Lisa Lisa was a Puerto Rican cutie from the streets of New York whose real name was Lisa Velez. The youngest of ten children with six sisters and three brothers, she was a buxom girl with a less-than-perfect voice, but enough attitude, vision, and sass to blossom into a star. Born in 1966, she grew-up in Hell’s Kitchen, which spanned from 34th Street to 59th Street between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River. Raised by a strict, religious mother back in the day when her hood was no joke, Lisa Lisa’s Hell’s Kitchen was a strange melting pot that a wild Irish gang known as the Westies called home, where a bugged-out Puerto Rican crew sporting the moniker the Vampires once ruled the night, and the relations between the two groups inspired the classic musical West Side Story.

Yet, amongst the rampant violence, salsa music wholesalers, cutthroat bars and spiritual Botanicas, there were also decent folks striving to survive against those mean streets. Although her father left shortly after Lisa was born, the family was tight. “We were very close,” Lisa Lisa said years later. “I learned from their mistakes what not to do.” Local boys also knew that she wasn’t the one to mess with. “My oldest brother Raymond did three tours of Vietnam, and had a rep in the neighborhood; nobody messed with him.”

When she was a girl, Velez was a choir singer in La Hijas De Maria (Daughters of Mary) at her Catholic church and sang her first solo (“Ava Maria”) when she was nine. “I noticed my mother crying, and my first thought was, ‘Hey, I could make some money off of this shit,” Lisa told me, laughing. “I just loved the reactions, so I just kept on. I performed at school and got involved in different neighborhood things at the YWCA.” A few years after her first communion, when Lisa was a teenager and began craving independence, she started sneaking out of the house to dance the night away at clubs 1018, Danceteria, and the Funhouse.

“I later confessed to my mother that I had been sneaking out, but she refused to believe me,” she said. At that time, Lisa was like one of the girls her future label-mate Cyndi Lauper sang about, who just wanted to have fun while a part of her also wanted to be famous. In the meantime, she was content to party with her friends, tease the boys, but never really do anything too bad. One night, when Lisa least expected it, she got her chance. Reminiscent of the Lana Turner mythology in which the starlet was discovered by a Hollywood producer while slurping pop at some soda shop, it was at the Funhouse where Velez encountered the man with the musical plan to take her away from the ordinary world.

http://www.soulhead.com/2...el-gonzales

Gloria Estefan released a freestyle song in 2011

I'm seeing Lisa Lisa in concert in July

in the summer/fall of '87,I was playing this album to death....lol...I literally wore out my first copy and had to buy another!

LOVE Lisa Lisa! J-Ho wishes she was as badass and talented.

I love Lisa Lisa. However, I remember when Shannon came out with "Let the Music Play" in 1983 and got mad airplay in NYC. It was considered the forerunner to the freestyle genre.

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My family played the hell out of the 45s for "Head To Toe" and "Lost In Emotion".

Gets no better than Lisa Lisa

Can You Feel The Beat was a banger.

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Listening to her reminds me of my youth.. of my old neighborhood.

I went to her first record signing at Tower Records.

JoeBala said:

Cinny said:

JoeBala said:

I went to her first record signing at Tower Records.

wow!!

Coffee.

She has a great sense of humor.Some of her Facebook posts are hilarious I love this lady!

We need some new freestyle! Loving it