tpentz@hotmail.com's mixtape podcast DJ Tucker

I’ve been wanting to do a Freestyle mixtape for a while now. I have cool memories of this music booming out of little Suzuki Samurais and Honda Civics in the late '80s during family vacations to the East and West Coasts.

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of archived radio DJ mixes from the late '80s and was inspired to pull together some tasty Rap, Freestyle, Electro, Post-Disco, and House for this tape. I only recently became aware of the original version of 'Show Me Love' and found an unopened copy on Discogs, so the version at the end of this set is a genuine needle drop.

A brief introduction to the Freestyle genre: Emerging in the early 1980s in the United States and originating in the urban Latino communities of New York City and Miami, Freestyle was characterized by a blend of synthesizer and drum-heavy electronic beats, Latin percussion, and emotive, often dramatic singing. Notable artists include Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Stevie B, and Exposé.

Internationally, the impact of Freestyle was more nuanced. In Europe, while synth-pop, new wave, and house music were more dominant, elements of Freestyle influenced the emerging Eurodance scene. Meanwhile, in Japan, Freestyle was overshadowed by genres like J-Pop and city pop, along with various other forms of Western music.

While its core fanbase resided in cities like New York and Miami, Freestyle's popularity was embraced in club scenes nationwide and received considerable radio play, particularly on urban contemporary, dance, and R&B stations during its peak in the late 1980s. This era marked the height of Freestyle's run in the charts with songs like 'Fascinated' by Company B, 'Crush on You' by The Jets, 'Point of No Return' by Exposé, 'Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)' by Samantha Fox, and 'Tell It to My Heart' by Taylor Dayne.

Freestyle's influence persisted into the early '90s, notably in Eurodance with international hit songs like 'Rhythm of the Night' by Corona and 'Be My Lover' by La Bouche, which exhibited similarly catchy choruses and uptempo rhythms, but with much denser and slicker production. While in the Latin music scene, especially in the early to mid-1990s, Latin Freestyle, a subgenre, saw artists like Selena infusing traditional Latin sounds with Freestyle's electronic beats and rhythms.

Freestyle remains a distinctive and memorable part of 1980s music culture, representing a unique fusion of sounds that captured the energy and diversity of its era.

Fantasy 3 - It's Your Rock
Pretty Tony - Fix It in the Mix
Freestyle - Don't Stop the Rock
Trinere - How Can We Be Wrong
Sequal - It's Not Too Late
Jennette - You Turn Me On
Olga - Play Another Song for Me
Pretty Poison - Nightime
Newtrament - London Bridge is Falling Down (Dub Mix)
Beat Street - Breaker's Revenge
Bohannon - Let's Start the Dance III (Instrumental Club)
Patrice Rushen - Number One (Instrumental Version)
N.O.I.A. - The Rule to Survive
Import #1 - Set It Off (Party Rock)
Connie - Rock Me
Lidell Townsell, M T F - Nu Nu (Radio Apella)
Robin Stone - Show Me Love (New York Mix)

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I first read about the N.E.R.D. project in something like Maxim Magazine back in college around 2001. Very quickly, the UK version was on file-sharing sites (Napster, LimeWire, Kazaa), and I snapped it up. Ironically, there was no way to know the actual tracklisting, so I made a mix CD with the order that I liked. This was the OG beats version that was never released in America and remains my preferred version. In 2002, with what must be one of my first-ever purchases on Amazon, I actually managed to buy the OG UK version on CD so that I could have WAV files of this amazing debut album, though I quickly burned a CD with the order I was used to from my sketchy mp3’s.

N.E.R.D.’s second album, Fly or Die, was actually really good, but at the time, I was sorta turned off by the band instrumentation on a N.E.R.D. album and didn’t keep up with them much after that. This needed to be sorted out, so I’ve gone through their discography for a mixtape. I’ve used some of my beats versions of In Search of... songs as well as the officially available versions with full instrumentation because, with fresh ears, some of them actually kinda slap. You be the judge.

One thing I realized while pulling this tape together is that Fly or Die was actually freaking amazing. I love the Steely Dan-esque moments, and really, the only thing I can knock it for is being a little short. Definitely an admirable follow-up to their goat debut masterpiece, In Search of...

She Wants To Move
Things Are Getting Better
Inside Of Clouds
Don't Don't Do It
Anti Matter
Rock Star
I've Seen The Light
Hot n Fun
Party People
You Know What
The Way She Dances
Waiting For You
Baby Doll
Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)
Ride That Thang
Am I High
Thrasher
Chariot Of Fire
Fly Or Die
Wonderful Place
Maybe
Stay Together
Jump
Spaz
Brain
Tape You
Voilà
Lapdance

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This mix is a bit of a sidequest as I put the finishing touches on a pretty fire N.E.R.D. mixtape that I’ve been working on.

Occasionally, I give flowers to some of the great pop tapes and CDs I grew up with. At times, I'll also include a mixtape from other artists who were highly influential to me, especially when they seem to be otherwise missing from the internet for some reason.

I stopped DJing in 1994, dropped out of college, and ran off to the Navy, realizing that rocking parties with two tape decks wasn't going to translate to club gigs anyway. For the next 20 years, I was just a DJ fanboy. During that time, I really dug the late '90s big beat scene, with artists like The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and Groove Armada. The Chemical Brothers’ commercial mix CD, 'Brothers Gonna Work It Out,' was a massive influence, so much so that when I returned to DJing in 2013, now with the benefit of a laptop and controller, I specifically studied it until I could recreate it. Needless to say, their old DJ sets are a huge influence on me and all are worth a spin when you find them.

This particular Chemical Brothers DJ set has been on my hard drive for 21 years, titled “ChemBros_Soundsystem_XL_2003.mp3,” and was originally recorded from the radio in 2003. I most likely downloaded it from Kazaa or Limewire. It stayed in heavy rotation on my Creative MuVo MP3 player at the time. Now, it's nowhere to be found online, which is a shame, so I'm uploading it here as I finish up my N.E.R.D. mixtape. Enjoy — it knocks.

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For a long time, I’ve wanted to give flowers to some of the great pop tapes and CDs I grew up with.

It's time for my little love letter to INXS's 'Shabooh Shoobah.' INXS's Kick dropped when I was in the 7th grade, and it was everywhere. As a budding crate digger, I randomly bought this one with my lawn mowing money and was obsessed. For much of 1988, I rotated between 'Shabooh Shoobah', The Cars' self-titled album, and the Doors' 'Absolutely Live,' in my RadioShack-brand Walkman. In fact, I could get through all of 'Shabooh Shoobah' and half of the 'Cars' tape on my morning bus ride to school. Good times.

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I found this buried on my hard drive. This is my open-to-close set at Akron’s Square Nightclub in Highland Square on February 19th, 2016. This was a fun gig I held down for a few years after it fell into my lap. I used to play deep cuts and hipster stuff for the heck of it at Square and set up the main DJs who were in regular rotation. They used to, sorta, start later and later since someone was already there (me) who set up the booth and made sure the subs were bumping and not overheating since I’d aim fans at them and stuff, like the true gear nerd that I am.

One day, DJ Robin, originally scheduled to take over at 11 PM, couldn’t make it, and I ended up filling in. In no time, I settled into a weekly routine of subbing for either Robin or the other main DJ (whose name escapes me even after all these years).

Even though Square is known as an LGBT bar, it also serves as the only dance floor in Highland Square. As the night progresses, the crowd changes from older gay patrons to bridesmaids, then to 30-year-olds looking to have a good time before heading home to relieve their babysitters. Eventually, from 1-2:30 AM, it transforms into a full-on college bar.

The DJs had already established a “pay-to-play” tradition, with a request list placed next to the tip jar. I heavily relied on that list to figure out wtf these people wanted to hear, and would cop things from iTunes as needed. For this gig I’d basically play a request then riff for a few songs, and then grab another request, all night long. I built up a pretty solid charts library along the way. Basically anything old and/or weird is me, and the random contemporary songs where requests peppered in.

I had so many crazy interactions that I started bringing a digital recorder that let me record the crowd noise via a mic along with capturing a clean signal from the mixer. It’s definitely cool to hear the floor fill up as the night progressed. I miss that place.

This particular set was full of glitches because I had opened up my mixer to patch the sound card for time code vinyl and made it unhappy, so it cut out abruptly 2 or 3 times during my set. The first time it happened, I was caught lacking. By the time it cut out on me towards the end, I had a Whitney Houston gay bar banger ready to go on my phone that was hooked up to the AUX-in. First-world problems…

[MBP12->Xone:23C->TASCAM DR-40 in 4-channel mode for crowd noise along + line-in]

Finally something new. I got inspired by Chris Read's awesome Hip House mixes (https://www.mixcloud.com/chrisreadsubstance/) and mined my HD to mix up one of my own para la gente.

The Jacksons - Opening
C+C Music Factory - Here We Go (the Rockin' in '91 Mix - Zelma Sings)
Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance (Nearly Neuebeat)
King Bee - Back by Dope Demand
Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock - Get on the Dance Floor
Double Trouble & The Rebel MC - Street Tuff
D-Mob - It Is Time to Get Funky
Stacey Paton - Turn up the Music
White Knight - Get Crazy
2 in a Room - Wiggle It
Twin Hype - Do It to the Crowd
Fast Eddie - Let's Go
Deskee - Let There Be House
Mr. Lee - Get Busy
M T F & Lidell Townsell - Touch Me
Technotronic - Get up (Before the Night Is Over)
The Beatmasters ft. M.C. Merlin - Who's in the House?
Tyree - Let the Music Take Control
C+C Music Factory - Here We Go (the Clivilles & Cole Rockin' in 91 Mix)

C+C Music Factory was the sh*t, don't @ me