New School - New School (2003)

New School is a collective of singers masterminded by Canadian producer Adam H. Though described at the time as something new, the sound is very much the pop of the time: Britney, Backstreet Boys, et al. The two constant members aside from Adam were female singers A.J. and Strawberry. The first single, "Back In The Day", which used a sample from Spandau Ballet's hit "True", was a local hit in their native Vancouver. They even got a grant to film a video, which featured J Lo's ex Cris Judd. The song apparently had some success nationally, and two other singles were released from the album, "What You Gonna Do About You" and "Misunderstood", but met with little success. Two non-album singles, "The Sweetest Christmas" and "Alright", also failed to get much attention, and it would appear that the group ceased to exist. They do still have a Myspace site HERE however. Adam H has continued to produce successful pop and R&B acts as part of production team The BananaToons (and even worked with previous postee Max-A-Million) and runs a label, RockSTAR Music Corp., whose last national success was pop starlette Elise Estrada.

Download New School

1		Keep It On The Hush
2		Misunderstood
3		Back In The Day
4		Come Back Home
5		Feet On The Ground
6		Shorty
7		The Rest Of Always
8		What You Gonna Do About You
9		Freaky Girl
10		Bigger Than The Both Of Us
11		Every Other Day
12		Cappuccino
13		Got Me Open
14		Turn To Me
15		Back In The Day (Remix)

Buffy - First Love (1996)

So, it seems due time to offer up another gem to my freestyle fanatics. Buffy is Buffy Salongo, a Filipino (or Pinay) beauty, cutely named after the character in the 70's TV show Family Affair. She was discovered singing at a friend's wedding by Dadgel Atabay, a frequent collaborator of freestyle king Stevie B. He soon started up his own label, Velocity Records, and asked Buffy to record a song he wrote, "Give Me...A Reason". The result was so successful that the song even managed to make it into the Billboard Top 100, to number 78. This was despite that fact that, along with the song being released on an indie label, freestyle had long been out of favour with the public. Yet she seemed to strike at the right time, as freestyle was having a brief resurgence thanks to acts like Planet Soul, Jocelyn Enriquez and previous postee Lina Santiago. She soon followed her hit up with a full album. (Fans of slain Tejano pop singer Selena will want to check out "I Miss You", which is a tribute to her.) More singles were released, such as "No One" and "2 Find U", but their popularity remained solely in the few freestyle circles that still existed. Buffy decided to leave Dadgel and his label in 1998 for personal reasons, which was perhaps a bad move, as nothing has been heard from her since. But should freestyle have yet another massive resurgence, she will no doubt be at the forefront, as she was definitely one of the favoured 'new school' freestyle artists.

Download First Love

1		Give Me...A Reason
2		No One
3		2 Find U
4		Someday
5		It's Your Love
6		I Miss You
7		First Love
8		Gotta Believe
9		Give Me (At-A-Ballad)
10		No One (Matador Mix)
11		No One (Boy Meets Girl Mix)

Tycie & Woody - Tycie & Woody (1991)

Here's some more tasty pop-rap for you! Tycie and Woody are Tycie Person and Wallace Wood. Tycie is the female rapper while Woody, well, I guess he does the music? The credits on the CD don't mention it, but since he is part of the duo's name, I imagine that's what he does, as he doesn't do vocals. Anyway, this came out when rap was exploding and labels were snatching up any act they could find, the poppier the better. There are also tastes of hip-house here, the popularity of which would soon come to an end. That might explain why the duo came and went so quickly. Their one and only single, "The Rhythm's Gonna Get You" is a fun dose of hip-house, with vocals by gospel singer Carol Hall. It's very much like the C+C Music Factory sound that was the rage at the time. But it didn't chart, and obviously Elektra decided not to bother promoting the album any further. I can find no further info on the duo, but I believe Tycie is on Facebook. I don't want to harrass her, but if someone else wishes to... ;) The album is more notable for the production work of The Funky Bass Brothers aka F.B.T or Mark & Jeff Bass. This was their first major production job, and it would be a long time before they re-emerged. But re-emerge they did in 1992, and in a big way, after hearing an unknown white rapper named Eminem freestyle on the radio and inviting him into the studio for free sessions. They produced much of his first album and the rest is history.

Download Tycie & Woody

1		The Rhythm's Gonna Get You
2		Red Hot Mama
3		Get Up And Do It
4		Sophisticated Lady
5		To Take The Stand
6		My Point Of View
7		The Drama
8		Woody's Dream
9		Poetical Princess
10		Crayons