Buckjumping (2018) - full transcript

The only way I knew I could do it, I get it from God.

And he gave it to me, so I'm utiltizing it.

Are you nervous?

Yeah. Shaking like a '57 Chevy.

Need to hear that horn, that tuba. Tuba-luba-luba-lu

(music)

All right, let’s go. Here we go, yall.

Lafayette Cemetery Number 2. One of the oldest

cemeteries in the city of New Orleans. Follow me this way.

Right here I’m going to take you to show you

where the Young Men Olympian Benevolent Association



bury our secondline members.

We are fortunate to be a benevolent association meaning that we take care of the dead,

you know we bury the dead, and we take care of the sick.

And this is us right here.

1882.

Incorporated in 1883.

And that’s how we got started in 1884.

And like I said we were parading through the city for a long time.

We are the oldest benevolent association in the state of Louisiana,

and also the oldest in New Orleans.

So, this is us.

Young Men Olympian Benevolent Association.

and like I said it’s my job to scrape some of that grass off,

make sure that this grass is up, clean right here.



Just doing what I normally do, you know,

as the Grand Marshall of the organization for the last 6, 7 years or so.

What people who don’t know is that we have different social and pleasure clubs

that represent different parts of the city.

It’s a fellowship club.

You have, at least, close to 35, 40 social clubs.

Uptown, you got the Lady Buckjumpers, The Y.M.O.,

the 7th Ward got one, the 17th got one,

The Pigeon Town Steppers.

Across the canal, in the 9th Ward,

you got the Nine Times.

What we’re doing right now is putting our decorations together.

You know.

A lot of clubs usually pay somebody else to do they decorations

but we doing our own decorations this year.

To symbolize who we is and what we stand for.

That’s too much on there, dawg.

That’s too much?

Yeah, yeah. You see how it's bubbling up on here. It’s too much.

It ain't going to come off. Don’t worry about it.

It ain't coming off.

Don’t spray too heavily. You can just do it light.

See once you do it light on there and light on here,

they gonna stick regardless, see what I'm saying?

You ain’t got to go heavy with it.

It’s just no way in the world I’m a be able to do that.

My hands go to shaking. I can’t do that.

You can’t mess anything up though unless you cut wrong.

Hey bruh, that's enough.

Spray it again like that.

You're too close.

I got an itchy trigger finger, Lummie.

We’ve got a new member right here.

He is scared to come out of the door.

We’ve got a new member right ​here​.

He’s scared to come out of the door, with the hoodie on.

Him over there with the hoodie, trying to hide.

They say I’m scared so I’m scared.

A little nervous. But I’m alright though.

Don’t say what we think. Tell the truth.

He's scared!

I’m a little nervous. This is my first time.

I’ve been watching them all my life, well not all my life but the last 17 years.

I just go to the second line.

If you fall down, it’s a dance move. You stay with the rhythm.

You still do a move and it’s a dance move.

Nobody ever knows that you fall because if you do it in a way

you just do it with the rhythm man, they’ll never know you fell down.

I fall a lot.

Then you’re drunk. If you’re drunk then you..

I fall a lot.

Desire coming! Way downtown.

We on our way.

How far? How long?

How long we got?

Six more days, then the way up!

A secondline can have different meanings.

It can have a meaning where you’re free-spirit,

you come to have a good time,

you come to see different moves,

different footwork,

different outfits, different clothes.

It’s just: secondline has a meaning of its own.

Why the word called secondline?

I don’t know why. I just know they name it secondline.

You got the instruments, you’ve got a jazz band,

and people just roll along up the street,

going to different neighborhoods, different blocks,

and just having a good time.

Listening to the music, singing the songs, making up new songs.

It’s just something ‘New Orleans’ that gets you away from everything else.

It just gets you away from all of the negativity,

all, you know, just the stuff that you want to get away.

We got the ladies.

Nine, themselves.

In the building.

It's our turn!

For 5 years.

Their anniversary is next year.

Come to see another finale.

9th Ward holiday. They just don’t know what they’re in store for today.

9th Ward holiday, baby. Nine Times!

Four hours.

How much longer we got to wait?

Give me a watch. I need a watch!

I need to calculate the time, right now.

We made it already?

(music)

Ah, it tastes so good. Ah, man.

Slap ya Mama breakfast!

Yall got to get some more.

A lot of guys used to always say, cause they see me dancing,

they say “Man, you ought to come and join our club uptown.

Yeah come on, join our club”.

I tells everybody.

It ain’t where I’m from.

I’d rather do it downtown where all my brothers and loved ones

and everybody that done passed away or died downtown.

I’d rather let their spirit see me do my thing downtown where they at.

So when I’m dancing, I ain’t got nothing but spirit in me

from all of them that are dead and gone.

Come on! We’re trying to help you. Come on.

Yo, don’t let no big boy beat you. Come on.

A lot of these dudes I grew up under in the projects.

But I strayed away, went to prison,

started doing drugs and all that.

And I came back, reincarnated, and wisened up.

So, I said, you know, I’m going to start.. I started dancing.

I said I’m going to join a club.

But I couldn’t join no any club.

I had to join a club where I was from and

Nine Times had a club in the Desire Housing Projects

and I’ve been excited like I am now

all 5 years with my brothers and them.

And I took a vow of brotherhood because

if I go to messing up they’re going to catch my back.

They’re going to tap me on my shoulder

and say, “Calm down woosah”.

Because I’m vital. I’m vital to it.

I go out and that’s when they come in at.

You know they’ll be watching over me like real brotherhood.

True brotherhood.

We’re all from the same bricks.

The pleats go in the back.

Hey! Yall don’t know how to put on a damn..

Yall mama never taught yall how to put on a kilt!

Whoo! These feel comfortable too. Oh my God!

All of this is alligator. All that’s alligator right there.

They’re going to turn blue and green outside in the sun.

So watch our feet because our feet can’t fail us now.

The skirt and the kilt should be last thing yall put on, dawg.

Yall got to put on yall shirt.

Because it's got to wrap around yall shirt.

The kilt should be the last thing yall put on.

Nine. Ton of fun baby, let’s get it.

Lumdini, what it do!

You already know. Strong man. Look at him.

Five..... Four....

You ain’t put on no undergarment?

So, you want to be a hot girl in a cold girl’s world.

In a cold girl’s world, you want to be a hot girl?

You knew last night it’s going to be cold.

And my bag was packed already.

So you should’ve repacked and then added.

Alright. I‘ve got to put my tie on.

And then we’re going to see how it looks with the tie.

Because the tie is going in the corset.

I'm ready.

So you outside?

Yeah. Thank you very much.

Love this. Tiff say she love you.

Love yall.

See you on the route, Mom.

I’ve got everybody’s money in the envelope ready to roll.

From the band, to the rope men, to the picture lady.

What band are you going with?

Free Spirits.

Okay. So, I can have your band over here.

Right. No, we’re coming out next door.

We’re going out that back door.

No, I need to know what band is—

We have Free Spirits. We are coming out of this back door at 11:45,

going around to hit that door at noon.

No. Yall coming out at 12:45 because we gotta

roll out because we still got to go up the street—

We’re coming out at 11:45?

We have to still got up the street—

At 11:45?

You told me 12:45. I’m asking you.

No because the—

You told me 12:45.

No, I didn't.

The parade starts at 12:00.

So that’s what I’m saying. So, you’re saying 11:45.

Yes.

Okay, so we’re trying to argue.

No, it's not an argument. It’s a conversation.

It’s the final countdown!

Who bringing your shoes?

You can’t go outside with that, hear?

You go get them.

You go and get them!

About to take over the streets of Desire.

Gotta get your money’s worth, baby.

Way downtown.

We been preparing. Planning colors, attire, floats, permits,

city streets, hidden streets, bands.

We ready. It’s our turn.

It's our turn! It’s our turn! It’s our turn! It’s our turn!

Way downtown! Way downtown!

Where we from? Way downtown!

(music)

See what I’m trying to do? Some kind of way,

this little clear bead got in there with my blue beads.

Now

I’ve got to pull this apart

to get that bead out.

I don’t know where that bead even came from.

I’m not even using clear beads.

When I went to Ghana, it looked just like I was watching a second line.

I was watching a funeral

and in Ghana for their funerals, they wear red.

That’s the funeral color that they wear, red.

But the procession: I stood on the sidewalk

and the procession came in front of me.

They had the umbrellas up,

they had the handkerchiefs up,

and they had the brass instruments.

I was like, “Oh my God.

This is exactly like how it is at home in New Orleans.

Exactly!

Exactly.

So, I saw.. that was the immediate thing I saw.

And then I immediately saw, after that they had a party

and they celebrated the life of the deceased

just like we do here in New Orleans.

Same exact thing.

Grab your neighbor’s hand all over this place.

God knows how to bring us together,

whether we want to come together or not,

God knows how to bring us together.

Can I tell you death can temporarily

remove us from those we love

but it transfers us into the presence

of the one who loves us most.

The other day, on last week,

Tuna was just transferred.

We know Tuna is with the Lord.

I wish I had a witness in here.

The Bible says to be absent from the body

is to be present with the Lord.

Don’t allow a fear of death to prevent you

from experiencing a full and abundant life.

So many of us, we’re scared to die. It is because

we don’t know where we’re going.

But when you know, that you know, that you know, that you know,

that you know, that you know, that you know..

Heaven belongs to you,

you have no issue with death.

You have no problem with death. I wish I had a witness in here.

Just look at somebody and tell them:

This world is not our home,

we’re just pilgrims that’s passing through.

That’s why you can’t get too comfortable here.

(music)

Come on, girlfriend! Let’s roll, girlfriend!

(music)

Coming for you, girlfriend!

Go get it Lady Money Wasters! Coming through.

Go get it Lady Money Wasters. Go get it!

Keep it moving, yall. Keep it moving.

See you later baby. Tuna!

(music)

Tuna!

Tuna! Tuna you heard me girl. Tuna!

It hurts so bad.

Lord, don’t let them take her. Please no!

Please don't go!

Please don’t go. Don’t let them take her.

(music)

What would be a better way to send somebody off than a jazz funeral?

That’s so New Orleans.

Without that it wouldn’t even feel right.

I mean we are the people that celebrate death.

That’s what we do.

You’re going to a better place,

that’s the way we look at it,

so we’re gonna dance you off.

And I know a lot of people don’t get it

but I wouldn’t want it no other way.

I would want people to have fun at my funeral,

celebrate life, and remember me in a good way.

That’s what that means.

So without that there’s no New Orleans without having that.

That’s not us.

(music)

I drop them in this. I call it a witch’s brew.

So it’s orange peels, lemon peels, parsley,

onion, garlic, thyme, bell pepper.

And the juice in the pot outside has my seafood boil in it.

But

the potatoes is the last thing I do because they don’t take long.

They go in this big pot.

They boil for about twenty minutes

and then I take them out,

put them in the pan

and wait til the seafood night start.

We deal with so many things..

..you know sometimes when they say

you have to laugh to keep from crying?

Well, we have to dance to keep from cutting up.

That’s what I think.

Steve, you could put it back on there for me.

You know you have to dance to keep from cutting up

sometimes.

And plus we love to dance. Dancing is fun.

And it’s a release, you know?

It’s a release of so many things:

good things, bad things, you know.

You dance your troubles away.

Got it.

This is the high-rise intake shroud cover.

Took three hours and however many minutes,

but I stayed with it. I didn’t give up.

I stayed with it because my best friend need this ride

to get back and forward to work.

Never worked in a shop in my life.

Always was in front of a door.

And if the dark catch me, I go get me a lamp

and finish the job.

And I got my fan.

And I’m good.

I’m a totally different character when I’m dancing.

I block everybody out.

And I be in my own world.

I could walk into a ballroom,

could be a reception, a block party..

I just go out there and I start dancing.

They be like: “Wow look at him, look at her. Both!”

It doesn’t matter. It’s a human being that know how to dance.

I got a gloss you can have.

That's supposed to be a matte that I bought.

That's supposed to be a matte gloss.

Now, when I hear that beat and I’m gone.

They can’t keep up with me.

They be like how you do that?

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop

Stay with the beat.

You be in your own zone.

Block everybody else is out.

(music)

Make your way Hustler! Make your way!

(music)

Hustler do his own style.

It’s like no matter how people dance,

Hustler do the dance for him.

It’s not the words to the song, it’s the background; it’s the beat.

Hustler stands out everywhere we go

when it comes to dancing because

it’s not nothing that you’ve seen.

Oh, my goodness. Love at first sight?

I believe in that, for real.

It’s just that at that time Hustler was with someone.

I was with someone.

So when we did the little flirt thing it wasn’t nothing serious.

But we did respect that we was with other people.

So we never tested the water or anything.

We did joke: “If you’re ever single and I’m ever single

we would get together”.

When we got the certificate the judge said:

“Do you want it to say bride and bride or bride and groom”?

and Hustler, being a comedian said:

“How I’m dressed? Do I look like I’m dressed with a veil?”

But just to have that option to respect the lifestyle,

you know what I mean?

True, we’re both lesbians.

True, Hustler is a woman and has daughters and grandkids.

Hustler will always be a her and a grandmother first, no matter what.

When we say him and his, it’s just mainly a choice.

No different from them seeing a drag queen in a dress.

You’re not gonna really say him and you see she has heels on, right?

So, it’s really just a preference on what we call each other

and what we’re comfortable with.

Come on y’all. Good night, good night.

Good night everybody. How yall doing?

Drag night. It’s amazing.

It’ll take you in a whole other level.

Just like why is this guy dressing up and

why is they giving him tips to sing a song that’s already recorded?

Like, what’s this about?

You know, you have this regular everyday life and

and it’s just drag night. Everybody is dressing up.

No, not yet?

You married?

Oh, he waited til you got your job.

Girl, now that’s dirty.

Watch him. Don’t put him over your insurance, niece.

I don't trust him.

Anytime you want to put a ring all on her finger, now she don’t got her..

Now don’t let that go too far to your head, no.

Don’t get big headed.

Because a lot of these flight attendants thinking they all that.

Bitch, you ain't nothing but a waitress in the air.

A cocktail whore in the sky.

It is nerve-wracking for the wife because you..

I hope the song don’t skip or I hope she studied her twists or her part.

It's nerve-wracking to get through those 120 seconds.

Put yall hands together at this very time

for the talents of the one and only

Mr. Hustler!

(music)

You have some people that this is what they live.

This is their truth.

and you have some people
that are still struggling with their truth

and they come out to release that

but when they go home they

living how the household wants them to live,

so they have a struggle with that.

So you have people that need this night to be free.

(music)

I’m not understanding. I’m not understanding.

Don’t make me mad. Do not upset me, okay.

Yes, ma'am.

You get to the doggone diagonal and you hit this.

What are you doing? OK and then for the diagonal, yall turn around.

What’s yall's numbers? Who’s what for this?

Everybody doing one put your hand up.

If you go on one put your hand up.

Start from strutting to the diagonal.

When they get here, for the most part,

they’re like 9th graders, 10th graders.

They have no clue what to do with their bodies, at all.

They have no clue. They don’t know how to use them.

They don’t know how to work them.

They don’t know when to hold back from it.

So one thing that I do try to teach them is control.

I don’t want them to be sexual,

but I want them to be comfortable.

I want them to be confident in their bodies

and I want them to be confident as young women.

Of course, when they get out there they have their little uniforms,

they have on their leotards, they’re marching down the street,

they’re exposed, but at the end of the day I want them to be...

I don’t want them to be looked at as sex objects,

I want them to be looked at as confident young women.

(music)

When I think about what I got out of it

when I was on the dance team,

I want to give them an escape,

a place that they can be themselves.

I try to make it as sacred a place as I can.

I always tell them that,

as soon as you make the team, "this is a sacred environment".

When you’re mad, come here and release.

When you're happy, come here and be happy and release.

I try to make it a real sacred

yet a home environment

somewhere where they can always feel safe.

Because sometimes, especially with them being young women

I feel like they don’t have that place that they can just be themselves,

another place where they can connect with other young women.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8..

Even when I was younger I always wanted to dance

and I went into middle school and I joined their dance team

and seeing Karr’s dance team, I was like,

“Oh I gotta be on they team.”

So I did what I had to do, worked myself to get on the team,

and now I’m here.

We do a lot of different styles.

Instead of doing more formal dancing,

we do a lot of, you know, “I made this up on my own.

I want to show yall something new that I did.

I want to pop or I want to shake or something.”

That’s, like, our style. Yeah.

(music)

You excited when they tell you that you’re

gonna march in the parade at night.

You’re gonna go to Jackson Square,

you’re gonna march up Canal.

You know you’re gonna have family members on the sideline cheering for you.

But at the same time, it’s a competition.

There are other schools so it’s like,

our drum cadence have to be the best,

our routines have to be the best.

You save your energy for some of the smaller streets,

But you know when you turn on Canal,

you have to step your game up.

You know the Mayor is watching.

You know so many city officials are watching.

and you want to do your best.

But you get so tired.

Oh, my goodness!

And you have school the next day.

Sometimes a test!

And you gotta march.

But it’s the culture so you adapt and for us it’s normal.

You don’t even notice the crowd, honestly.

You hear them but, like, by you dancing,

you’re in your own little world.

and it’s like the music from the band is flowing through you.

It’s just like one big... I don’t know.

It just feel good.

(music + parade sounds)

Anywhere you walk down in this city, somebody’s dancing.

Me and my friends could walk down Decatur right now

and 9 times out of 10 there’s gonna be a man,

a random man,

on the side playing drums on a bucket.

And you know what I’m gonna do?

I’m gonna stop.

Me and my friends are going to dance,

we’re gonna secondline, we’re gonna do all of that.

Like, everything we can do.

I’ll do African dance, second line, ballet, tap, anything you give me.

Anything I’m feeling at that time, I’m gonna do it.

And I think that I kind of.. I do feel like I get that from this city.

So yeah, New Orleans has a lot to do with dance. Of course.

Mardi Gras Indians.

Now, that is a perfect example of Black men

asserting an act of resistance.

Mardi Gras Day.

I’m talking about when they first started masking.

You have to remember Black people weren’t allowed to be on Canal Street.

We didn’t have Mardi Gras.

That’s why our carnival was in our neighborhoods,

in our communities.

And so

a Black man in his regular life

may have been a laborer, a brick-mason, a painter, a mechanic, whatever.

But on Mardi Gras he a chief

and he stays on the streets,

and he bucks the police.

Do you know how dangerous that is?

That’s dangerous.

But

it’s an act of resistance

For that moment he’s saying:

I’m not Joey the plumber.

I’m Big Joe, Big Chief of this particular tribe,

demanding his respect.

So yes, there are definitely examples in the culture

that demonstrates acts of resistance

by the mere fact because they’re still here and just existing.

I got the eye on the world with the 13 states.

That’s that little chief head.

And I killed the possum there

and that’s the little baby wild hog head there.

Let me see the possum again.

Shall I carry the axe today or just go with the staff?

The axe.

The axe? Alright, I got that.

And don’t forget I got that Third Ward Trouble Stick to carry, too.

Oh yeah.

So how about this?

Use the Third Ward Trouble Stick. That’s it.

That's it. Cool.

I’ll let somebody else.

How about that pretty lady right there?

Which one?

Carry the staff.

Which one? Which one?

I don’t know. That pretty young lady right there.

Which one? You pick somebody.

(music)

That's the way you do it!

Ah shit! Don’t worry about it.

What was it?

It’s something popped.

Maybe it’ll fit better.

That's right.

Do like this, you see? You're not looking.

Try it like that.

Don’t do it with one hand. See, you keep putting the stick—

You keep putting your hand like that. And then do it with that hand.

Excuse me baby.

Let me get round that way, Keith.

Ooo ee.

Coochie Ma!

If you’ve been in this long enough,

you can really tell who’s really into it and who’s not.

Now, I don't know if she’s gonna do this when she gets bigger,

but this is her third year masking.

But

in the event that she don’t want to do it anymore

we won’t make her.

But I picked her.

Everything she has on is handmade by me.

No machine.

It looks like it.

None of it is done by machine.

It ain’t tight, huh? This one.

It’s cool. It’s cool.

I’m gonna take it off for a minute.

I'm a come over there.

Coochie mah, make no hoombah from Way Uptown.

Indians walking together make boom boom achie wah wah, oo nah ney.

Jockimo fih nah ney.

Coochie mah, Creole Wild West from Way Uptown.

Got the little chief scout with me, Creole Wild West,

Coochie mah, achie wah wah, oo nah ney.

Indians!

Indians!

Yeah, we ready baby.

It’s important for us to still gather.

It’s important to us to secondline.

It’s important for us to masquerade because

the Native Americans helped so many slaves escape

and by doing that, the slaves are paying homage to them.

The first Mardi Gras Indians to do it was

I think it was the Creole Wild West.

They were the first ones to

embellish themselves

and dress like the Native Americans

and sing and dance for them

and that’s something that we’ve been doing for hundreds and hundreds of years.

So

You know, we still do all those things.

We still meet up at Congo Square because we celebrate freedom.

We celebrate the fight.

We celebrate the struggle.

We celebrate all of those things.

That’s who we are.

When you come to New Orleans and you see secondliners

and you see Mardi Gras Indians, it’s not merely for your entertainment.

It has more to do with our culture and our bloodline

than it does with actually entertaining people.

So that’s why a lot of people say they encounter Mardi Gras Indians

and they’re not that friendly.

It’s because they’re not friendly bobbing because they’re not here really to entertain.

They’re actually doing something

and they paying homage to people who have died,

and people that died in the fight and died in the struggle.

So it’s more serious to them than just,

“Oh we look so pretty, take our picture,” you know.

It’s way deeper than that.

We mask as Native Americans to pay homage to the Native Americans

who helped the slaves when they were running away.

Now everybody have they own theory.

It’s not tribute, it’s homage.

The Native Americans down here in Louisiana

who helped the slaves when they were running away,

this is our way of saying thank you.

Different pictures here that we take.

You might catch us in action.

This is my cousin. He raised me as a brother.

Showed me how to ride bikes, showed me how to be a man.

And his name is Ferdinand and he designs all my sticks, my hatchets, whatever.

If he don’t do it, he will get mad.

My uncle Bob. He was the second chief of the Creole Wild West.

He was the Spy Boy of the Creole Wild West.

He made every suit for me up to the age of probably about 14 years old.

He showed me how to sew.

This is my sister.

She also helps me out with my suits, like buying different parts of material.

This is my older sister as a baby. She makes all of the ruffles for my suits.

When I first started masking as a Mardi Gras Indian at first, they didn't tell me

tell me that I was going to have to learn how to sew.

They didn’t tell me I wasn’t gonna have any skin on these fingers.

Now, I don’t get in trouble but if I had to get fingerprinted,

there aint nothing on these three,

because the back of the needle.

My fingers get so tender until the back of the needle goes in my hand.

Yeah, I have a mark right here and you can’t use a thimble.

A lot of people say just use a thimble. Thimble gets in the way.

So the remedy for getting stuck in your finger,

Even I’ve had like, putting the headdress together,

I’m pushing down on the table,

and I’ve had the big needle come up through here

and screamed so loud

til I had my mom and them, “What’s going on?”

“Needle went through my hand!”

So, they just come up in there and I pour some Hundred Pipers on it,

and put some duct tape on it,

and take a shot of Hundred Pipers

and back to sewing. It don’t stop.

But it’s something that men here in New Orleans

that we know how to sew and put patterns together

and make these beautiful suits.

They’re not costumes. They’re suits.

It’s different with a costume where somebody makes it and it’s manufactured.

This is an Indian suit. It’s all made by me.

Now, I don’t get no Christmas presents.

I’m not married.

I don’t get no birthday presents.

The children at school gave me some candy one time.

Besides that this is me. Nobody can take this away from me.

This is all me. This is what I have.

I don’t own a house.

I don’t own a car.

I own this.

And I’m happy with it.

We hold Indian practice on Sundays,

social aid and secondlines on Sundays,

because at one point in time they used to let the slaves on Sundays,

the masters would go to French Quarter and drop them all off in Congo Square.

And all the slaves would get together and collaborate different drum patterns.

“I play the guitar,” he play the guitar,

“I play the trumpet,” would all get together

and that’s where all these different sounds of New Orleans come from.

We have coded signals, each gang.

Each tribe has a coded signal that they use for to go

and it’s something that we really share but I can tell you this:

If I’m going to the left I wouldn’t say “Spyboy. Spyboy!”

I wouldn’t say Spyboy go to the left.

I would say “Spyboy,” and I would shoot a signal

and he would know that means go that way.

Some of this stuff, like I said, is coded in secrecy

but it’s communication within the gang.

Mighty cootie fiyo

Indian red, Indian red.

That’s a song we sing before we go out every Mardi Gras.

It’s an Indian prayer to make sure we get back home safe.

(music)

I’m the Creole Wild West.

Way downtown.

(music)

Bounce is this generation’s way of expressing themselves.

The general history is that African people have been moving

that particular part of their bodies throughout the entire continent.

They all have a step that looks like twerking and bounce,

so it’s not anything new.

People underestimated hip-hop and they underestimated bounce

because I don’t think people thought that bounce was going to be around

as long as it was but it has proven itself

to be a powerful tool to put New Orleans on the map with hip-hop.

What part I need to take out?

Drop that beat on that part.

Oh yeah.

You tripping.

Yall all coming out tonight?

Yeah, we gonna come out.

Support you bruh!

By the guys and the girls and the girls and the guys shake.

And the guys that dress like the girls and the girls that dress like the guys.

That’s my type of girls and guys!

We’re headed to the Vibe. Live at the Vibe.

Each and every Thursday night.

I started hosting back in 2006 right after Hurricane Katrina.

And we about to get into it.

The shakedown.

When Katrina came, the Vibe was messed up.

It was flooded out

and right after Hurricane Katrina

everyone came together and rebuild the Vibe.

Not rebuilt it but fix the inside and everything, gutted it out,

made sure everything proper to make it a night club again.

It really is like a real community when it come down to bounce.

And people don’t like for people to water down bounce

or talk bad about bounce.

Because you have some people who, like myself,

that grew up on bounce music, you know.

And growing up on bounce music is the reason why I’m the person I am today.

Now this is my job, you know.

This is my duty: to make everyone bounce,

to make everyone dance, and people look forward to that.

(music)

Once you start to feel that music, that rhythm, and that beat,

it takes over your body and makes you feel like you could just be loose,

and you can speak from your body about how you feeling.

You could be going through a depressed day.

You could be down and out, you could be feeling some type of way,

but once you feel that bounce beat in your body

it just takes control.

It makes you just loose and out.

It makes you feel sexual, it makes you feel free,

it brings that energy to you,

and it makes you feel like you in control at that moment.

Bounce music just makes me remember my ancestors.

It makes me remember my roots.

Bounce music brings you back to the picnic in the summertime

where you know you about to have a family reunion

and everyone there is bucking you up like,

“Come on shake, work, work, work,”

It don’t matter if you’re 2 years old,

it don’t matter if you’re 5 years old, 55 to 65, 78 to 98,

that bounce beat is gonna bring that out in you

because that’s just naturally New Orleans.

Not only is our music cultural,

not only is our music freedom,

but it goes back to ancestors.

African culture was about the movement of the body,

the music and what it did to you.

It freed your soul and your spirit.

Each generation gets the opportunity to take a step and say,

“This is our dance that we created,”

but they have not created anything.

It’s just being recycled over and over again.

And it’s always been a dance that people have done

that people considered risqué.

You know, that you should not do because it looks sexual, right?

But there is an aesthetic to movement.

If your background is ballet, bounce is totally just...

unacceptable way of moving the body.

But that girl that decides to do that is saying,

“I am claiming my body,

I am moving my body how I choose to move my body.

And aesthetically it is pleasing to me.”

So, definitely, I would say that bounce is an example of resistance.

(music)

I'm about to go home. I'm tired.

Yeah I know. You worked out.

Call you on facetime or facebook.

New Orleans culture is love, is happiness, is fun,

is freedom, it’s up and down, my lights off, they on,

hurricane coming, it’s not, let’s have a barbecue, who coming to the park,

who coming to the secondline, DJ around the corner.

”Hold on, put shakedown on yall, yeah!”

It don’t matter, from 2 to 72, from 72 to 92.

That’s New Orleans baby!