“Fantasy” by Debbie Deb: An example of Miami Freestyle

Freestyle is the name of a music genre that was developed during the 80s. New York City is where it originated. Freestyle was essentially a form of dance music, and it was particularly popular among Hispanics. In different parts of the United states, freestyle music branched off into specific regional variants of the genre. One of the most well-known forms of freestyle was the variant born out of the Miami music scene, which of course became known as “Miami Freestyle.” As a Latino growing up in Miami during the 80s, freestyle was one of the main genres of music that I was exposed to in my pre-teen and teen years. A great example of Miami freestyle is the song “Fantasy” by a singer named Debbie Deb, who was one of the quintessential artists of the Miami freestyle scene. The song dates from 1987, and it received a lot of radio airplay that year. Speaking of airplay, I was in 7th grade at the time, and my school bus driver was kind enough to always have the radio playing on the ride home each weekday afternoon -- set to the station that played many freestyle hits. This is one of the songs that I remember sometimes hearing on the bus that year.