foreign
the 80s and freestyle music went together like peanut butter and jelly the genre emerged in
the New York metropolitan area and Philadelphia primarily among Hispanic and Italian Americans
many artists achieved a lot of success climbing up the dance charts such as Sweet Sensation The
Cover Girls and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam the crew consisted of vocalist Lisa Lisa born Lisa Velez
guitarist and bassist Alex spenador Mosley and drummer and keyboardist Mike Hughes initially
assembled and produced by R B singing group and production team full force Lisa found herself
auditioning for them at the age of 14. she was born the youngest of 10 children raised by a
single mother in the diverse Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in New York City Lisa's mother
having sang in a local band in her native Puerto Rico as well as directed her church
choir when she came to the U.S would be the one to introduce Lisa to music and singing
after seeing the tears in her mother's eyes after performing her first Solo in church
at six years old Lisa knew she had a talent that would take her places meanwhile over in
Brooklyn Mike as a young child was also being introduced to the wonderful world of music by
his mother through the likes of Smokey Robinson and James Brown by the time he'd entered his
teens he'd secured the role of drummer in a band consisting of Brothers Paul Anthony George Brian
B fine George lucianne bow-legged Lou George Jr who would later become the heart of Full Force
even though he was already a member of a group Mike still aspired to create one of his own and
he would when he hooked up with a local guitar Prodigy named Alex spanador Mosley Alex grew up
influenced by a lot of funk and 70s r b by day Lisa would be in school studying the Performing
Arts but by night she would become a regular in a particular downtown dance club called
the fun house why that specific Club well she'd heard that Madonna had been discovered there and
figured hey maybe the same thing could happen to her and it did bow-legged Lou sent Mike on
a talent search for a young female singer and he headed straight to that very Club where he would
meet Lisa after auditioning for full force and blowing everyone away Mike Alex and Lisa
now an official Trio got into the studio just one week later to begin recording their first
song and that was it they recorded one song and then went back to living their regular
everyday lives three months later though they received word that they'd landed a record deal
their song I wonder if I take you home became a Smash Hit Upon its release in
1984. it's somewhat of a miracle that it made it onto the airwaves at all fished
out of a discard bin at a record company it was placed on a breakdancing compilation album that
club DJs in Europe began to play after it was released there pretty soon American DJs began
playing the song as well after it received some heavy radio play I wonder if I take
you home climbed all the way to number one on the billboard hot dance club play chart
what'd you do now baby it also reached number six on the r b chart and number 34 on the Hot
100 eventually going gold their old life as the group knew it was over and things started moving
very quickly Lisa had to abruptly quit school and her retail job to be able to keep up with
the fever Pace that included only being given two weeks to complete an album The Following
Year Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam did release their self-titled debut album with full force while
dominating the music charts Lisa started to become quite the fashion icon at every
concert she would notice many other teenage girls wearing similar outfits and sporting
her signature hairstyle which was actually an accident after she went too far one day
cutting her hair herself the group followed with another club hit Can You Feel The Beat which went
to number six on the dance jar Lisa Lisa and cult Jam's third and final single on the album a ballad
called All Cried Out with help from Paul Anthony and Bowlegged Lou from full force also went gold
going to number three on the r b chart and number eight on the Hot 100 in 1986. no doubt playing a
major role in the album going Platinum if a group thought that things couldn't get any
better they would have been dead wrong their second album Spanish Fly released in 1987 took
them to even higher Heights even though it was a slight departure from their signature freestyle
sound the shift worked as this album would be the one to give the group their first number one
pop hit followed by their second with head to toe and lost an emotion that album also went platinum
their third single though someone to love me for me in a way spelled the beginning of the
end it was at the video shoot for the song that it became clear to Mike and Alex that they were
being phased out in the group's unsung episode bolegged Liu admitted that from the beginning the
record company only wanted to have Lisa in the Forefront over time the trio would only become
more and more divided their third album straight to the sky was released two years later several
moderately successful singles were released but the album itself didn't put up numbers anywhere
near what their previous two had done Behind the Music things were also on Shaky Ground Lisa who
would become a wife after getting married the year before at the tender age of 19 was facing
a divorce according to her things fell apart due to her husband being a typical Macho latino man
who couldn't handle her being the one to bring home the bacon instead of him at the same time
Lisa was also dealing with a major health scare after finding a bruise under her left breast
that was later diagnosed as breast breast cancer without telling anyone she underwent chemo and
radiation while continuing to perform and fulfill her professional obligations things between the
group and their mentors full force also began to deteriorate throughout Lisa Lisa and cult Jam's
entire career the members constantly had to deal with the confusion over where a full force ended
and Lisa Lisa began not surprisingly support from their record label Colombia also dwindled
for their fourth and what would end up being their final album 1991 straight out of Hell's
Kitchen the label brought in CNC music factories David Cole and Robert clavillas to produce half of
the album while full force did the other half that decision didn't sit well with full force
at all Lisa and Robert's relationship also went beyond professional borders and got very personal
the project did manage to generate one hit Let the Beat hit him which went to number one on both the
r b and dance charts but by that time the music scene had changed change and the group's signature
80 sound didn't fly in the early 90s their label had also just signed a young up-and-coming pop
singer that they had every intention of making their new priority Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam parted
ways with their label and Lisa parted ways with Mike Alex and full force she explained in their
unsung episode that she felt stifled and believed that the time had come for her to go out on her
own Mike and Alex kept Cult Jam going for a short time before transitioning into other
work Mike becoming a club DJ and Alex offering his Services as a musician For Hire working with the
likes of Bobby Brown and Jodeci Lisa released her first solo album called ll77 in 1994. it
included the moderate Club hit when I fell in love and equally moderate r b single skipped
to My Lou she resurfaced again but this time on the acting scene in 2001 on the Nickelodeon teen
series taina playing the title character's mother a few years later Lisa married for the second time
and went on to have two children another album followed for her in 2009 titled life and love
after more than two decades apart Lisa Mike and Alex came together for a reunion concert
in 2012. in the summer of 2019 Lisa signed with Snoop Dogg's music entertainment company Uncle
snoop's Army as the mission statement details on the website their objective is to give artists
the opportunity to get on a stage without the politics of a major agency standing in their
way since then the first Puerto Rican slash Latino artist to cross over to the pop and R
B charts can be seen along with her band and dance Ensemble performing all over the globe