Art by Author
The excitement I felt when I heard the Debbie Deb sample on Kendrick Lamar’s Squabble Up off his new GNX project was overwhelming. It took me right back to being 12 and starting to navigate the treacherous teenage years with the help of music. The first record I remember buying was Fascinated by Company B. I listened to that song over and over and over again. This style of music that was called Freestyle was extremely popular and overlapped with a lot of early hip-hop in those days in California. According to Wikipedia, freestyle music developed in the early 1980s in New York:
“It initially was a fusion of synthetic instrumentation and syncopated percussion of 1980s electro, as favored by fans of breakdancing. Sampling, as found in synth-pop music and hip-hop, was incorporated. Key influences include Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force‘s “Planet Rock” (1982) and Shannon‘s “Let the Music Play” (1983), the latter was a top-ten Billboard Hot 100 hit.”
I remember my first after school dance in the school gym at Raney Junior High in Corona in 1985. I walked into the school gym and the song “La Dream Team Is In The House” was playing and at that moment the most popular, pretty, and feared girl in school walked in with a level of confidence that I will never forget. She wore thick black eyeliner and a long flowy skirt and tank top. Her bangs were hair sprayed high and the sides of her hair were teased to look like wings, also shellacked with aqua-net. She was walking into the dance while that song was playing and she sang along to the chorus but changed the words to hype herself. “oh yes we’re here, the dream team is here” became “oh yes I’m here, Alice is here.”
Other notable songs that I loved from that genre and time that really exemplified the era include the following, and in certain neighborhood swap meets or backyard parties all across the Southland, these songs still get regular rotation:
I created the main collage art and included it as a free hi-res digital download where you can access it here. (Copyright Sylvia Marina Martinez, 2024. Not for resale, personal use only). If you would like to make a donation to support my work including all my free content on my two main blogs, I very much appreciate it.
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