BIO

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Flagboy Giz is a musician, cultural performer, beadworker, producer, and MC from New Orleans, Louisiana. For nearly a decade, he has been a member of the historic Wild Tchoupitoulas Black Masking Indians, a tribe of culture bearers whose music was made famous in the 1970s by the legendary funk groups The Meters as well as The Neville Brothers. His music is informed and inspired by the traditions of Mardi Gras Indian music, a uniquely New Orleans heritage combining elements of West African rhythms, funk music, chanting, and other Black folk music influences. On his debut album, Flagboy of the Nation, Flagboy Giz embraced his musical upbringing and merged it with early New Orleans brass-band music, hip-hop, and bounce, a signature sound he carried into 2022’s I Got Indian in My Family, which features among others the legendary Mannie Fresh. Since its release, Flagboy Giz has garnered tremendous acclaim, appearing at Lil Wayne’s Weezyana Fest, Red Bull Street Kings, the National Fried Chicken Festival, and many more. His 2022 breakout single, “We Outside,” has amassed over 50,000 views on YouTube and over 55,000 streams on Spotify. In late 2022, he was named “Best Emerging Artist” by the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund. In 2023, he will appear at the world-renowned New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the French Quarter Festival. In February 2023, he became the cover star at OffBeat, the city’s pre-eminent music and culture publication. 

Flagboy Giz has been self-producing and engineering his music since high school, and is also an accomplished video director. While studying at the University of New Orleans, he partnered with the well-known visual artist Brandan “Bmike” Odums in forming the 2Cent collective.Together, the two attended the distinguished Art Basel, where Giz’s prodigious sewing and beadwork were on display. Through his music and his artwork, Flagboy Giz represents the past and future of Mardi Gras Indian culture, which he describes as a backstreet culture originating from the segregated history of Mardi Gras in generations past.