I wasnt going to get into this.......
this actual post was over in page one. and in a way everybody is right if you all put your heads together.
The question to this post was who coined or popularized the term "Freestyle".
The sole person Who popularized the term freestyle was Pretty Tony butler. The group freestyle express in the early 80's, who like many at the time messed around and created both electro funk and rap records. IN miami, the new form of hiphop wAs also bieng formed, electro bass.(later known as miami bass, hiphop bass, or later booty music when vulgur words where added).
later known as just FREESTYLE, the groups song "dont stop the rock" became quickly an anthem for what was going on in miami at the time.
Miami music of the 80;s is way more complex than the development going on in new york. Although new york had alot of electro funk and shanonesque records (electrofunk vocal dance and R&B records), Miami also had its share of artist in the early 80's.....connie, debbie deb, cynthia roundtree, the early expose, sequel (its not to late),copmany b (jam on me).
The songs where called dance records, due to the fact that the name wasnt decided umong the community as a genres name.
Truth was that it was early 80's miami electro freestyle.
many of these records, where released and known in the miami region, and later re released or re -distributed due to the popularity.till this day have not died out.
Miami mastered 3 types of "freestyle music".....Electronic, "traditional" (what new york would be known for) and more high NRG. At many times all styles would overlap with each other and over lap with the previous electro funk records. also they would over lap with the Rap records coming out of new york and the new electro bass coming from miami at that time.
Miami, like new york, also was a major Disco capitol in the 70's.......alot of 70's influences also were used in developing the miami sound. many producers of freestyle in miami where also djs and involved in the industry in the 70's. Alot of the producers in Miami where cuban or hailed from the caribean, alot of the producers of Miami bass had jamiacan or hatian backgrounds as well. So all this was used to blend what is known as the "MIAMI sound.
It was very street.....following the same patterns of vocalist singing over electro hiphop beats.
like rap artist, they too also Freestyled love ballads over the beats, as did many young artist in new york.
it was comon for alot of artist to both sing and rap over the beats.
artist were also known to be around live bands and also were known to Freestyle a song or rap with the band on stage in front of everyone. at times as a jam sesion, without sitting and woring about being comped.so yes, many artist did throw free shows to intoduce themselves and promote themselves...but alot also threw many live jamm sessions with local new wave rock bands or funk band, as they did in the 70's following the footsteps of bands like George clinton's.
In miami the sound was around for a while and it would later in some instances take people like gloria estefan to popularize that sound of the miami streets globaly, as she poped the early miami freestyle sound through the miami sound machine and their hit "dr.beat". (although not considered a "freestyle record", freestyle is where alot of its influneces came from).
IN the period of 1983-1989, freestyle went through so many names to describe each sound or styles or trend.
but the popularity really came when in the late 80's FReestyle's "dontstop the rock" re-popularized itself.
the 3 most pop terms for the music were dance (everything), latinhiphop (refering to new york pop traditional) , and miami dance.
when "dont stop the rock" played again and again, what it was actually doing was uniting a bridege between all styles of what later will be known as freestyle music. the electro sound that pretty tony popularized bridged all styles of miami music together, as well as the following of the market.
New york records and traditional records, like many know did have lower keys and also refered to love or reflected everyday life situations. thaye at the time were more darker and undergound.
Miami records were more upbeat and joyfull, more higher keys and also refered more to having a good time with music and life or talked about passion,heat and sex. some miami records also became bridges to Hi NRG records popularized by European artist...same as breaks and trance artist and records in Miami do today.
the lyrics of Freestyles "dont stop the rock" became the anthem for the miami scene............it was all hielea and liberty city music.
the lyrics were refering to the group itself, but somehwat people coined it as the name of the whole music form and style they were listening to. it became the name for the whole scene, in the street or in the club or in its electro form. Freestyle had replaced the name of both what was once the line of electrofunk and latinhiphop records.
" FREESTYLE's KICKING IN THE HOUSE TONIGHT, SO MOVE YOUR BODY FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. TO ALL YOU FREESTYLE FREAKS DONT STOP THE ROCK, THIS FREESTYLES KICKING AND YOU KNOW ITS RIGHT".
It was the sound of skating rinks and open air concerts, lowrider monte carlos and Big Gold st Lazaro or caridad del cobre medalions.
Dont stop the rock refered to the body rocking and webo dancing that the breakers were known for years earlier.
The term refered to many diferent things that went on in "freestyle" or latin hiphop culture and over laped with hiphop (rap) culture.
Or can i refrase that as hiphop music of the early eighties was a form made out of many music forms, cultural influences, and art forms of the previous early 80's years.
The elements of hip hop: djing, dancing,dress, graph and cars
go way back beyond 1973, and has since then mutated in many diferent forms.
But the "freestyle" community was very street driven and orineted, just like R&B is street rooted today. the only diference is that we are club music/dance music. And for the same reason many related to that.
It was an ode also to the Freestyle form of dancing, the free form of lyrics rap or song over the beats, the free form of art/graph, the free form of MIXING DJS and how they would jump and mix everything under the lines of jazz, to funk, to disco, to rock tothe BREAKS and the Beats. FUNK SOUL SALSA and R&B. Electrofunk, Freestyle and R&B.
UNITING THE CLUB and street under one groove and having everyone WALKING UNDER SUNSHINE.
TRUE: although the "freestyle" term has been used through out the years..........IT wasnt till after 1989 that the INdustry coined it as a marketing name to cultivate a more mainstream following and sell thier units of compliations and single releases and albums.
But the true origins,although are forgoten, they are still alive and remebered on the street (old skool) and actually still practiced.
Yes, other generations from other genres have used the name to identify something with meaning to them......but "freestyle as a community also has to rediscover its origins and stick with it....we had the phrase first.
Although we are on this topic now..........this knowledge has been known and never forgoten in the miami scene.
as we evolved withing time it has been pased down to generatiuon to genration. as a culture doese.
as african bambata also evolved and continued doing techno records and fathers tought their sons or uncles tought thier nephews how to pop and lock..................in the 90's is when we all started rising again through the rave scene.
The cultural traits are still there and is still undergound, even from the "freestyle" scene its self.
The re birth of the electro freestyle sound came around the mid 1990s with the new Miami freestyle uprising from the new generetaion of latin djs and artist (george acosta, nadine renee, the torres brothers,Elise sotto,samantha (aka fiori) angelina,lina santiago) . also from the west coast.
It was the mixture of latin house,trance and the new freestyle (aka trip hop and now breaks)responsible for this wave,As a new generation showed the doubting industry that "FREESTYLE" people master more than one style of music.
When records like dj booms "To the top" hit loud.
the Freestyle industry was the first to downplay the sound and the whole "triphop" movement. yet they did not recognize the "its outomatic" freestyle beat mixed with new electro and references to the classic "play at your own risk". Nor did they recognize or accept the planet soul's mars mix where a souped up coros "where are you tonight" beat is used over ambient synths.
Today the tradition continues with artist like plumet, firoi, d'luna (chinadoll), and many others. the history and knowledge is now being passed to the new generation of freestylers crossing back along with a new generation of followers crossing the bridge from the undergound house and deteriorating trance scene.
Meanwhile..on onother bridge....the Electroclash scene has become our alie in our new freestyle breaks scene.
THE SPIRIT OF DISCO, KRAFTWERK, GEORGE CLINTON, JAMES BROWN, SALSA and JAZZ GAVE US THE EARLY SOUND.
AURTHER BAKER,BAMBATA, JOHN ROCCA, JELLYBEAN, THE LATIN RASCALS, CHRIS BARBOSA GAVE US THE BLUE PRINT.
MARTINEE, THE LATIN RASCALS, JELLYBEAN, AbATIELO AND GARDNER
GAVE US THE SOUL and the CUASE of a REVOLUTION.
BUT PRETTY TONY BUTLER WAS THE MAN WHO COINED AND POPULARIZED
THE TERM "FREESTYLE".
JONPITO
im out of here!
