I’ve been wanting to do a Freestyle mixtape for a while now. I have cool memories of this music booming out of little Suzuki Samurais and Honda Civics in the late '80s during family vacations to the East and West Coasts.
Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of archived radio DJ mixes from the late '80s and was inspired to pull together some tasty Rap, Freestyle, Electro, Post-Disco, and House for this tape. I only recently became aware of the original version of 'Show Me Love' and found an unopened copy on Discogs, so the version at the end of this set is a genuine needle drop.
A brief introduction to the Freestyle genre: Emerging in the early 1980s in the United States and originating in the urban Latino communities of New York City and Miami, Freestyle was characterized by a blend of synthesizer and drum-heavy electronic beats, Latin percussion, and emotive, often dramatic singing. Notable artists include Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Stevie B, and Exposé.
Internationally, the impact of Freestyle was more nuanced. In Europe, while synth-pop, new wave, and house music were more dominant, elements of Freestyle influenced the emerging Eurodance scene. Meanwhile, in Japan, Freestyle was overshadowed by genres like J-Pop and city pop, along with various other forms of Western music.
While its core fanbase resided in cities like New York and Miami, Freestyle's popularity was embraced in club scenes nationwide and received considerable radio play, particularly on urban contemporary, dance, and R&B stations during its peak in the late 1980s. This era marked the height of Freestyle's run in the charts with songs like 'Fascinated' by Company B, 'Crush on You' by The Jets, 'Point of No Return' by Exposé, 'Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)' by Samantha Fox, and 'Tell It to My Heart' by Taylor Dayne.
Freestyle's influence persisted into the early '90s, notably in Eurodance with international hit songs like 'Rhythm of the Night' by Corona and 'Be My Lover' by La Bouche, which exhibited similarly catchy choruses and uptempo rhythms, but with much denser and slicker production. While in the Latin music scene, especially in the early to mid-1990s, Latin Freestyle, a subgenre, saw artists like Selena infusing traditional Latin sounds with Freestyle's electronic beats and rhythms.
Freestyle remains a distinctive and memorable part of 1980s music culture, representing a unique fusion of sounds that captured the energy and diversity of its era.
Fantasy 3 - It's Your Rock
Pretty Tony - Fix It in the Mix
Freestyle - Don't Stop the Rock
Trinere - How Can We Be Wrong
Sequal - It's Not Too Late
Jennette - You Turn Me On
Olga - Play Another Song for Me
Pretty Poison - Nightime
Newtrament - London Bridge is Falling Down (Dub Mix)
Beat Street - Breaker's Revenge
Bohannon - Let's Start the Dance III (Instrumental Club)
Patrice Rushen - Number One (Instrumental Version)
N.O.I.A. - The Rule to Survive
Import #1 - Set It Off (Party Rock)
Connie - Rock Me
Lidell Townsell, M T F - Nu Nu (Radio Apella)
Robin Stone - Show Me Love (New York Mix)
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