Born to Bounce - Qween Qweezy

David Adams: Yes. All right. Queen Qweezy.

David Adams: All right. Make sure all phones are silent.

Qween Qweezy: Okay.

David Adams: All right. And action! All right, guys, thanks for joining us on the podcast today. We're with Miss Qween Qweezy.

Qween Qweezy: What's up, y'all? Good, good.

David Adams: Good. Good to see you again.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah. I'm happy to be here.

David Adams: Oh, absolutely. Well, you know, last time I saw you, you were shooting a video here.

Qween Qweezy: Yes.

Qween Qweezy: "Designer Pussy." Yeah.

David Adams: That's right. That shout out, man. You know, that's how we all met.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, that was my first time hearing you. I was like, this dude, he was amazing.

David Adams: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. And, you know, friends, family. So it was good to meet you guys through family.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah.

David Adams: Well, good. Well, good to have you here. Let's start a little bit early on. We’ll start with your origin story and just walk into this conversation. How does that sound?

Qween Qweezy: Okay. That's fine.

David Adams: So tell everybody, where are you from?

Qween Qweezy: I'm from New Orleans. The ground floor, from the Sixth Ward and the Ninth.

David Adams: Where’d you go to high school? That’s always the question.

Qween Qweezy: Fire Academy is now everything. But by the time I started going to high school in New Orleans, it was after Katrina, and charter schools were coming. I had a different experience, so don’t judge me on that.

David Adams: That’s right. You know, after Katrina and the charter schools came in, it definitely changed the dynamics of school.

Qween Qweezy: For sure. For sure.

David Adams: I think for a good thing, though. I think, you know, they really tried to come in and get some good guidance. Where it ended up, I don’t know.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, they definitely tried hard in some parts.

David Adams: I feel like it took a little bit away from the parents, though. With public schools, you had a say, a vote. But charter schools come in with their curriculum and set it.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah.

David Adams: Because of that, parents didn’t necessarily have as much input on what was being taught.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, when they got me to go, it was like, I don’t want to get caught up. But how they got me in was, it was the middle of the day. I was taking a nap. My mama woke me up and was like, “Hey, the people from school are here.” This was the first time, this was me going into high school. They came recruiting me. They sat me down at the dining room table and were like, "This is going to be a new school. A new experience. We’re going to be traveling, doing all these things." One of the things my principal, Ben Market, said was really convincing—he embedded in us that we could change the world. And I carried that with me throughout my life. I never took "no" for an answer.

David Adams: Good teachers will do that.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah. He was amazing.

David Adams: Teachers—there are fewer of the great ones as time goes on, but really good teachers will instill something in you that you can take into any channel of life.

Qween Qweezy: For sure.

David Adams: So do you think the charter school had a good or bad effect on your upbringing?

Qween Qweezy: I’m going to say more good than bad. Because, like I said, it instilled in me that I could do anything. We used to do affirmations every morning. They didn’t really call it affirmations—it was our credo. But some of the things we said were so powerful that they carried into my college years and my journey. That was awesome.

David Adams: That’s great. Charter schools vary—some help underprivileged kids, some cater to wealthier families. What kind was yours?

Qween Qweezy: Definitely wasn’t the rich one. It was more about rebuilding New Orleans. But we weren’t stupid, you know? A lot of my teachers were from out of state—Texas, other places. They didn’t know our culture, how we moved together. That caused a lot of conflict. But once they stopped trying to make us be something we weren’t and just accepted us, met us where we were, it changed. That’s what I do in my field of education now—I meet people where they are. That was something they struggled with.

David Adams: I bet they struggled with the accent and the slang too.

Qween Qweezy: Right. Like "groceries" and "make groceries," all those things. But if this is your new home, you gotta get hip to this. Don’t make us change for you.

David Adams: It would be like moving to a Spanish-speaking country. You gotta learn Spanish.

Qween Qweezy: Exactly.

David Adams: That’s awesome. Where did you go to college?

Qween Qweezy: LSU.

David Adams: LSU! We’re not going to talk about the lawsuit I have there. But my wife went to LSU, graduated from there. A lot of my family went there. It’s a great college. My grandfather actually helped build the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Qween Qweezy: That’s awesome.

David Adams: Yeah, way back in the day.

Qween Qweezy: Do we have his name on one of the buildings?

David Adams: I don’t think so. Probably Merv Trail has his name on one of them, though.

Qween Qweezy: Maybe, maybe.

David Adams: But let’s talk about your music journey. You have not one but two parents in music.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, I do.

David Adams: So tell us about that.

Qween Qweezy: My daddy is Dolomite. He has a song called "Hustler." They still play it. My mama is the first lady of No Limit, Misty. She was a part of the real bounce movement.

David Adams: Real bounce. Real quick. We’ll make that statement right here.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah!

David Adams: That obviously gave you a great overview of the industry.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, for sure.

David Adams: How did that affect you?

Qween Qweezy: Honestly, it made me resist music at first. I saw the struggles, the ups and downs my parents went through. I went to LSU as my plan B. I always knew I wanted to do music, but I was scared of the industry. So I went to college for security. But deep down, I knew my true passion.

David Adams: But how did you account for textile and merchandising?

Qween Qweezy: Okay. Fashion and business.

David Adams: All right.

Qween Qweezy: All right. So, after I—man, I just remember my first semester, like, walking in, and I was like, oh, I want to do this because I just was like, I know what I really want to do. You know what I mean? I'm just scared of everything else. But I know whatever you want to do, right?

Qween Qweezy: And I was like, well, fuck, this band is finished. And, LSU, matter of fact, an apartment complex in a closet is where I recorded one of my first queen exits.

David Adams: Okay.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah. So that was awesome.

David Adams: So it started there?

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, it started, so I started there. LSU was my first live performance. I performed at our Fall Fest—it was a full-circle moment.

David Adams: You know, it's funny. I feel like great schools support their own talent involved in their system. And I feel like if you reach out, they will let you perform in front of things, you know, and that you truly reach your goals. Yeah. So that's great. I've always heard that great about LSU. They really do a good job of that.

Qween Qweezy: And it's so crazy because this is a funny story. But remember I was telling you about Katrina? We moved to Houston, right? We moved to Houston, and I went to a high school there because my high school was split. So I did some in New Orleans and then I did some in Houston. Okay. There was this guy who was in his photography class. He was like, man, LSU was here. I'm a freshman in high school, so college is nowhere on my mind. But he knew that I was from New Orleans. And in his mind, he, you know, paired the two. Right? And I never thought about it. And then, full circle, I really graduated from LSU. And I'm like, what the hell? Like, that’s crazy.

David Adams: It's just always around you. Whatever you're supposed to be is always manifesting around.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, 100%. And I try to tell people not to try too hard—allow the universe to work for you and just recognize the doors that are opening and closing. And if you can kind of do that, you can navigate through things and understand. I didn’t feel this way until I moved to LA to try to do music there. You start in another city and then move to LA, and you realize you know nothing about music.

David Adams: That’s real. No matter how long you've been doing it, LA moves so fast, and there’s so much talent. There are so many things out there ahead of their time. And you just think, how do I catch up to all this?

David Adams: But I feel like the music we have down here is so original that it has to be shown on the national stage.

Qween Qweezy: And that’s my ultimate goal—to be on that stage.

David Adams: Every now and then, someone comes and plucks something out, you know.

Qween Qweezy: It's crazy. Being in the industry is like, who are the gatekeepers? That’s always my question. But I love that we have social media, so it's a different time.

David Adams: Well, so speaking of that, how do you feel about streaming?

Qween Qweezy: I feel like it's unfair. I feel like if I was going like a master pro and just pumping shit out of my trunk, I’d obviously get more of the reward.

David Adams: I've been telling people to go back to the trunk hustle.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah. And it's so funny because my mom, the last time we got together, she showed me a cassette tape from one of her old projects. And I just was like, damn, we go from that to this?

David Adams: Once you remove something physical from the product, it's worthless. You know? I feel like advertising is one way music could dip back into revenue. Technically, all music now is just an advertising platform for something else to make money.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah, for sure. I know my cousin has an app he's developing to where artists can reclaim some of that revenue and get what’s owed to them. Because there’s money for artists out there that they don’t even know exists.

David Adams: It’s crazy how many artists don’t have their business set up—no BMI, no ASCAP, nothing. It’s sad.

Qween Qweezy: Super sad. And down here, we don’t have a music union or a place to go for guidance. In New York or LA, you can walk into a label building. Here? It’s all secretive.

David Adams: That’s what I’m saying. There’s no industry infrastructure in Louisiana. That’s why I built this space—because there were no resources. And a lot of artists here don’t even realize that nothing exists for them here.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah. I think Katrina pushed us out and showed us more, but there’s still so much work to do in the city.

David Adams: Yeah, people move to LA, Atlanta, or New York because that’s where the industry is. But what if we built it here?

Qween Qweezy: Exactly. We have talent. We just need structure.

David Adams: So, on that tip, who is your Louisiana Mount Rushmore right now?

Qween Qweezy: Lil Wayne. Kevin Gates. Myself—I gotta put myself on there. And rapper NLE Choppa.

David Adams: Carving that stone right now!

Qween Qweezy: My goal is to be the first female artist from New Orleans to go mainstream worldwide.

David Adams: That’s a solid goal. You’re getting there!

David Adams: So, what’s your favorite song that you’ve ever released?

Qween Qweezy: "I Got Niggas." It started as a freestyle. People loved it. It took on a life of its own.

David Adams: That’s awesome.

David Adams: Let’s talk about overcoming obstacles. I know you have lupus. How has that impacted you?

Qween Qweezy: Lupus is an autoimmune disease, and stress is a major trigger. But honestly, I’m grateful for it in a way because it forced me to put myself first. I had to separate myself from things that weren’t good for me.

David Adams: That’s a powerful realization.

Qween Qweezy: Yeah. At first, I kept it to myself. But once I started sharing, people reached out, and I realized how many others were dealing with the same thing.

David Adams: That’s amazing. What advice would you give someone struggling with lupus?

Qween Qweezy: You are enough. Confidence is key. It’s not about what’s on the outside. It’s about who you are inside.

David Adams: Great advice. Well, what brings you elation in life?

Qween Qweezy: Peace. Internal peace. Happiness is temporary, but peace is long-lasting.

David Adams: That’s a great answer. Where can people find you and your music?

Qween Qweezy: Queen Qweezy with a W. I'm on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube—everywhere. Go stream my music, watch my videos, run those numbers up!

David Adams: Thanks so much for being here!

Qween Qweezy: Thank you! I was so excited to do this.

David Adams: We enjoy exhilarating euphoria through creation and collaboration. And cut!