy" rappers have multiplied exponentially. Recent developments in the genre display an increased intensity and speed, perhaps best demonstrated by 10th Ward Buck's song "Fasta."

While Bounce may be most identifiable by its dance-call outs and lyrical stylings, its use of sampling is remarkably distinct. In stark contrast to hip-hop's early years, when DJs would scrape the labels off their records to preserve their originality and create a certain mystique, Bounce feeds off the relentless pillaging of the Drag Rap sample. Nearly every second of this 1986 single has made its way into Bounce jams: its opening chromatic tics, the immediately identifiable Drag Rap sample, the shouting out of "break" (emulated throughout Outkast's Stankonia), the whistling breakdown, the vocodered "drag rap", the minimal drum machine verse.

Despite the genre's relative seclusion, elements of Bounce have influenced a variety of other southern rap styles and have even slipped their way into the mainstream. Atlanta's Crunk artists such as Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins frequently cite Bounce chants in their songs ("it must be your money cuz it ain't your dick" or "it must be your pussy cuz it ain't your face"), David Banner's hit "Like A Pimp" is constructed around a slowed down "Triggaman" sample and Memphis' DJ Paul has slipped many a Bounce reference into his production work for La Chat, Gangsta Boo and Three Six Mafia.

Bounce coverage is also making its way into journalism. Nik Cohn's Triksta: Life and Death and New Orleans Rap reports on the author's own involvement with this genre, one certainly complicated by his own simultaneous obsession and distaste for the music.