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This form of freestyle has a big history, originating in urban parts of New York by Italian-American DJs, during the 80's, and then spread like wildfire in the other major cities (L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, Philadelphia, Miami, (even going overseas to the UK, back to its home country, italy, and eventually Japan)), and yet, was still an underground scene at the same time. I'm sure you've heard this type of music at one point in your life, but never identified it to the genre. Not to be confused by the same use of the word to describe improvisational rapping without a beat, or "off the top of the head" rap. The origin of the name "freestyle" is to be debated. Now, I'm not old at all lol but I used to love listening to this as a kid, because my sisters were all into this music. It was all the rage in the urban community during the early 90s, and very influential for all of those who wanted to become professional DJs back then in Chicago, as the range for mixing was limitless. Mixtapes were all the rage, and Cassettes were selling faster than the speed of light lol. Here is a very famous track, with a look into how the scene was back then. Some more for your enjoyment . Pop was integrated into the mix into the 90's, and made the genre Iconic, by then branching off into House/Latin Hip-Hop/Early Electro/New Jack Swing/Eurodance. I guess you can connect it to EDM in some way. Eh. I think this was the hit that made broke this genre into mainstream radio, in the 80s. EXILE made a cover song for it in Japan years later. Rumor has it, that this craze spread to Japan, and from this inspiration, Eurobeat/Para Para was born. It's known as "Italian music for the Japanese", or something along those lines lol. I'll cover that in another topic later. So anyways, I can't be the be the only one who was exposed to this as a kid right? haha I'd love to hear about your favorite tracks, if you'd care to share. For those who have never listened to this before, care to share your thoughts on this music?