Baby Built an EmpireBryan Williams was born in New Orleans in 1969 and went unnamed for nearly a month. They just called him Baby. The nickname stuck, and decades later, when he was running one of ...
Mannie Fresh: The Beat Behind Cash Money
The Beat Behind Cash MoneyIn the late nineties, when Cash Money Records went from a New Orleans independent label to the biggest force in hip-hop, everyone knew the names out front — Lil Wayne, Juv...
Robert Charles: The Man Who Fought Back
The Man Who Fought BackIn the summer of 1900, New Orleans erupted in one of the most violent race riots in American history. At its center was Robert Charles — a self-educated Black laborer from Mi...
Harold Battiste: The Man Behind Everyone Else's Hits
The Man Behind Everyone Else's HitsHarold Battiste arranged "You Send Me" for Sam Cooke. Let that sink in. One of the most important songs in the history of popular music — the song that launched S...
John Goodman: New Orleans' Favorite Adopted Son
New Orleans' Favorite Adopted SonJohn Goodman isn't from New Orleans. He was born in Missouri, raised in the Midwest, and became famous playing a furniture store owner from Lanford, Illinois, on Ro...
Poppy Z. Brite: New Orleans' Gothic Laureate
New Orleans' Gothic LaureateIn the early nineties, a young writer named Poppy Z. Brite published a novel called Lost Souls that dropped readers into a world of vampires, goth culture, and the noctu...
Papa Celestin: Four Thousand People Marched in His Funeral
Four Thousand People Marched in His FuneralWhen Papa Celestin died on December 15, 1954, four thousand people marched in his funeral parade through the streets of New Orleans. That tells you everyt...
Bunk Johnson: The Trumpet Player They Had to Find
The Trumpet Player They Had to FindIn the late 1930s, two music historians named William Russell and Frederic Ramsey Jr. were writing a book about the origins of jazz when they kept hearing about a...
Dorothy Mae Taylor: The Woman Who Changed Mardi Gras
The Woman Who Changed Mardi GrasIn 1992, Dorothy Mae Taylor did something that shook New Orleans to its foundations. She authored a city council ordinance requiring Mardi Gras krewes to sign anti-d...
Toya Johnson: New Orleans' Resilience Defined
Toya's StoryToya Johnson was born in New Orleans in 1983, and her story is one of the most New Orleans stories there is — a teenage girl from the city who became a mother at fifteen, married one of...
Odell Beckham Jr.: The Catch That Changed Everything
The Catch That Changed EverythingOdell Beckham Jr. didn't grow up in New Orleans — he was born in Baton Rouge — but he became a New Orleanian at Isidore Newman School, the same Uptown campus that p...
Chris Owens: The Queen of Bourbon Street
The Queen of Bourbon StreetFor more than sixty years, one woman owned Bourbon Street — not literally, though she came close. Chris Owens was the Queen of the Vieux Carré, a Texas-born entertainer w...
George Rodrigue: The Blue Dog Man
The Blue Dog ManGeorge Rodrigue wasn't from New Orleans — he was from New Iberia, deep in Cajun country. But his art became so synonymous with Louisiana that you can't walk through the French Quart...
Quint Davis: The Man Behind Jazz Fest
The Man Behind Jazz FestEvery spring, somewhere around four hundred thousand people descend on the New Orleans Fair Grounds for the Jazz and Heritage Festival — one of the largest and most importan...
Romeo Miller: Master P's Son, His Own Man
Master P's Son, His Own ManPercy Romeo Miller was born in New Orleans in 1989, the son of Percy "Master P" Miller — the Calliope Projects kid who built No Limit Records into a hip-hop empire. Growi...
Aaron Neville: The Voice That Makes You Cry
The Voice That Makes You CryThere is no voice in American popular music quite like Aaron Neville's. That smooth, vibrato-heavy tenor — floating somewhere between gospel and soul, between tenderness...
Rickey Jackson: The First Saint in the Hall of Fame
The First Saint in the Hall of FameFor decades, the New Orleans Saints were defined by losing. Paper bags over heads. The Aints. A franchise that couldn't buy a break. But through all those years, ...
Cam Jordan: The Saints' Sack King
The Saints' Sack KingFor more than a decade, Cameron Jordan has been the most reliable, most consistent, and most terrifying defensive player the New Orleans Saints have ever employed. And in a fra...
David Simon: Tremé's Filmmaker
Tremé's FilmmakerDavid Simon didn't create New Orleans. But he might have created the best television show about it. Treme, which ran on HBO from 2010 to 2013, was the most honest, most detailed, a...
Mia X: The Biggest Mama of No Limit
The Man Who Built No LimitWe've already told you about Master P — Percy Miller, the Calliope Projects kid who built No Limit Records into one of the biggest independent empires in hip-hop history. ...
