Entry · catalog no. 1083
sissy bounce
/ /ˈsɪsi baʊns/ /SIS-ee bownss
noun · New Orleans · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
New Orleans bounce made by openly gay and trans performers — the same rapid Triggerman-driven chants and call-and-response, led by artists who reclaimed the local word 'sissy.' Many of the performers themselves call it simply bounce.
“Katey Red and Big Freedia put sissy bounce on the map before the rest of the country caught up.”
Origin & Attribution
Took shape in New Orleans in the late 1990s within bounce, the city's homegrown hip-hop. Katey Red, signed after a 1998 block-party set, is credited as its first star, with Big Freedia and Sissy Nobby close behind. "Sissy," once a slur, was reclaimed as a banner.
1998
Katey Red signed to Take Fo' Records after a block party
1999
Katey Red releases 'Melpomene Block Party'
2000s
Big Freedia raises the profile nationally
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
New Orleans · 1990s
Spoken by
New Orleans bounce artists; Black queer performers
$SISSYBThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady28 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
65/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1998
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Katey Red, 'Melpomene Block Party,' Take Fo' Records — 1999
album · documented
■
+ Cite a sourceOxford American, 'A Brief History of Bounce'
reference
See also