A Look Back at Latin Freestyle at Schema : more than ethnic

A Look Back at Latin Freestyle

Today it's Reggaeton. Back in the early to mid-90s, it was Kid Frost and La Raza. But further back in the early 80s and onto the early 90s, after disco died away and house music and hip hop were in their infancies, Latinos in the US (NYC and Miami in particular) were all about Latin Freestyle.

Latin freestyle encompassed (and went onto influence) a range of sub-genres like electro, disco, latin jazz, funk, house, hip hop, miami bass, booty, breaks, acid-jazz and so forth. Planet Rock by Afrika Bambatta in 1982 is considered one of the songs to give birth to the freestyle genre (as it did with many others). While freestyle was called "Latin hip hop" by many early on to distinguish from the similar but different movement of hip hop (comprised mostly of Black Americans), those in the forefront of the freestyle scene began to call it that.

Bluffer's Guide to Freestyle
Major freestyle vids below

Some of the major acts of the 80s freestyle era were Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Stevie B, TKA, the Cover Girls, & Shannon. Other major players in the scene were figures like Jellybean Benitez, who was a DJ at legendary NYC disco clubs like Studio 54 and Electric Circus, and went onto to become an big early figure in remixes. From these stints, he met a bandmate of one of the groups he was remixing - Madonna - and went on to produce "Everybody", "Physical Attraction", "Borderline", "Lucky Star" and "Holiday".

Little Louie Vega is one of the most legendary figures in the NY house scene to date and is also known for being part of the production crew Masters at Work but made his bones DJ'ing at a club named Devil's Nest which became an early tastemaker for the freestyle scene, playing records by Expose, TKA, the Cover Girls, Sa-Fire, and Information Society.

What J-Lo referred to her brand of "latin soul" which mixed hip hop, R&B and latin genres is like a modern version of latin freestyle especially in songs like Feeling So Good and Get Right.

Read Stylus mag's Bluffer Guide to Freestyle (which also includes a "50 essential freestyle tracks" listing)
Village Voice: Let the Music Play (again)
Freestyle runs deep in the hearts and roots of Latinos

Shannon - Let the Music Play (1983)