There is a myth popular amongst New Orleanians that all music comes from New Orleans. While this may be the slightest exaggeration, it’s true that New Orleans has probably produced more musical innovators than any other single city in the country. From Louis Armstrong to Fats Domino to Master P. New Orleans has a history of producing musicians who, seemingly from nowhere, sweep in and shake up the national music scene like a level 6.0 earthquake. Out of this rich tradition emerges the newest offspring from the Crescent City’s musically fertile loins: bounce music, a form of rap that is as uniquely New Orleans as Sazeracs and Oysters Rockefeller. While gangstas all over the country rap about their hos and their guns, New Orleans bounce rappers can’t be bothered. They just want to make the crowd jump.
Or at least this is Katey Red’s take on the situation. Red, who comes straight from the Third Ward (Melpomene to be exact), is a rapidly rising star on the Take Fo’ label. Take Fo’ is the major bounce label in New Orleans, including stars such as DJ Jubilee and Tec9 from U.N.L.V. on its roster of artists. Red has only been on the label since March 1999, but she’s already had several radio hits and released two albums, The Punk Under Pressure (punk being slang for a homosexual) and Y2Katey: the Millennium Sissy. She explains bounce’s appeal: “A lot of girls come on by because they like to dance off the music. Boys come by ‘cause they like to see the girls dance.”
Like many other local rappers, Katey was discovered at a block party in the spring of 1999. But it all started with Katey and her friends hanging out in the halls of the Melpomene projects, drinking daiquiris and putting together raps for her friends to dance to. One crazy autumn night a guy in Katey’s project was throwing a party at which everyone was “tore down, intoxicated. They was like ‘Katey, go get on the mike!’ And I’m like ‘Y’all trippin’, don’t play with me. How y’all figure I’m gonna get on the mike? I ain’t no rapper!’ ‘Just say what y’all say in the hallway!’ So I started singin’ it, and it wasn’t just the girls singin’ with me who knew it, everyone knew it. Everyone had been listenin’ to us, and we didn’t even know anyone had noticed.” This was in October 1998, when Katey was just 19-years-old. After that, Katey started rapping at block parties all over the city, and by April of the next year she had cut an album and the single “Melpomene Block Party” was being played on the radio, at parties and on porches all over the city.
But before we go any further, perhaps we should mention one thing: technically speaking, Katey Red isn’t really a “she.” Yes, Katey Red is really Kenyon Carter, not only rap’s first drag queen, but the first openly homosexual rapper in general. Though it was scary at first for Katey, being the first homosexual rapper, she has since embraced her position in life, as sort of a role model for other people in the community who are struggling to accept their own sexual orientation. “They have people who are gay, they’re like, ‘Well, Katey Red’s not ashamed of her being gay.’ Deep down inside they know they’re gay, and when I look up they say ‘Katey, girl, I know I’m a punk [a slang term for being gay], but I’m scared ’cause I don’t want boys to be hittin’ on me.’ And I say, ‘Look, if you go out there and disrespect yourself, they’re gonna disrespect you too.”’
Thus is the nature of Katey Red’s innovation. With her new album, Katey sets out to stake a claim in the rap scene for the people who like its bass-heavy, easy-to-dance-to rhythms, but not its macho posturing; who, in her words, “just like to shake their ass.” And if things are to be judged by her success in New Orleans, it looks like she might make it all the way. “Since I started rapping things have changed,” says Katey. “They have boys who’ll get up on stage… They have a lot of boys dancin’ the girls’ style. It used to be just a lot of girls dancin’ and shakin’ their behinds, but now they got boys poppin’ their penises. When I put on my song ‘Tiddy Bop,’ they put their hands up their shirts like they have breasts—New Orleans has really changed.”
So what does the future hold for Miss Katey Red? Nothing is certain, as everything having to do with Katey’s musical career is controlled by Earl Mackie, CEO of Take Fo’ Records and Katey’s producer. But this is a girl with dreams and ambitions. “I want to be an actress,” says Katey, “I always had a big idea to be on TV. I can perform really well, but they only have two acting schools down here… But they have a fall class, and I’ll be taking that.” When I expressed my dismay that Katey would abandon her career before she could make it nationally, she quickly explained that she had no intention of giving up her music. “I can do it both,” she says. “Look at Will Smith, Ice Cube and Master P. They’re all actors and nationally touring artists.” Great expectations for a girl who’s really a guy and who originally thought she would turn out to be a hairdresser. “I never thought I’d be a rapper,” she admits frankly. “I thought I’d go to school, be a cosmetologist, ’cause I fix hair, it’s my specialty. I fix all the girls I run with’s hair. But since I started rappin’ stuff just pops in my head. Maybe God gave me a gift, and he wants me to use it.”
