"Freestyler" is a song by Finnish hip hop group Bomfunk MC's. It was released in Finland on 30 October 1999 as the third single from their debut studio album, '' In Stereo'' (1999), and was released internationally in February 2000. "Freestyler" peaked at number four on the Finnish Singles Chart and topped the charts in more than 10 countries, including Australia, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand. The song also peaked within the top 10 of the charts in Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Composition

"Freestyler" is primarily a

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK ...

song, with strong influences of UK dance culture and electronic dance music, as well as some influences from

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

and hip hop. It is written in the key of E minor and composed in a tempo of 164 beats per minute.

Critical reception

'' Daily Record'' described "Freestyler" as a "cracking old-skool track". '' CMJ New Music Monthly'' described the track as "a housed-up hip-hoppity mélange of sampled slide-guitar, rubbery synth bass and Caribbean-inflected dance instructions; a dancefloor natural."

Music video

The music video for the song was mainly filmed at the Hakaniemi metro station, an underground station on the Helsinki Metro line in Finland and with platforms 21 metres below sea level. The principal "home boy" featured in the video is Marlo Snellman, a Finnish model and musician, who later released his own single entitled "Dust" and went on to work as producer for his own projects such as "Hipsters" and "Okta". The actor was 15 years old at the time of shooting and got the part through his mother, Finnish modelling

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

Laila Snellman. The video begins with a man dancing extravagantly during the instrumental intro of the song as Marlo is catching a train while listening to "Freestyler" on his

MiniDisc MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, and later, 80 minutes of digitized audio. Sony announced the MiniDisc in September 1992 and released it in November of that year fo ...

(Sony Walkman MZ-R55) player. A character sits across him in the train, who is played by Raymond Ebanks (B.O. Dubb), the lead singer of the Bomfunk MC's, and who imbues Marlo's Sony MiniDisc remote controller with the ability to pause, rewind or fast-forward individuals. Realising this ability, Marlo spends the duration of the video manipulating passersby, dancers and even the train, with Raymond appearing in the background wherever he goes, watching Marlo. As Marlo comes across the Bomfunk MC's, he tries to manipulate them to no effect. As Raymond approaches Marlo, he accidentally rewinds himself, and the whole video is then sent into backward rewind. The music video is a play on themes of empowerment, with the power of the music being transferred to and in the end taken from Marlo by Ebanks. There is a continuity error in the video with the number on the train carriage changing throughout the sequence. During the video, Marlo comes across the main character from the music video of "Uprocking Beats", another song from '' In Stereo'', and freezes him. Marlo also appears briefly in the music video of " B-Boys & Flygirls", reversing and forwarding the car the main characters are driving. The music video was parodied by

Funky Bong Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid ...

in Assembler (k)—an entry for Assembly 2000 wild demo competition. It took the fifth place at the competition. The music video was later parodied by the hip hop group

Raptori Raptori was a rap group, formed 1989 in Hyvinkää, Finland. They were pioneers of Finnish rap music. Raptori were both aggressive and humoristic at once, and often used counter-intuitive rhymes. During the last years of 1990s dozens of new Finn ...

for their song "Hiphopmusiikkia". In 2011, the beginning scene was remade in the music video of DJ RZY's "Tervetuloo Helsinkiin". In 2019, the beginning scene was also tributed in a hardcore techno fashion in the music video "Luonnon Nostatus" by Teknoaidi & Iconobreaker featuring Samu Kuusisto.

2019 music video

For the twentieth anniversary in 2019, a new music video was produced featuring the original band members, with updates to reflect developments in technology and culture. The central figure is now a girl (

Milica Bajčetić Milica ( sr-Cyrl, Милица; pronounced 'Millitsa') is a feminine name popular in Balkan countries. It is a diminutive form of the given name Mila, meaning 'kind', 'dear' or 'sweet'. The name was used for a number of queens and princesses, incl ...

) with a mobile phone, with various Belgian YouTuber cameo appearances. The 2019 music video was filmed at Vukov Spomenik railway station, an underground station on the

BG Voz BG VOZ ( sr-Cyrl, БГ ВОЗ; stylized as BG:VOZ, sr-Cyrl, БГ:ВОЗ) is an urban rail system that serves the city of Belgrade, Serbia. It is operated by the public transit corporation GSP Belgrade and is a part of the integrated BusPlus syste ...

commuter railway network serving Belgrade, Serbia. The new video had been sponsored by communications provider Telenet (Belgium) to promote a new mobile phone service.

Track listing

CD maxi – Europe (2000) # "Freestyler" (radio edit) – 2:52 # "Freestyler" (alternative radio edit) – 4:07 # "Freestyler" (Happy Mickey Mouse Mix) – 4:48 # "Freestyler" (Missing Link Remix) – 5:40

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

References

External links