I saw Ed DMX DJ last night at a Dissident Records party in Soho.  It was fun.

It reminded me how music should be – real vinyl, scratching, eclectic, clever and joyful.  He kept switching between styles from gangsta rap to funk to electro to acid and beyond. SO GOOD!

He’s got a podcast you should check out. It has this freestyle gem on it:

PAJAMA PARTY – YO NO SE

I found this 12″ during my holiday to South Beach Miami between visiting the fabulous Wolfsonian Design Museum and not so fabulous World Erotic Art Museum. BTW take a look at some of the exhibits at both.

Man Parrish, the “electro funky white boy” and pioneer of electronic music, made a track with Paul Parker, the creator of my favourite jogging track – Right on target.

PAUL PARKER – ONE LOOK (WAS ENOUGH)

The collaboration reads better than it sounds – right?

Alex Macpherson wrote a great piece about Cassie on the Guardian music blog. I agree with everything he says – Cassie’s brilliant.

This track has a freestyle sound!

CASSIE – TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

I’ve been having really bad luck on eBay.  I’m going to stick with just ordering nitrous oxide for my fellow bloggers because 12” singles are proving to be a big no.  Almost every record I’ve ordered recently has  either got lost in the post or come to me scratched, warped or worse. One girl sent me a 12” of Joyce Sims’ All And All beautifully wrapped in brown paper and bubblewrap but without any cardboard backing – it arrived in several pieces!

So thank god for this freestyle 12” that came all the way from America undamaged.

WILD MARY – NO ONE KNOWS (VOCAL EXTENDED MIX)

All the clothes in this video are perfect.

THE JETS – CRUSH ON YOU

All the old original b-boys would talk about Wild Style, Style Wars, etc like they were Citizen Kane, Jules and Jim, and The Godfather all rolled into one. They’re wrong. Beat Street’s only got two good scenes.  One of which is a 30 second clip of Brenda K Starr performing Vicious Beat. I’m guessing, like almost everything else in the film, it’s produced by Arthur Baker. I can’t find the track anywhere on 12″, MP3 or tape. Does anybody on the world wide web know where I can find it?

The other good scene, The Roxy battle,  features Rock Steady Crew and the NYC Breakers in a breakdancing contest. I’ve already blogged about that before. So here are the NYC Breakers a few years later wearing tight trousers.

As requested by Mr Michael O’Neill whom I’ve just noticed spells his surname with two Ls. I never noticed that before. This is the 10 minute version for those who adore extended saxophone solos.

EXPOSÉ – POINT OF NO RETURN

BTW you can get Come go with me here – it’s good but nowhere near as good.

My friend from Picnic Land tells me that there’s a Joyce Sims freestyle song that’s better than Shannon’s Let the music play! Is that possible? I’ve been searching for a while and I can’t find it. During my hunt for the mythical track I came across this 12″ single. It’s nowhere near as good at Let the music play but it’s definitely a seven or eight out of ten. I think this might have been produced by Kurtis Mantronik but Wikipedia, Discogs and the record’s sleeve all give conflicting information.

JOYCE SIMS – WALK AWAY (12″ CLUB MIX – HIP HOP STYLE)

In this world where everybody is sophisticatedly swinging along to Jodeci is there room for Miami style 808 bitch rap?

I don’t know the story behind the I got your boyfriend/girlfriend shtick but I like the music.

GET FRESH GIRLS – I SEEN YOUR BOYFRIEND

MC LUSCIOUS – BOOM! I GOT YOUR BOYFRIEND (X-RATED EXPLICIT)

Bonus track
WINK D FEAT CANDY FRESH – GET BUSY

I best stop posting my own material. It will only end in my four-track indiepunk demos or worse the IDM phase.

Here’s a really beautiful track with slightly stalky undertones.

C-BANK – I WON’T STOP LOVING YOU

It’s the best freestyle track I’ve been listening to recently. Even better than the other C-Bank track I adore.

C-BANK – ONE MORE SHOT

Freestyle music’s so lovey-dovey. One minute you’re vibing to a track carefree and then you catch the lyrics and you’re reminded of every heartache ever – I mean EVER! It’s not such a bad feeling though – it’s a nice melancholy thing – a celebration of being human. Here are some tracks to laugh, dance and cry to…

BOBBY COLEMAN – MUST BE THE MUSIC (FREESTYLE MIX) - this is SO good – I thought it was Ed DMX.

LATIN EXPRESS – BROOKLYN KNIGHT (BROOKLYN BOUNCE CLUB MIX) – this is even better – it’s my top find of the year – link taken from Freestyleflashback.

TRINERE – ALONE AT LAST (PRETTY TONY’S HYPED EDIT)

FFWD – BABY DON’T GO

LOUISA H – FANTASY BOY (MAXI VERSION) – note that string pattern – might come in handy later.

SHANNON – MY HEART’S DIVIDED

EXPOSE – COME GO WITH ME

Some 90s Californian freestyle for you.

EMOTION IN MOTION – FOREVER
MIKATRONIK – FUNKYTOWN
DAVIAH – MIRACLES

What happened? In the early 80s Arthur Baker was defining electro, hip hop and freestyle. This decade he opened a few lame bars, remixed electroclash group W.I.T and put on parties with Wade Crescent. He’s still my hero though.

Arthur Baker – Breakers Revenge/ Beat Street clip (1984)

Freeez – I.O.U (1983)

Soul Sonic Force – Planet Rock (1982)