![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/RBMA2016-Freestyle_Story-Header-2.624ecded.jpg?auto=format&w=1280)
Freestyle Trading Cards
Hip-hop wasn’t the only genre that came out of the Bronx. There was also freestyle, which took the drum machine-fueled sound of early ’80s hip-hop and branched off in a completely different direction – gliding from upbeat house to disco-inflected tracks that sounded readymade for pop radio. Freestyle bloomed out of New York and Miami, with artists like TKA, Stevie B and Exposé (among many, many, many others) making hits that rapidly wormed their way into popular consciousness.
But freestyle would ultimately birth an even bigger level of international pop star: MC Hammer, New Kids on the Block, Madonna and others all built their own sound from freestyle’s core. Now, it’s all tangled up in nostalgia. Just about any freestyle song – from Shannon’s “Let the Music Play” to Debbie Deb’s “When I Hear Music” – now reads as quintessentially ’80s: glossy, upbeat and joyfully decadent.
We asked Benjamin Marra – the artist behind pastiche action comics like Night Business and Blades & Lazers – to illustrate trading cards featuring some of the luminaries that created a sound that would eventually define an entire decade.
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/stevie-1.0d04cad6.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/stevie-b2.6c6347ea.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/tka1.6578ca51.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/tka2.0f4f342e.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/louie1.4e8e0691.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/louie2.f2fd24e5.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/lisalisa.e6f13f94.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/lisalisa2.e6f13f94.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/arthur1.c6c7fb05.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
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![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/jellybean1.f396bf63.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/jellybean2.2ee80504.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/shannon1.80784570.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/shannon2.d58e493f.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/debbie1.43d5333f.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/debbie2.7f69ee86.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/expose1.f044003d.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/expose2.fddebc50.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/pretty1.3ad9a052.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/pretty2.cc8ab448.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/trine1.d1bd45ad.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/trine2.b06ff156.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/latin1.9b6d026f.jpg?auto=format&w=700)
![](https://media.redbullmusicacademy.com/assets/latin2.a2ff105c.jpg?auto=format&w=700)