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The History of Freestyle Music (continued)
Written by Joey Gardner
Reproduced with permission of Tommy Boy Music & Timber! Records
There were exceptions. In 1984, Nayobe released her first single "Please Don't Go." Nayobe, a Cuban American who was sixteen years old when she recorded the song, was the discovery of Andy Panda who co-produced and co-wrote the song "Please Don't Go" became an instant club classic and served as a bridge between the Shannonesque records that were flooding the market and the sound that developed the following year - Latin Hip-Hop. This was also true of Jellybean's remake of the classic "The Mexican." The single that many consider the first true Latin Hip-Hop record was Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam's "I Wonder If I Take You Home." The song was originally signed to Personal Records in New York and not released in the U.S. It was licensed to CBS Records in England and became a big club record on import. The response the record received from the Latin Hip-Hop clubs led Columbia Records to pick up the single for U S release where it became an anthem for teen-age girls. The song reached #34 on the Pop charts in August of 1985 and Lisa Lisa became a role model for young Hispanics all over her hometown of New York.
It was also 1985 when I discovered three young Puerto Rican teens named Tony, Kayel and Aby - TKA. Kayel came to Tommy Boy Records, where I worked at the time, with rap demos, but I turned them all down. When he told me he could also sing, I agreed to go to a performance at a sweet sixteen party in the basement of a church in East Harlem. It was there I first heard "Scars of Love," a song Kayel wrote that they would perform over the instrumentals of the biggest rap tracks of the moment. When I saw the reaction of the largely Latin crowd of kids, I knew I had to do something to get them signed. It was at this party that I also met the Latin Rascals - Tony Moran and Albert Cabrera, whose names I knew from their editing work on Arthur Baker and John Robie productions and their D.J. work on WKTU and KISS-FM. We went into the studio and recorded a rough version of "Scars Of Love." By summer of that year TKA had begun to build a following in New York performing the song for free wherever someone would let them, such as radio station events and benefit concerts. Word of mouth finally reached Tommy Boy Records who decided to sign the group. Although we had recorded a rough version of "Scars Of Love," we felt it needed reworking and decided to record a new song to be TKA's first single.