Keep on Using Me, Til' You Use Me Up

Recently, singer Drake released his new song, "Nice For What". The song serves a New Orleans bounce music flavor paired with Drake's own unique musical style. The song also includes a segment with openly gay New Orleans artist, Big Freedia. To some, Freedia is brand new but he has been in the game for a while now. The graduation into the mainstream market with the introduction of Beyoncé's Formation should have propelled Freedia into the mainstream media of artists, but the elimination of his imagery seemed to keep his voice, just a voice on the album. Now here we are again with the "deja vu" of Drake using only the voice and not the imagery. Now don't get me wrong, I understand the creative vision that some artist have when it comes to videos, but to totally eliminate a person who is using their vocals on your album, is somewhat of a slap in the face. Is it because of Freedia's sexuality? Maybe. Is it because of Freedia's non conventional appearance? Possibly. I just felt that, if Beyoncé or Drake, would have brought Big Freedia onboard visually, it would have projected his career to the next level. As a native of Louisiana, I would have loved to see a bounce artist, a Gay bounce artist at that, rise up out of the ashes. And, maybe it was not the intention of either artist to leave Freedia out the videos because of the forementioned things, but it does look suspect. I believe they could have united the two cultures people and break that stereotype of gays in hip hop.

Photo Credit: Ethan Miller, Scott Dudelson ;Getty Images: Formation Video