Stevie B is a singer, songwriter and producer hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States who was born on the 19th of April 1958. He is one of the most influential dance music artists of his generation, popularising both the Latin Freestyle and Hi-NRG genres since debuting in 1987.
Born Steven Bernard Hill, one must wonder whether Stevie B would have flourished in the modern music scene the way that he did in the 1980’s. Youth has always been a prized feature in pop music, but never in the way it’s been for the past five years, and Stevie B didn’t find any success at all until he was knocking on the door of thirty years old. All that aside, it’s a pretty inspiring tale. The man spent his late teens and the vast majority of his twenties working dead end jobs to support his music career, everything from washing cars to serving fast food. This was in the 80’s as well, when producer driven club music was barely in its infancy but in 1987, Stevie B was able to break out.
A track of his called “Party Your Body” became a small regional hit around the Fort Lauderdale dance clubs, but word about the track slowly began to spread. First around the state of Florida, then up the East coast, over to the West and suddenly, Stevie B had a national hit on his hands. The New York City based label LeFrak-Moelis Records came calling and in 1988, Stevie B’s debut album, also called “Party Your Body”, was released. The record wasn’t an immediate hit but thanks to consistent sales, it went Gold by the end of the 1980’s. By the time the 90’s came along, he was catapulted into stardom with the one-two punch of the singles “Love & Emotion”, which peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Because I Love You (The Postman Song”, which was number one on the same chart for four weeks straight.
Stevie B peaked there commercially, but many, many more peaked at far less and few others have done better comparatively speaking. Stevie B’s real impact is in the influence he had on the club scene of today, with his big hits he put club music on the map like very few other artists and very few other producers had done before. To this day he’s an artist to swear by in the Latin Freestyle and Hi-NRG scenes around the world, and his sets still inspire absolute anarchy to this day. He’s still making records that could start a party in a morgue, and he’s a trailblazer to boot, signposting how producers would colonise the charts over two decades after his time in the sun. For that, Stevie B comes highly recommended.
Victoria Monét
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