Played: 49 | Download | Duration: 00:25:29

Back in the early 1980's, I was DJ/MC/event host for a mobile DJ service while in high school. A good friend of mine, Luis Rivera was also a DJ/hotmixer at the time. Once upon a time, I borrowed a set of speakers from Luis for a DJ party...turns out that the speakers I borrowed belonged to a cousin of Luis', a 13 year old by the name of Tony Badea. As the evil MC of my DJ group, I decided that since Tony was not a part of our mobile unit, he could not accompany us to our DJ event. Fast forward to later in the year (1983), I was hosting an event at Northwest Hall on North Avenue and Western and heard Tony mix live for the first time. He was the fourth DJ in a four DJ group and he blew me away with his skills on turntables that preceded the famous Technics 1200's. Quick math told me that Tony should be the top DJ of a group, and that he was a much better mixer than I was, and my DJ team also had four members. After taking my size 10 and 1/2 out of my mouth - having been reminded that I was an evil, non inviting MC - I asked Tony if he wanted to create our own mobile DJ service. At that point, Chicago's Magic Mixers were born, with Tony playing the DJ role of Mr. Magic and me as.......Sarnie, the Master of Mixology. Shortly thereafter, Tony became a top notch mixer/producer under the name Tony Boom Boom Badea, and I retired the silly Sarnie name and became simply Harv Roman. Although Tony titled this mix "Jams of the 80's III" when it was first released as a cassette tape, I am posting it as a Pre-Style mix, as Tony utilized many songs which served as early influences of what became known as Freestyle music. Yes, Tony gets credit for introducing me the the sounds that I eventually became known as introducing to the masses during my time at the Classic WCYC radio in Chicago. With a playlist ranging from the early 80's sounds of "Native Love" by Divine to "Angel Eyes" by Lime to the Latin sounds produced by C-Bank "I Won't Stop Loving You", Expose "Point of No Return", Ralphie Rosario "Asi Me Gusta/Razz ma tazz" and more...this is a classic creation by my now compa, who I believe has since forgiven me for the lack of an invite back in 1983. Enjoy the flashback, and feel free to leave a comment/feedback.

Harv Roman