Watch Big Freedia Receive a Phone Call From Beyonce
In the next episode of Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce, the fateful phone call from Beyoncé that led to the New Orleans-based musician to appear on the single “Formation” is featured. The episode airs Wednesday June 22nd on Fuse.
While cooking in her kitchen with her fiancé Devon and Uncle Percy, Freedia received a welcome surprise from the Lemonade singer. “It was just so phenomenal and so amazing,” the bounce artist said of the call. “I was flipping the fuck out.”
Over the course of the call, the pair hash out a plan for how Freedia would be included in what would become “Formation,” with the reality star stating that she would go to the studio as soon as she received the song’s beat.
Freedia is featured on the video-version of the single, where she serves her own version of Southern pride to complement Beyoncé’s. “I came to slay, bitch!” she enthusiastically delivers on the track. “I like corn breads and collard greens, bitch. Oh yas, you besta believe it.”
Alongside Freedia is another bounce artist, Messy Mya. A sample of Mya, who was murdered in 2010, opens the song. “That was awesome — another person repping New Orleans and bounce-music culture,” Freedia told Vulture. “It’s unfortunate that we lost him to violence, but it was an amazing feeling to have him open this Beyoncé song.”