Stevie B. - Biography
By Eric Brightwell
When people speak of “The King of Freestyle” they refer to Stevie B. Under his reign, he expanded freestyle’s realm beyond its New York base and relocated its capital to Miami, in the process transforming it from a strain of hip-hop to crossover dance-pop. However, shortly after ascending to the throne, freestyle fell from public favor and so did B. Although Stevie B has dabbled in other styles, he’s never turned his back on the sound with which he remains closely associated and has benefit from its recent revival.
Beginning in 1983 with Shannon’s “Let the Music Play,” New York’s Puerto-Rican and Italian communities embraced and produced the syncopated synthesizer pop originally distinguished from its hip hop origins as “Latin hip hop.” A few years later, in Florida, producers like “Pretty” Tony Butler and Lewis Martineé had had success with acts who peddled a sunnier, more upbeat take on which proved regionally popular and came to be commonly referred to as freestyle, perhaps after Pretty Tony’s band. In the wake of their success, many Floridian acts appeared overnight. One such hopefull was Steven Bernard Hill, a native of the “Venice of the US,” Ft. Lauderdale. His first single, “Party Your Body” was a significant success in 1987.
B’s next singles, “Dreamin’ of Love” and the massively popular “Spring Love (Come Back to Me),” followed in 1988 and appeared on his debut - a solid collection of pop-flavored freestyle titled Party Your Body (1988-LMR). It quickly went gold. Hot on the heels of its success, B released In My Eyes (1988-LMR) and the singles, “In My Eyes” and “I Wanna Be the One” before the year ended. For the most part, it was similar to the debut although it notably included a couple of ballads, including the syrupy, “Love Me for Life,” which, after the release and Top 40 successes of “Girl I Am Searching for You,” and “In My Eyes,” did even better, reaching the Top 30.
Ironically, Stevie B’s occasional departures from the freestyle formula that made him famous might have helped him outlast its demise. By the end of the 1989, house music was dominating clubs and the mainstream was dominated by new jack swing and straightforward dance-pop like Milli Vanilli. Freestyle almost immediately went underground everywhere except cities like San Jose, California where large Latino and Vietnamese fanbases proved instrumental in keeping the genre alive during the lean years, when nearly all new freestyle performers would come from either the Mexican-American community (Timmy T, Frankie J) or the Filipino one (Buffy, Jaya, Jocelyn Enriquez, One Vo1ce).
Following the Stevie B’s greatest commercial achievement with a non-freestyle number, he returned with a similarly-styled ballad, 1990’s "Because I Love You (The Postman Song.” It instantly became the theme of a thousand of prom after it hit number one that December. The attendant album, Love & Emotion (LMR) seemed calculated to distance Stevie B from the collapsing freestyle scene with most of the album split between ballads and new jack swing, exemplified by his next two top 15 hits, the slow jam, "I'll Be by Your Side" and the new jack swing title cut.
After Stevie B’s biggest commercial success, he moved to Epic and released 1992's Healing. Around the same time L.A.’s Power 106, formerly a freestyle station, changed formats to hip-hop. Miami’s Power 96 starts began playing more R&B and rap. Despite the album’s mix of ballads, freestyle and straightforward dance-pop (with minor concessions to house) it was largely considered a flop and Stevie B. was dropped.
1995’s Funky Melody was released by the Canadian Quality Music & Video. Freestyle singles “Funky Melody” and “If You Still Love Me” along with the ballad “Dream about You” were a return to his classic sound. The album became a favorite amongst his dwindling audience but did little to restore him to his previous commercial heights. Waiting for Your Love (1996-Creative Music Entertainment) and Right Here, Right Now! (1998-Dance 2000) offered more R&B-inflected ballads with a slightly beefed up freestyle sound but both sold poorly. It’s So Good (2000-A45), Stevie B and Friends (2001-Os) (featuring Shana, Tony Garcia and Tony Moran) and Forever in Love (2003-Quality Music & Video) also failed to make much impact.
Around 2004, after 15 years of disfavor, freestyle began to resurge in popularity with freestyle festivals featuring former stars drawing large crowds, radio stations airing freestyle programs and new generations of fans introduced to the old classics. Though Stevie B’s This Time… (2006-SPG Music) occasionally offered sort of a Justin Timberlake/Usher-informed version of dance-pop; for the most part it was an unabashed revival of the classic freestyle sound. The following year, he and Pitbull remade one of his biggest hits as “Spring Love 2007.” Stevie B continues to perform extensively throughout 2008 and released The Terminator (Eyecon) in 2009.
