Latin Freestyle: S&D

os 4 life

There are definitely some familiar tracks on this forthcoming comp, but it looks cool and I'm glad Ace put it together (I will buy it for sure): https://acerecords.co.uk/latin-freestyle-new-york-miami-1983-1992

It’s good (50% classics) but it also reflects some particuiar personal tastes that I don’t share. This is one of the few times when I think I would be a better compiler than Bob Stanley. But I don’t see how he could have come up with any obscure-but-great freestyle record that I haven’t already heard. I followed the genre closely through its entire lifespan, mostly by listening to WPOW Power 96 out of Miami.

Josefa, could you hit us with a personal top 10 or so freestyle tracks? I'm pretty much a neophyte, but I love this sound so much and have been trying to dig deeper

Sure, here are some favorites that are not on the Bob Stanley/Ace Records compilation:

Amoretto - Clave Rocks
Cynthia & Johnny O - Dreamboy/Dreamgirl
Natasha - Be Gentle with My Heart
Nayobe - Please Don't Go
Nice N' Wild - Diamond Girl
Nocera - Summertime, Summertime
Sa-Fire - Let Me Be the One
Sequal - It's Not Too Late
Shannon - Let the Music Play
Shy Rose - I Cry for You (this is actually Italian but was played to death on the Miami freestyle station)
Sweet Sensation - Hooked on You
Judy Torres - No Reason to Cry
Trinere - All Night

I've always liked this comp CD (although I guess it's been out of print a while).

..from that, I also love "(You Are My) All and All" by Joyce Sims. And Erotic Exotic, I'd almost forgotten about them. They were a Miami group I saw live back in the day.

Thanks, Josefa!!

I followed the genre closely through its entire lifespan, mostly by listening to WPOW Power 96 out of Miami.

love this

Yes to Nocera, Joyce Sims and many more here.

Not really sure what Two of Hearts is doing on a freestyle compilation but still it's a great track listing.

There simply aren’t many freestyle acts who weren’t from either New York or Miami, and the ones that weren’t were only tangentially freestyle-related such as Stacey Q (LA), Information Society (Minneapolis), or Nu Shooz (Portland)

The one “dud” act at the Freestyle Festival I attended a few weeks back was (unfortunately) from here in L.A. – but he’s not really a freestyle artist anyway: Egyptian Lover.

(he suuuuucked)

Egyptian Lover was clearly electro but I think he did have a big influence on freestyle too. After all, freestyle was spawned from electro. Countless freestyle records utilize the Kraftwerk “Numbers” beat in the same way Afrika Bambaataa used it in “Planet Rock”

I'm not a stickler for genre. "Two of Hearts" belongs on a freestyle comp. Heard it blast for months in summer and fall '86 on WPOW 96.5 Miami around the harder freestyle stuff.