Long before Miley Cyrus popularized “twerking,” even before new sissy bounce star Big Freedia (who covered the July 2011 issue of OffBeat Magazine) exploded onto the scene, New Orleans’ DJ Jimi was asking “Where They At?”  Once again, the Crescent City has invented a style of music, and dance, that the world took years to catch on to. But anyone who’s lived in New Orleans knows twerking’s nothing new.

More than 20 years before Cyrus’ controversial 2013 MTV VMA’s performance, New Orleanians were twerking in living color. (though in New Orleans, it’s commonly known as p-popping) Check out the official video for DJ Jimi’s seminal song, “Where They At?” from 1992, regarded as the first ever bounce track here:

 

And speaking of the Queen Diva, Big Freedia: not only did she have a demonstrative response (via pop gossip hub, Perez Hilton) for the barrage of uproar surrounding Miley’s teddy bear – laden, bent over, (sort of) rump-shaking VMA performance, but EsQuire magazine even distributed Freedia’s response video on the web. Moreover, anyone not already familiar with the Queen Diva’s credibility was further educated this week when Freedia swiftly followed-up her “this is how you twerk” video with the release of Fuse TV’s official trailer for their new docu-series trailing her rise to pop culture stardom through raw New Orleans bounce music, “Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce.” The show airs on Fuse TV on Wednesday, October 2 at 10 p.m. Central. Anyone paying attention to pop culture in the past two years is probably clear that it has been Big Freedia that has influenced the acceptance of p-popping on a global scale of late.

 

Big Freedia’s smash hit from her Big Freedia Hitz Vol.1 of 2010-2011, “Ya’ll Get Back Now”

And of course, the instructional “Excuse,” also from 2010-2011