FREESTYLE FOR LIFE

nystateofgrind.com book review

As I finished this book this morning, I realized that I never contemplated much about the gambit of entertainment outside of Hip-Hop. Growing up in Brooklyn, the divisions within music genres multiplied in the the late eighties. Many of the secular genres dried up and died down, some are all but extinct.

"Freestyle", with it's 16th note hi-hats and 120 Beats Per Minute's begin to fade in face of the rapid evolution of Hip-Hop. Adding to it's demise was the huge success of crossover hits from freestyle artists, which ultimately caused an over-saturation in the genre. To many in the urban communities it became the only alternative to a life of squalor and poverty. Naturally, this explosion in the population of those attempting to become stars led to more unscrupulous business practices and an overall perversion of the artform.

In "Freestyle for Life" we follow a young successful artist named "Solo" who wears his heart on his sleeve and is loyal to the point of naive to his surroundings. He begins the hard grind of climbing his way to the top near the apex of the genre, only to have his career and life derailed by an improbable incarceration. Surviving the barbaric and mundane existence that coincides with prison, he returns home to find things have drastically changed during his prison stint.

Resisting the call for conformity with the newly dominant genres of Hip-Hop, he decides to give it all he has and make one last attempt to revive the all but dead music style he loves with all of his heart and soul. But will the same mysterious circumstances that sent him to prison the first time return to haunt him? "Freestyle for Life" is an ode to the love, hate, and envy that success breeds, and divides the lives of men families and friends.