Over her 24-year career, rapper Big Freedia has helped popularize the New Orleans style of music known as bounce, catching the attention of the likes of Beyoncé and Drake, both of whom have sampled and featured the NOLA native in some of their biggest hits, including “Formation,” “Break My Soul,” and “Nice for What.”
But Freedia is building an empire bigger than bounce—and she documented that journey in her most recent series, Big Freedia Means Business.
A coproduction between World of Wonder and Fuse, Big Freedia Means Business follows the multi-hyphenate over eight episodes as she juggles her music career and her various business ventures, including beauty products, an eyewear collection, a cannabis line, a record label, and a hotel.
Suffice to say, the title of the show is apt.
Off the heels of her latest album, Central City, and with Big Freedia Means Business wrapping up, Freedia spoke with Fast Company about how she’s leveraging the added spotlight from other artists, and why your hustle mentality may need some work.
Fast Company: You’ve already made a name for yourself as the Queen of Bounce, but what happens when you collaborate with an artist as big as Beyoncé? How does that affect the way you do business?
Big Freedia: For me, it’s not that much different. I still do what I normally would do. It’s just that when working with these artists, it gives me a little bit more validation and credibility for future collaborations. It allows me to also raise the bar a little bit higher—and raise the price. But we still do the same routines. I expect my team to be professional and courteous to people. I will still be all Freedia—that doesn’t change me much. It just makes me get a bigger bag.
FC: In Big Freedia Means Business, you had your hands in a lot of different ventures, including cannabis, beauty, fragrance, etc. In addition to music, why did you decide to enter those particular sectors?
BF: These are things that I do on my day-to-day and things that I’ve been doing for a long time. Then just being in the music world, all of these things are part of my natural daily routines, like smoking cannabis or getting beautified before the shows.
FC: In the series, you mentioned how after all these years, you’re starting to see the fruits of your labor, setting up an eventual retirement. Can you expand on that?
BF: Eventually I would like to retire. I don’t know exactly how that will go. But I plan to have enough businesses set up where I can really retire and really just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I mean, I’m not going to be shaking my ass once I hit a certain age if I’m [still] doing music. I think it’s best that once I do put my torch down or pass it off, I go into something else that I can be doing and still be just as happy.
FC: What do you hope fans, and maybe even some people who are being introduced to you for the first time, get from Big Freedia Means Business?
BF: I hope that they take something away from it—[mainly] that they need to get their shit together and get their business together. I want them to try to start making things happen in their life that can set them up for a better future and for their family and the people around them. I want people to get their hustle on. That’s the whole purpose of this show: to inspire young entrepreneurs out there to see that everything is not all peaches and cream. You will have ups and downs in the business, but don’t give up.
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