Big Freedia has announced a new EP entirely produced by SOPHIE will be released this summer.
The New Orleans rapper shared the news earlier this month (May 7), posting on Instagram to say that the as-yet-untitled three-track release will arrive on June 19, and the first song ‘Blaze That Ass’ is out now.
That song is a pulverising, industrial hip-hop banger, with the late producer’s precise and clattering club-ready beats a good match for Freedia’s provocative, rhythmic delivery.
Check out the official visualiser for ‘Blaze That Ass’ here:
Freedia and SOPHIE worked on the tracks together in Los Angeles in 2016, and Freedia has said: “I can’t believe we made these tracks 10 years ago. Recording with SOPHIE is something I hold even closer to my heart now, especially after her passing.”
“She was an artist who showed the world that living boldly is your greatest power!” she added. With this EP, I want to show the world how loved she was and still is!!!”
SOPHIE’s family have said: “This collaboration was exciting to SOPHIE right from the start. Freedia’s energy and vocal power, a perfect match for her production. Their connection gave us these songs, all of them SOPHIE loved to play out, and we can’t wait to hear them in the club again.”
Big Freedia released her third studio album ‘Pressing Onward’ last year, and is considered one of the most pioneering and influential artists in the bounce genre. She also famously contributed to Beyonce’s ‘Formation’ and Drake’s ‘Nice For What’.
SOPHIE, meanwhile, is recognised as having consistently pushed the boundaries of electronic experimentation throughout her career, and was closely associalted with the production team PC Music in the mid 2010s. She passed away in January 2021 in a tragic accident in Athens.
She has been cited as a key influence by the likes of Charli XCX, Vince Staples, FKA twigs, Jack Antonoff and Sam Smith, but she only released two studio albums during her life – 2015’s ‘Product’ and 2018’s ‘Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides‘.
An online preservation project was set up by her fans earlier this year in an effort to fully document her work – check it out here.
In 2024, a posthumous self-titled album was released, comprising music that she was working on at the time of her death. In a three-star review, NME wrote: “There’s enough diamond material shining in the dirt to make this one of the most inventive posthumous albums that’s been released in recent times – it’s just a shame that the album doesn’t fully execute SOPHIE’s unique vision. But perhaps that’s one more reason to fully treasure what we have left of her, and to do justice to the mark she’s left on pop forever.”