User:LatifMercado/sandbox



Lil’ Suzy 1985 I started working with Lil’ Suzy when she was just five years old, and continue to work with her till this day. From writer, producer, road manager, agent, and then manager.

Stylin’ Free Records 1996 Small independent Freestyle labels were popular, and I wanted in on the action. My travels with Lil Suzy allowed me to build one hell of a team. The artists featured on our first compilation called “The Alternative Dance Comp” were from all over th country, which helped gain us the wide distribution that other start up labels couldn’t figure out.

Stylin’ Free Records 1999 New artists, new producers. Let’s try it gain. Learning from our mistakes with the first comp, especially when it came to it’s title, I decided to name this one The 1999 Freestyle Finale. A much better titel, though he productions weren’t nowhere as good as on the first, but still, it kept us out there.

Metropolitan Records 2000 I always wanted to work at a record company, never in my life did I think it would be this one. Metro was located about 2 1/2 hours from my house via public transportation so when I was offered the position of retail marketer, the pay wasn’t going to work at all, in fact, I needed at least double what was offered, but why would anyone want to pay me that much money without proof that I can actually do the job, so I made a deal. “I’ll give you three weeks for free.” I told the boss. “If you don’t think I’m worth what I’m asking then I will go home with no questions asked, and you don’t owe me anything. But, if you like what I am doing, this is the number I need (not want) need. One week went by and the boss called me into his office and gave me a check for exactly what I asked for.

Ladies Of Freestyle 2001 Metropolitan Records were stagnant. They weren’t releasing like they once did, and were beginning to lose ground. The boss had experienced a few duds and was reluctant to release anything else, until I came up with an idea. Let me put together a new compilation featuring all of the ladies that were released on Metro in the past. In fact, I found enough material to produce three compilations which we then agreed to release simultaneously so as to take advantage of the advertising.

La’ Entertainment The whole idea behind La’ Entertainment was to handle the management and bookings of the artists on my label Stylin’ Free Records, but it took on a bigger role. La’ Entertainment was practically an after-thought. Created only to be able to benefit from acts released on the Stylin’ Free label. Little did I know that La’ Entertainment would take on a life of it’s only becoming one of the most significant companies within the Freestyle genre.

Angel OCG 2002 She changed my life in so many ways. Prior to us getting married, I worked in the capacity of first an agent, then a manager. Since the only Cover Girl groups out and about were Phonies, I had to find a way of both acknowledging Angel for her most important role as the lead singer of one of Freestyle’s greatest Female groups, to making sure she was not confused for any of the fakes, so I decided to call her ANGEL The Original CoverGirl or Angel OCG for short, and it worked!

FREESTYLE AGAINST PHONIES 2003 It was an epidemic attacking our genre and I felt I had to do something about it. No one else was listening, and legally it would’ve taken forver and cost a fortune so I decided to go to the most important source from the equation… The Fans! If I could educate them as to what was happening it just might help us win the fight against Phonyism.

La’ Radio Live 2006 I didn’t want just a radio show. I wanted a radio station! I thought the concept of Internet radio was genius, and definitely a Godsend, seeing that Radio was not supporting Freestyle as it once did. La’ Radio literally became Freestyle’s #1 iRadio Station, but with limited bandwidth etc, we couldn’t do what we wanted, so we closed down. But in 2015, under a new Program Director, we reopened the airwaves and added everything that 2006 couldn’t accommodate.

S.A.L. I needed a way of crossing markets, and this was the perfect idea. Lil’ Suzy was huge in certain markets, and Angel COG was huge in others, but I was having a hard time crossing their paths which doubled my travels. One weekend I would fly to Los Angeles with Angel, and the following weekend, I would fly out to San Francisco with Lil’ Suzy. The money was great, and I racked up thousands of request Flyer miles every year, but it was sort of taking its toll, as those regular six hour flights were becoming more and more uncomfortable. I had booked a show for Angel and Lisette Melendez in Rhodie Island, and the four hour limousine ride gave me time to get to know Lisette, and the next morning I called her with this idea I had. I felt that by adding Lisette into a package with Suzy and Angel, that I could tour this package across all markets, and I was right. S.A.L. stood for Suzy, Angel, Lisette, and it was the newest and hottest project to come out of Freestyle in many years.

Freestyle by La’ 2008 I’ve always been a huge fan of Urban products, especially those somehow related to the Hip Hop culture. I wore all the Urban clothing such as Phat Farm, Rockaway, and of course Sean John. Their fragrances were my favorite, and I dished out lots of money to stay stocked with the latest and greatest, my favorites being Sean John, and Addia's. I felt the Hip Hop community were absolute geniuses, and played around with the idea of putting out a fragrance with Freestyle as it’s theme. I thought this would be great for the genre, and without even letting anyone know what I was up to, I did all the research and after about a year, released my very own fragrance called Freestyle by La’ Without any financial help from outside sources, I invested over $23,000. And had my first shipment delivered to my garage. I didn’t expect to sell them right away, in fact, my plans were to actually give away that first batch, but I wanted the artists to be involved. I approached a few to take cases with them on the road and try to sell them at their event, and in return they could keep all the money. The idea behind that was to create a buzz and hopefully a demand for the product so that I could manufacture more, this time selling them. Unfortunately, the help I was hoping to get from the Freestyle community never happened, and therefore Freestyle by La’ never really took off. However, I am still glad that I at least got to do it.

The Freestyle Music Awards 2008 I had been booking shows with this promoter out of Miami, Florida. It was great because she gave me full rein on picking the acts myself, and all of her events were hits. We had already done several when she called me about doing another, but by this time I felt we might need to change it up a bit. I mentioned to her that I’ve always had this idea, and she was excited to hear it. She was sold almost immediately and asked me to start putting it together. I mentioned that the ideas I have are like none other and if she agreed to do it the way I envisioned, I would not take any money, I would want it all to go back into the production. She agreed, and in 2008 the first ever Freestyle Music Awards hit Miami, and till this day people everywhere talk about it.

The Original Cover Girls 2010 They said it couldn’t be done. I said it could, so I did it!

NOVELS 2011 - PRESENT I needed another way of entertaining our Freestyle fans.

7 SIMPLE STEPS 2017 We couldn’t depend on the promoters any longer, so I said I’ll teach new ones.