Bounce music

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Bounce music is an energetic style of New Orleans hip hop 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 and the Southern United states, but has a more limited following outside of the Deep South. MC T. Tucker is noted as an early pioneer of the genre, and quite possibly 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, is the first self-proclaimed homosexual artist.

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 vocoded "drag rap" vocals, and the minimal drum machine verse.

Despite the genre's relative seclusion, elements of bounce have influenced a variety of other southern hip hop 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 ("twerk", "shake that thing like a salt shaker", "it must be your money 'cause it ain't your dick" or "it must be your pussy 'cause it ain't your face"), David Banner's hit "Like A Pimp" is constructed around a slowed down "Triggaman" sample and Memphis' DJ Paul's early mixtapes prominently feature samples from DJ Jimi's work and Paul has slipped many a bounce reference into his production work for La Chat, Gangsta Boo and Three Six Mafia, which has made a few bona fide bounce songs, including "Push em off".

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.