Fresh off a mega-performance, which included an 11-piece choir, at New Orleans Jazz Fest this past weekend, the Queen of Bounce, BIG FREEDIA has announced the June 1 release of her upcoming EP on Asylum Records, 3rd Ward Bounce. Full details were revealed this week via Rolling Stone. Aerobic, ceaseless and a touch more mainstream than prior releases, the EP has all the signifiers of Freedia’s brand of Bounce—throbbing instrumentals, booming vocals, frenetic handclaps—with even sharper songwriting that pushes her sound into new territory. Lead single “Rent” is all attitude, rebuffing the type of people who occupy a space in your mind (watch “Rent” here), while “Karaoke” featuring Lizzo pounds along with robust horns, intended to become the freewheeling type of anthem that soundtracks a night out of singing. Elsewhere, the Goldiie-assisted “Play” nods to the “slay” echoed on Freedia’s “Formation” collab with Beyoncé, and “Bomb” plays like a chest-thump, a nod to all that Freedia’s accomplished. Full track listing below.

“I just want to inspire people to understand that New Orleans culture is very special, it’s a phenomenal place and that we’re on a rise to bigger and better things and we speak it through our music and everyday living down here,” says Freedia, who was born and raised in the city’s 3rd Ward. “The pain and suffering that we go through here in New Orleans, we take it and we flip it around.”

It’s hard not to feel Freedia’s presence in pop culture. In addition to high-level appearances on culturally-defining tracks and a string of her own impacting releases, Freedia has become one of the strongest voices from the South, in part thanks to ‘Big Freedia Bounces Back’ on Fuse TV, a weekly docu-series that’s been on for six seasons and become the network’s highest-rated original series.

In addition to living life as a member of the LGBTQ community, she’s consistently used her music to lift listeners of all gender and sexual identity, using music as a bridge to unite. “I’m a voice for different communities,” she says. “Live your life and live the best way you know how. Love whoever you choose to love. Be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. It’s a much broader mission for me to encourage people all over—not just the LGBTQ community but heterosexuals as well to live out they life loud and proud.”

Following the release of 3rd Ward Bounce, Big Freedia will bring bounce to the stage at NYC Pride. See full tour dates below.

“Rent” is available now at all DSPs and digital streaming services. Download/stream here: http://smarturl.it/bigfreedia-rent

3rd Ward Bounce Track List
:
1. “Karaoke” (ft. Lizzo)
2. “3rd Ward Bounce”
3. “Bomb”
4. “Rent”
5. “Play”

Big Freedia Tour Dates:

May 19 – Brussels, Belgium @ Beursschouwburg
May 21 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Kulturhaus Karlstorbahnhof
May 22 – Berlin, Germany @ Gretchen
May 23 – Hamburg, Germany @ Mojo Club
May 24 – Dublin, Ireland @ The Workmans Club
May 26 – Birmingham, United Kingdom @ Birmingham Pride
May 27 – London, United Kingdom @ Village Underground
May 29 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso Kleine Zaal
May 30 – Denmark, ME @ Various Venues
June 23 – New York, NY @ Pride Island
July 14 – Birmingham, AL @ Sloss Fest
August 2 – United Kingdom @ Bestival, Wareham
August 3 – Polva, Estonia @ Intsikurmu Music Festival
August 5 – Katowice, Poland @ OFF Festival
October 18 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club