Music » Freestyle Music

Release Date: 1995-11-21, Audio CD, Arista

This is delicious bubble-gum dance music from one of Miami's biggest male artists. A Florida native, Stevie B became one of the early leaders of freestyle music with the breakout hit "Party Your Body" in 1988, followed by increasingly successful songs such as "I Wanna Be the One" and "Love Me for Life." Stevie also set himself apart from the pack by writing and producing his own music, which was very rare for an '80s dance star. The hits stopped coming in the '90s, though Stevie B continues to record and, as this collection shows, has already left a swooningly romantic--and infinitely danceable--legacy. --John Sanchez

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Release Date: 1998-09-08, Audio CD, Thump Records

The mother of them all. Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force's "I Wonder If I Take You Home" is often cited, along with Shannon's "Let the Music Play" and Jellybean's "The Mexican," as one of the first freestyle tracks to gain recognition. Ms. Lisa's winsome bleat is the perfect expression of the hard teenage realities she faces in the song, which is a more lyrically graphic update of the sturdy themes in "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" Meanwhile the melody (such that it is) and the beats goose the track into a giddy, cosmopolitan distillation of urban youth. The huge single "All Cried Out" follows up on "I Wonder If I Take You Home": she did take him home, and lived to regret it. Also contains the essential early freestyle smash, "Can You Feel the Beat." --John Sanchez

Stepping out from the freestyle trio TKA, the newly dubbed K7 (formerly Kayel) expanded on his group's signature sound and won a larger audience than ever. As freestyle began its long, painful death, dance-pop overtook the genre's audience and popularity. Swing Batta Swing cannily updates the artist for the new era without abandoning his roots or his core audience. The uproarious "Come Baby Come" is a straightforward dance-pop single sung in a bizarre drill sergeant voice, and along with "Zunga Zeng," it fit right in with the radio and club tracks of its era. But K7 has been in the business long enough to know to hedge his bets, and "I'll Make You Feel Good" and "Body Rock" are engineered to please even the most exacting freestyle fan. --John Sanchez

Release Date: 1996-08-20, Audio CD, Thump Records

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Release Date: 2003-03-18, Audio CD, Megamix Recordings

Release Date: 2001-04-17, Audio CD, Thump Records