So what IS freestyle anyway?


Let's begin at the begining. In the early 80's, Disco was declared "dead". Radio withdrew it's support, and disco went underground, back to the clubs where it was born.

Disco changed. It's sound changed and split into 3 different types of music. There was house. House music is defined by a repetitive bass drum beat. There was high energy. High energy is defined by a high BPM (beats per minute) in the song. There was freestyle. Freestyle (at the time known as Latin Hip Hop) is defined by tight melodies and having the beat driven by Latin sounding percussion beats.

Freestyle was the first sound to catch on and become popular. Artists like Nayobe, Expose` and Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam topped the Dance Singles charts with their songs. In 1984, Shannon made the national Top 10 with her song "Let The Music Play" which is featured on many freestyle compilations.

From 1984-1994 many freestyle artists hit the Billboard Hot 100 with their singles. The list includes: Brenda K Starr, George Lamond, Sweet Sensation, Cover Girls, Nyasia, TKA, Corina, Coro, Stevie B., Lil Suzy, Lassiez Faire, and many otheres.

In the mid 1990's, house music, R&B, and hip hop started to explode in popularity, and many stations abandoned freestyle in support of the more popular sound.

Freestyle is still being made today. Some of the current artists are: Willie Valentin, Ashley, Collage, Rockell, Caprice, Cynthia, Synthia Figueroa and many others.


from
http://chuckd.clubfreestyle.net/


:)