Nicky Da B, Dead At 24.
September 3, 2014 2:11 PM   Subscribe

NOLA bounce artist and rapper Nicky Da B is dead. Nicki was best known for his colorful, aggressively infectious music and videos, including Hot Potato Style (previously), Express Yourself with Diplo (previously), and his collaboration with photographer Clayton Cubitt Go Loko (NSFW, strobe and flashes warning)
posted by The Whelk (29 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by magstheaxe at 2:16 PM on September 3, 2014


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posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:19 PM on September 3, 2014 [21 favorites]


Express Yourself has gotten me going on many days.

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posted by lukemeister at 2:20 PM on September 3, 2014


Ever since Express Yourself came out I have not been able to drive by Man Chu food store without thinking of Nicky. Now I guess that'll always be the case.
posted by komara at 2:21 PM on September 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


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posted by Meatafoecure at 2:25 PM on September 3, 2014


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posted by AaRdVarK at 2:38 PM on September 3, 2014


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posted by brundlefly at 2:39 PM on September 3, 2014


How'd he kick?
posted by WhitenoisE at 2:52 PM on September 3, 2014


Nicky Da B's work encompassed a history of paratextual responses to main stream culture, creating a perfect, subversive reworking of not only culture, but queer responses to culture, and then queer responses to queer responses to culture--his video for Hot Potato Style, where he literally put his mouth to the images of viral cults (Orson Welles drunk and pathetic at the end of his life, late night telephone ads, club kids on 80s talkshows, james brown slinging noodles on japanese tv ), hollywood (three amigos, anthony hopkins,chaplin ), subcultural obsessions (david byrne, ballroom culture)--into a stuttering, obsessive, explicit mark of how his generaiton processed and taxonomized the radical nature of a culture where everything is availble. One of the reasons why I love bounce is how fast and how bright it is--how it embodies the post-Gibsonian world of information overflow--how it treats information overflow as a text to be written on the body--how it takes the racist fear of the black body, or the racist speculation around bodily excess and says fuck you--how it makes excess as a virture
posted by PinkMoose at 3:01 PM on September 3, 2014 [23 favorites]


"How'd he kick?"

literally the most info I've seen is "a recent illness" so whatever it is I believe it's being kept private.
posted by komara at 3:02 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Loved everything of his that I've heard. It's his influence that about 30% of my workout music right now.
posted by boo_radley at 3:30 PM on September 3, 2014


I too am interested in what happened. I live in New Orleans, and when I hear "24-year-old Black male dies unexpectedly," I unfortunately assume he was shot. The fact that he was also a prominent gender-transgressive artist does nothing to dispell that assumption, given the weird and factionated social politics of NOLA.

I have absolutely no evidence to back up this assumption and would be very interested to know whether it is true in this case or not. If true, my impression of the unfortunate state of affairs within the African-American community here in the Crescent City will be confirmed to my dismay; if not, then perhaps I will think twice about making such an assumption in the future.

Either way, I am saddened by Nicky Da B's passing. The birth of and widespread appreciation for sissy bounce here in New Orleans is one of those wonderful, unexpected, contradictory things that makes New Orleans a special and wonderful place.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:32 PM on September 3, 2014


If he had been murdered, it would be reported as such in the paper.
posted by CheeseLouise at 4:01 PM on September 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Either way, I am saddened by Nicky Da B's passing. The birth of and widespread appreciation for sissy bounce here in New Orleans is one of those wonderful, unexpected, contradictory things that makes New Orleans a special and wonderful place.

Me, too.
posted by Anitanola at 4:04 PM on September 3, 2014


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posted by madamjujujive at 4:09 PM on September 3, 2014


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posted by St. Sorryass at 4:26 PM on September 3, 2014


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posted by drezdn at 4:43 PM on September 3, 2014


NOOOOOOOOOOO
posted by fungible at 6:40 PM on September 3, 2014


Dammit.

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posted by Kinbote at 7:05 PM on September 3, 2014


That is some great reporting, Billboard. No info whatsoever on the cause of death. No statements from the police or a hospital. Not even "at press time, there was no information available regarding the cause of death."
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:20 PM on September 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Never heard of this guy or his music before but thanks to this post I am now greatly enjoying his asstastic music video.

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posted by Jacqueline at 8:05 PM on September 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


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posted by cashman at 9:29 PM on September 3, 2014


I'd neither heard nor seen Nicky Da B's stuff until this post. (Thanks, The Whelk.)

Talk about aesthetic sublime. His passing surely marks a massive cultural foreclosure.

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posted by mistersquid at 9:48 PM on September 3, 2014


Sorrowful news.

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posted by Pudhoho at 10:36 PM on September 3, 2014


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posted by zix at 12:07 AM on September 4, 2014


Shit. I had forgotten his name and had actually been on the verge of posting a MetaTalk to help me track down those previouslies. This is not how I wanted to be reminded.
posted by 256 at 5:24 AM on September 4, 2014


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posted by wyndham at 1:15 PM on September 4, 2014


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posted by Theta States at 8:43 PM on September 4, 2014


According to The Gambit there's a second line for Nicky today starting at Birch and General Ogden at noon. Wish I could attend; I'm sure it'll be a hell of a thing.

[also in case anyone was still curious: no updates on why he passed. Most relevant quote I've seen is "Ms. Toney declined to reveal the cause of her son's death, confirming only that he had been ill for a short time" [*] and I doubt we'll ever officially get more than that.]
posted by komara at 8:40 AM on September 10, 2014


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